13/09/2004
NEWS STORY
Two corners into the Italian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher spun and consequently dropped to fifteenth. A couple of laps later Fernando Alonso passed Rubens Barrichello, who on the first lap had built a lead of over eight seconds, following the decision to start the race on intermediates.
Suddenly, on home turf no less, Ferrari was facing disaster. Just over an hour later, the Brazilian led home his German teammate for another 1-2, and a win that left the Italian outfit's rivals in awe.
Ahead of his team's private celebrations following a remarkable triumph, Jean Todt sat down to answer a few questions.
First off, whose decision was it to split the tyre choice at the start of the race? "It was the drivers' choice," he replies.
So how close a call was it? How close was Michael taking the same tyre as Rubens?
"I think it was a good move," admits the Frenchman, "although neither one was sure what was the best choice. They made a different choice and at the end of the day, it didn't make any difference to the final result.
So where did he think the team was going to end up six laps into that race? "I thought that maybe it would be the first race without scoring points," he replies. "Then I thought one or two points, and slowly but surely the points were improving."
Looking back, were you surprised by the pace you were to show as the race developed? "We started to see how quick we could be with Michael," he replies, "but he was still quite far away and then at the time when Rubens was very close to the three in front of him we thought that overtaking would be very difficult.
"It was a little risky to change the strategy from two to three, but it was a guess and it was a good one, even if, when you see Michael's race, I'm not sure it really changed a lot, because when you see how the race ended we were due to finish first and second."
Considering the deficit the team made up and the way it won this race, do you think this is probably the most dominating performance you've had this year? "I don't want to get into superlatives," says the Frenchman. "We have 234 points out of 270, it means that we had already been first and second seven times before, this was the eighth time. We have been very strong. Bridgestone is one of the keys of our success. We must never forget that. They are very strong and we are very happy about what we have been building together."
How important has it been for Rubens to have at least one victory this season? "Very important," says the Frenchman, smiling at the thought. "It is for everybody. It is for his spirit. It's very tough when you are always close to be third but you have your teammate who is on front of you, so I think it's a good injection of 'vitamin'."
Did you ever consider letting them race towards the end, rather than holding station? "We don't go racing for the pleasure of Rubens or Michael. We go racing as professionally as we can for the benefit of Ferrari. They raced. They overtook one another several times during the race."
Would you say that this is the best season that Ferrari has ever had? "Yes, but.. 2002 was not a bad season, huh?" he responds, clearly surprised. "We won 15 races out of 17, we scored 221 points with the old distribution of points, so I think it was an outstanding season. Maybe this season is more spectacular, but I think it's very close and we still have three races to go, so we have to see the final situation, we need to wait three races."
Does that kind of success make every subsequent season even harder because… "What is taken is taken," he says, before the question is finished, "but we know it will be hard to make it better. But we first want, even winning like last year, when it was very, very difficult, we are very happy, so as long as you have motivation - and today, again was a demonstration of motivation, about the input that everybody puts, the effort everybody puts, we try to do what we want to do, but again, we need very strong partners to do that. If the tyres were graining and losing performance after one lap, we wouldn't be there to celebrate first and second position."
The rear constructions that you used in Hungary, Bridgestone are hoping to get them back on the cars for China. How optimistic does that make you? "We are testing them next week," he admits, "so we can't answer before we test."
Will you also be testing some 2005 aero parts? "A little, yes," he says, "we're doing some work in Mugello."
How successful was the test of 05 parts at Monza last week? "Mainly we were testing 2005 programme in Fiorano," he admits. "It's very little."
Do you think every team can deal with having to deal with long distance tyres? You said before that it would take a lot more testing, time, more laps. "When you have a new challenge in front of you it's always difficult," he replies, "but as we already said before, we don't need anything to be changed because we are competitive the way it is.
"I think it would be unrealistic just to take on any change because we don't want to have any change. So far all the changes that we have accepted were not in our favour, like the distribution of the points in 2002, like the qualifying after 2002. Every time it was against us."
On Saturday Mr Montezemolo said some strong words about Formula One and Mr Ecclestone. What are your thoughts on the direction the sport should take and what are the key issues? "Clearly I feel that we should share more revenues," he replies, "but that's not a secret. Formula One for obvious reasons, as long as you have major manufacturers involved, it will cost money and then it's very difficult for the small teams to get engines and to find the money, and the economic situation is not very good, so definitely, there is a risk to lose teams next year, one, two, three and then it will definitely damage Formula One.
"On our side, as well, we are a fantastic company in terms of the product we produce, the cars we sell, but it's clear that producing, selling 4500 cars and using Formula One as a marketing tool, and paying everything ourselves, supported by our sponsors, makes the thing difficult. We have to take that into consideration."
Would you see what Mr Montezemolo said as a defining moment, or a key moment? "For the last few years, you have seen some teams which have disappeared. In the last years, you have seen Prost, Arrows disappear and some teams are really struggling. Fortunately, we have had some teams joining like Toyota, but the balance isn't easy."
Regarding the internal situation, whereas in the past people have perceived that Ferrari is on-side with Mr Ecclestone and everything, and yet now it appears that you could be back in the GPWC camp. "What Bernie Ecclestone did in Formula One is great," says the Frenchman. "We just have to be cautious that things can move quickly and 2008 is very close from where we are now, and the situation in Formula One is not very strong.
Is Ferrari very concerned about the situation between Mr Ecclestone and the banks? "We are following the situation, but we have nothing we can really do about that. It's the banks and Bernie's business. What we say is that we are willing, prepared to stay in Formula One. But we want to see more revenue."
It's said that you are very keen on Kimi Raikkonen as a potential Ferrari Formula One driver. "I never spoke about this, I was simply asked the question, 'who are the best talented', and I said Raikkonen is very talented, Alonso is very talented. I was then asked 'hat are your intentions for the future?' We have no intentions at the moment to talk about because we have Michael and Rubens who have contracts until 2006, so that's what I said and I repeat it, so that covers Alonso and Raikkonen."
We now head to China, how important is China for Formula One? "Again, I will be very cautious about it being the most important," he replies, "but I've been in Shanghai for the opening of the circuit, because we were opening our showroom as well and it's unbelievable what they have done, just unique what they have done.
"When I went to China, about 15 years ago, for the Paris-Moscow-Peking when I was following another company and the evolution of China is simply amazing. You know I would be rather more scared about the potential of this country was not the limitation we have in Europe, with the suppliers, for the cost of labour and all that. If you speak with a lot of companies now, most of what they produce is coming from China, half the price of what you get in Europe, so for me, if I have to speak about the concept of a revolution, it's about that, because I really feel that it weakens our European countries a lot because now a lot is coming from China, from Taiwan, from Korea, from Singapore, from Malaysia, so those kind of countries have a huge potential.
"Going back to Formula One, what they have been building and the time in which they have built it, is unbelievable. Concerning Ferrari, as I said before, we produce over 4500 cars. This year we will sell about 50 cars in China, hoping that we will sell 100 cars next year. We just took a licence with China, so before we will be able to compare China to the United States, which is over 30 percent of our market, it will take a long time, but countries like China, Russia, India definitely have a huge potential, and they could be the countries for the future and that's why we have to be very cautious of what is happening in Europe."
And with that he was off to join the celebrations.