03/04/2006
NEWS STORY
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Having described Melbourne as a "weekend to forget" in the post-race press release, it was clear what sort of mood to expect when Jean Todt sat down an hour or so later for the post-race press debrief.
Asked what lesson Ferrari would take away from Melbourne, the answer was brief and unflinching. "That it's better to start on the front row," snapped the Frenchman.
A clear case of déjà vu, for isn't this what Ferrari was saying this time last year? "In a way," he agrees. "I would say that we had this problem several times last year and our major problem was warming up the tyres. Saying that, we had another specification of tyres available which was used by our competitors using Bridgestone tyres, and they definitely had a better warm-up. So it was up to us."
So would more running on Friday have helped? "Yeah, definitely," he admits. "We only used one specification of tyre on Friday, thinking we would do the job when the track would have been less green on Saturday. Unfortunately, we couldn't do it. You always learn."
Asked if the thinking that it was too much of a risk to take a tyre that the team had never run on before, he replied: "Yeah. We were not expecting such cool temperatures and we definitely didn't have enough information to make a good comparison."
The obvious question, looking at Michael's performance was how he was suddenly so much quicker, doing 1:29s/30s and then suddenly posting 1:27s: "It was because we had the right temperature, after refuelling, with a lot of fuel in." admits the Frenchman."
But he was posting those times before his pitstop… "Yeah, because he had the tyres at the right temperature," he adds.
Asked if he felt the car was good when it was running in perfect conditions," Todt admitted: "Yeah, not bad. When everything is working together, we have good potential. Unfortunately we couldn't express it properly.
"It was kind of like in the first race, not in the second one and even less in the third one."
There are now five teams running on Bridgestone rubber, so how important is it that they are all generating data for the tyres? "It's much better," he admits.
But asked if this can be decisive for the championship, he responds: "It definitely gives us more input which we were missing last year. Last year, in the same situation, we would have even less clear ideas. At least we know that our competitors, with different specification, we know what they can do.
Asked if the teams work very closely together, the response is brief: "We exchange some data."
Yet surely the fact that Williams and Toyota went quite well today will be encouraging compared with last year? "That's a good point," he agrees. "Bridgestone have definitely done a good job, on construction as well."
Asked if the temperature is purely the tyres Ferrari chose this weekend or whether it is a general issue, he replies: "No, it's the specification of tyres, which we very often had last year as well. We had another specification available which would have been more appropriate in these conditions but we never tested it before, which was good for our competitors."
So, is there a conflict between choosing the right tyre temperature for Sunday and doing less on the Friday in order to save engines? "It's clear that in a meeting, the running doesn't allow us to do as much job as we would like to do but it's the same for everybody," he replies.
Changing the subject, he is asked his assessment of Felipe's weekend.
"He had a tough job yesterday during qualifying," Todt admits. "Unfortunately he lost the car in the last part. I would say that in the first part, if he wanted to be, he was very quick. Today, he could not defend his chances. But Felipe is a very talented driver, very good driver and I'm sure time will allow people to understand that."
During the race we witnessed a V10 running ahead of Michael's V8 Ferrari. Todt is asked if that will that prompt questions about how fast the cars can actually go? Does he feel their pace is superior to a V8 car? "Not at all," he replies. "If you take the race 15 laps later, when Michael had the right temperature in his tyres, he was two seconds quicker than them."
So there's no problem about them keeping their V10 at that limit? "It's not the reason why Michael was overtaken," the Frenchman responds.
A question that must be asked, does he feel, compared to the situation in 2005, is it as dramatic or less dramatic? "We have a good package," he replies, "but we have to demonstrate it."
Pat Symonds has said that, in his opinion, when Ferrari is fully on top of the engine 'thing' and running at full revs, it will be capable of running at Renault's pace. Would Todt agree?
"We had no problem with the engine today," is the response.
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"But are you running maximum revs because of reliability concerns?" he is asked. "It was just the tyre temperature after the safety car," he replies. "We didn't have enough temperature.
"With this kind of tyre, we need to have much more temperature. We lose grip. Without temperature we don't have grip, we don't have the right pressure, we don't have grip."
Symonds has also said that he thinks that at Imola Ferrari will have quite a large advantage, particularly because Bridgestone went well there last year. Does Todt think his team will be closer to the Renaults?
"I think that we can be competitive," he replies. "How competitive is difficult to know. It all depends what the others will do. We will have a good upgrade but we will not be the only one and I hope we manage to put everything together."
Asked if that is likely to be part of his team's testing remit over the next couple of weeks, to find a tyre for Imola where the temperatures are likely to be similar to Melbourne, he replies: "Each circuit is different. The track is different, the asphalt is different, everything's different.
"But it was definitely important to see our competitors using similar tyres… we will get very interesting information. You saw Webber and he wasn't on light tanks, what he was able to do during his running, Ralf also, Michael too, when he had some temperature. I think we will have quite a lot of good information to study."
Finally, he is asked if he feels emotional when he watches the monitor as Michael is being overtaken. "Does it hurt your pride?"
"My pride can stand that," he replies. "The maximum of pride is humility."
And with that he is gone, as his team prepares for a massive test programme, and numerous upgrades, for the start of the European season, which kicks off the Scuderia's home race, at Imola.