Q: Narain, welcome. Everything is a little bit new for you. How do you come to your first Grand Prix? Excited? Nervous?
Narain Karthikeyan: Well, I’m obviously excited. It’s my first Grand Prix, I’m the first Indian in Formula One so lots of people are watching and I’m here to do the best I can.

Q: What does it mean to India to have a Grand Prix driver?
NK: India is really happy for it, for sure and there’s a lot of support back home. But people kept saying that I’m here for commercial reasons but what I would like to say is that in British Formula 3 I was a race winner and also in the World series so speed-wise I’m not bad, I think. It’s going to be quite good.

Q: Is it all very new for you?
NK: Yes, it’s new and it’s very different from what I’m used to but I’m quite excited to be here and hopefully I can do a good job.

Q: Jenson, this time last year we saw what we thought last year was a slightly different Jenson Button, you’d taken steps forward. Have you done the same thing again?
Jenson Button: I don’t really know. I’ve just been doing the best possible job I’ve been able to do in testing. I think everything’s run reasonably smoothly as far as winter testing goes, so yeah, I’m happy to be back in Melbourne and looking forward to the first race.

Q: Are there particular areas that you have been concentrating on in preparation for this season?
JB: No, it’s the normal areas really. It’s the same every year. I think with experience you might learn a little more what you have to do, but no, it’s pretty similar to last year. Obviously we had a good year last year and so we’re just building on that at the moment. As I said, it’s been a pretty good winter testing, a few little issues but I think we’ve shown how strong we are as a team and got through them and we’re looking pretty good for the first race.

Q: Obviously there’s been a lot of talk about tyre management, how vital is that going to be this season. What are your own feelings about that?
JB: It’s something we worked on a lot over the winter. I’ve been doing a lot of long runs to see what the tyres are doing and yeah, it’s going to be a very different race for everyone. It’s not going to be three or four sprints. It’s going to be an endurance race, really.

Q: Do you feel your style of driving is good for that?
JB: Hopefully. We will have to wait and see, but it should work well.

Q: Have you gone through the drivers and said ‘well, he’s not going to be very good on tyres etc.’ Have you done that?
JB: It’s very difficult to say. It’s difficult to know what people’s tyres are like after a race. We don’t get that much information so we’ve just got to wait and see.

Q: Mark you’ve been very much involved in the build-up…
Mark Webber: It’s my first interview today! (Laughter)

Q: You’ve been very much involved in the 10th anniversary of this Grand Prix and you’ve done the Sydney bridge demonstration and yesterday on the streets as well. What’s it been like, being involved in all of this?
MW: Well, of course it gets bigger every year, starting with Minardi and then the two years of Jaguar and then coming to Williams. Each year the expectations get higher, which is only natural. There’s no question about it, it’s going to be an exciting year. I think the expectations of the fans is two things of course. They are happy to have an Australian racing of course but also they expect high things, because the media of course is excited as well and the media have really no one else to write about which is also dangerous for me but I’m lucky, I don’t read too much of it and I’m just here to arrive in Melbourne as late as possible, leave as soon as possible, do the job for the team, and for myself but also for my country and then we leave.

Q: Do you feel that the expectations are too high? You’re a relatively inexperienced pair, you and Nick. Only Jenson and Takuma have done fewer races of the pairings that have done races…
MW: Yeah, the expectations are… I suppose it’s excitement coming through from the local press and people that are excited about the event and also hopefully me having a reasonable result here so we can only go out and do our best. All the preparations in the winter are behind us, testing is good but racing is even better and that’s what we’re all here to do and that’s what we need to do right now: find out where we are and get on with it.

Q: How good do you think the Williams is at this stage?
MW: We need to find some more pace, no question about it. You always want more in Formula One. There are some other teams which are slightly better prepared for the first few races of the year. But you can’t dream in this game. You’ve got to go out there and work hard and keep delivering so I hope that we can get back… we haven’t even turned a wheel yet. We don’t know, but we’re expecting to be a little bit off but how much? We don’t know. We’re obviously doing everything we can to find more pace every day at Williams.