08/05/2006
NEWS STORY
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Over the course of the last fourteen months, most of Jean Todt's post-race media briefs have been fairly dour affairs, the Frenchman attempting, usually unsuccessfully to put a brave face on things.
Today however, he has a definite spring in his step, as he enters the room he is smiling, and why shouldn't he be? Michael Schumacher has just notched up his second consecutive win, with able support from Felipe Massa, while his son Nicholas' GP2 team, with able support from Lewis Hamilton, won both of the Nurburgring rounds.
The sun is shining, Todt is beaming, indeed the little Frenchman gets proceedings underway by teasing the assembled journos.
"He," pointing to an Italian journalist who had been whispering in his ear, "was making some guesses about who was going to drive for us next year," smiles the Frenchman
"Was he right?" shouts a journalist.
"Ask him," Todt replies, with a wink. "But normally he's not very right, most of the time."
In a masterpiece of understatement, one of the journalists declares: "It has been a good weekend for the Todts…"
"It has been a very good weekend for Ferrari, which is what matters and I'm very pleased about the result," smiles Todt. "Saying that, I'm very happy and proud of my son because he's doing the job, he only has my name, but he's doing the job and very well."
It's pointed out that even though Ferrari won, the result was still very close: "In a way it's good for the championship to have big competition," Todt responds. "For us, what does matter is that finally we can score important points, we can win races and maybe have a few strong teams can go in our direction in the future. But saying that, it's not a surprise to see at least three very strong teams in the championship at the moment."
Some say that due to the 'tyre war', the remainder of the season could be a case of 'swings and roundabouts', at least in terms of wins?
"What is true today, considering the input of the teams, may not be true in five Grands Prix, because we know how important it is to develop the car during the season, so it will be very important to make a significant development possibly for each Grand Prix," says the Frenchman. "We know how important the tyres are, so there's a big competition among the teams, it's a big competition among the tyre manufacturers, so I don't know what can come out when it will be hotter or when the situation will be different. We don't know what can happen."
So, which win was more pleasing, this one or the one in Imola? "Both of them were very good," he laughs. "But maybe the next one."
There had been speculation that Ferrari was always going to be competitive at Imola, but the 'Ring win will have come as more of a surprise for the Maranello outfit's rivals.
"I'm not touched by speculation," he replies, another laugh. "When I was reading some comments or some pieces over the last ten days, it was making me smile. It meant that a lot of people don't understand this business very well. I knew, since the beginning of the season, that we have a very strong car."
Therefore, it's fair to say that the expectation coming to Germany was to do exactly what the team delivered…
"It was to be competitive, to be a pretender," he shoots back. "How can we guess… it's so tight, it's so little to go on one side or on the other side. So I knew that we were going to be pretenders like I knew from the beginning of the season that we could pretend to do a good season. Unfortunately, in mainly the second and the third Grand Prix we did not do a very good job, so we paid the price, but in a way it was our mistake, not the others if they did a better job than we did."
The $64,000 question then, can Ferrari be competitive on different types of circuits?
"There is no reason why we should not be competitive," he replies.
Todt, in his own words, has already admitted that there are at least three strong teams, so does he believe that McLaren will re-enter the fray?
"They are very strong," he replies, without hesitation. "When you see that Raikkonen made his first pit stop on lap 23, he had between 10 and 15 kilos more than the others, the cars in front, which means he did a very good lap time in qualifying. And then he finished the race four seconds behind the winner, so this time it went not so much in their favour but next time it could be in their favour. And Honda is very strong as well. As I said before, they can make some strong development and be strong pretenders as well."
So what about Felipe's performance, is this the best so far this year?
"He did very well in Bahrain, he was on the front row, then he made a little mistake and the team did a very big mistake, so he probably lost the fourth or fifth position.
"In the second race, he started last on the grid, but finished fifth, it was a very good race, maybe a better race than this one, being in the back. And in the third race, as I said several times, we make a mistake in the choice of the tyres and then he couldn't start because he was taken off by two cars.
"In the fourth race he lost a place in the pit stop and finished fourth and here he's finished third, so I think he's doing a very good job. I'm sure it helps him with the pressure that he has, it gives him confidence."
Would it be fair, therefore, to compare his pace with Michael and Alonso?
"I think we have three drivers in this championship, who have something a bit more than all the others and I think Felipe is amongst the best behind those three drivers," admits the Frenchman.
Asked how the Brazilian's first podium will affect him, whether it will calm him down, settle him and make him stronger, Todt replies: "I feel he's strong and he's calm."
Looking at today's result, will this affect the team's thinking about drivers for next season in anyway?
"I'm not going to comment about drivers," is the stern reply.
Michael looked a little peeved after qualifying, it is pointed out, so was there something wrong?
"Maybe he was asked some stupid questions," smiles the Frenchman. "He was very relaxed. In all fairness, I say he was relaxed and quite pleased. I didn't notice that."
Returning to Nicholas, in 2005 he trained a driver (Rosberg) for Williams and this year he's training a driver (Hamilton) for McLaren.
"The only difference is that last year he didn't know he was training him for Williams," he replies. "This year he knows.
"He doesn't have a relationship with Ferrari, not at all. Same sponsor? He has one sponsor which he took, he convinced him, I never spoke to this sponsor. My son, again, I cannot avoid people thinking that I'm behind him, helping him. I have a very strong relationship with my son. I have only one son. So for me he's the most important human being in my life and I like his success. For me, he has a strong character. He doesn't listen to what I suggest most of the time and he complains that… he says 'you have time for the others, you never have time for me.' But then I cannot avoid people thinking that maybe he gets some telemetry from Ferrari. I don't know. But again, that's not so important."
And with that, the Frenchman rises from his seat and leaves the room. Unlike several previous occasions however, it's with a smile rather than a scowl. Jean looks better when he's smiling.