19/04/2005
NEWS STORY
David Coulthard: I won't bore you with all the 'Imola is a difficult track, car must ride the kerbs, have to be aggressive, overtaking is difficult, blah blah blah,' as I'm sure you have heard it a thousand times before. I like the fact we are back in Europe. My track record at Imola isn't too shabby, with one pole, one win, two second places and a third. Any of those results might be hard to achieve this weekend, as although the car has evolved since testing after Bahrain, I doubt that the teams currently ahead of us have been sitting on their hands for the last fortnight. I hope Tonio enjoys his F1 debut on home soil and I will enjoy letting him be the centre of attention with the media!
Tonio Liuzzi: This weekend will be awesome and I am very excited about driving my first grand prix in Italy. It will be unbelievable and it will be good to have the support of the crowd, as my home town is only a couple of hours drive away. I don't feel stressed or under pressure, because Red Bull Racing has always shown confidence and belief in me, and in Christian. I feel excited about my GP debut but I'm quite relaxed. The fact that I won here in F3000 last year is another reason to be in a positive frame of mind. Although I have been driving on Fridays this year, there will be some new challenges this weekend. I think I will be okay with one lap qualifying, as I have practiced it during tests and I was good at it in karting. I will be the first man out in the Friday qualifying, which means I will have a dirty track and I will just have to do the best I can. The biggest challenge will be the whole weekend, especially the race itself which is much longer than I was used to in F3000. This is Formula 1 and I am sure my heart will be beating faster than usual on Sunday afternoon.
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: We are looking forward to the first European event. It is going to be interesting to see how Tonio gets on for his debut, in his home country. I am also pleased that Christian will be driving during Friday's free practice. Continuity is a very important element for a Formula 1 team, especially as the car development moves forward. To date, only David, Christian and Tonio have driven the RB01 and I must thank all the other teams for their support and the FIA for changing the third driver rule in time for this weekend, so we can continue with our trio of drivers. David had a good test in Barcelona last week and he has gone well at Imola in the past, so hopefully we will be in good shape. Our aim is to maintain the momentum of the last three points scoring events.
Gunther Steiner, Technical Director: First of all I hope that, unlike in Bahrain, we manage to get both our engines to start on the grid this Sunday! Seriously though, it's good to be racing back in Europe again. We had a good test session last week, our first since the start of the season. We will therefore have some small aerodynamic upgrades in Imola. On the engine side, this will be the second event for our Cosworths, after Bahrain, although the engine we had in Christian's car did not do the race, so there are plenty of miles left on it. Just to clarify the situation, with Tonio having his first race, he still has to use the V10 that was fitted to Klien's car in the last GP. David's engine also seemed fine, so we have no concerns in that area. The many chicanes at Imola mean the cars have to be set-up to ride the kerbs well and that's a challenge for our vehicle dynamics engineers, as will be the fact that brakes get a hard time here. Tonio will be under some pressure, making his debut in Italy, but we will keep him concentrated on the technical side. It will be useful having Christian testing for us on Friday, as he is up to speed on the technical and tyre front.