15/04/2007
NEWS STORY
How much did you work with Felipe on his start and going down to the first corner?
Mario Almondo, Technical Director: It was not possible since the last race. It wasn't possible to do much work. Of course, we went through videos and all that stuff, looking at last year's race and the last start, trying to into as much detail as we could, but you can't do any specific job, I have to say. This is the difficult part of the job, because the success of today is linked to his mental attitude which I have to say was fantastic. The concentration is evident to everybody. Felipe's weekend was fantastic and this is due to his capability and to the car of course. The car gave him the possibility to do what he did but basically it's very good revenge for him and we are very happy for him.
Do you think it was important psychologically for him to have this success before the break and erase the memory of the bad weekend?
MA: Of course, it would have been difficult for him if he'd had another difficult weekend but things fortunately went in a different way, so we can just talk about very very good reaction about Kimi (Felipe), that's all.
How do you explain the race pace difference between Kimi and Felipe?
MA: When you begin the race with the start that put you in a difficult situation, with this car, with the tyres that are the same for everybody, it's very difficult to overtake unless you make a mistake or something like that. We have been good, overtaking Alonso during the pit stop and the rest is evident. Overtaking is very difficult on every track, I have to say. So we have to work on every aspect and we have to work on the start, of course.
How did you see the relative pace of Ferrari and McLaren on hard tyres. You seemed better on soft but they seemed better on hard.
MA: At the moment I just can say that it's not so predictable. I have to say if you compare the performance of the cars with the same tyres but with different track conditions you can have very different results, so I have to say that we are not sure of what is the parameter that is changing the performance of the car because if you compare the lap times on the day before it was not so different with hard tyres. It's something that can be explained more, I think.
SD: And also don't forget when they were using hard tyres in the last stint there was also traffic so that has an effect.
Looking at the next few races, how do you see the balance of power between you and McLaren?
MA: We will see, very interesting, the only thing that we can do is work as hard as we can with our development programme, in a Varano aero test and then in Barcelona before the race and do our best. It's up to our competitors to do more than what we are going to do. I cannot make any prediction on what we have to do.
Can you tell us where each driver has particular strengths and weaknesses?
Stefano Domenicali, Sporting Director: Felipe's strength was to react straightaway from one week ago in Malaysia. Everyone said that Felipe was no longer a driver. As always you need to look on average, and I think that he reacted very very well and that shows his character and I think that he's grown a lot, because he wanted to show first to himself and also to all of us who he is. For sure, his strength is that he had a great reaction in terms of behaviour and approach to this race.
Kimi's best characteristic is that he's always cool, he's always looking behind the fence. He's not emotionally involved, at least, apparently, because he's a thinker and so you can see that. If you look at the numbers, Kimi's leading the championship with the others of course, but he's there, so that's his strength.
MA: For sure after this weekend we can say that both drivers have a very good capability of reaction to difficult situations, that's important.
At the restart after the safety car, Felipe had a very good start but Kimi seemed to be... was there a problem with Kimi's car?
MA: No, no problem with the car, normal management of the car. As you know, after a couple of laps the gap was almost closed. He knew what he was doing.
Should he have done a better job at the restart?
MA: If you are not first or second you can always do a better job. I have to say that he has to think of a better way of managing this specific start and this part of the job that we are going to do every weekend after the race, we will re-analyse things and we will do the same this weekend and it's part of the enrichment of every driver and every technician who is part of the team.
Kimi had compromises last race; were there still compromises this time?
SD: As you know, the cars had new engines. No
Were you surprised at how close McLaren were?
SD: We know that they are very strong. We know they push us to work more than we should and I have to say that no, that is something we know, and as we always said, from the beginning that we know that this is a very difficult championship, that's for sure and don't forget that McLaren is the main competitor but also BMW has grown a lot. Today and also the last race in Malaysia has shown that, so the championship is really very very tight and we have to work, our drivers have to work on details and everything but that is part of the game, and also, on the other hand, they have to work.
MA: In way, if you are surprised that someone is doing a good job, you are under-rating him and that's something we never do, to be honest.
What things have to be sorted as Kimi has mentioned; first lap performance but are there other things?
MA: I have to say that we can't talk about a specific problem but an optimisation that has to be done on the first lap and in handling the car, his driving style is something that we are evolving in the direction of better performance and use of the car and the package of the car plus the tyres and this is, as I said, is a normal and natural process that takes more time.
Can you give us some idea of the developments that will be on the car before the next race?
MA: Yes, mainly there will be an important aero package and a few other things...
It looks like there's a four man battle for the World Championship, they are very evenly matched, is there a new energy in the team?
SD: From our side, just don't forget that we are working for Ferrari, that's the team and for us that's the most important thing to do. For sure it's great to see two drivers that are challenging in a very sporting way, they are very very strong and I'm pretty sure the championship will be fantastic this year, because we have seen some other drivers that are very strong. The challenge is really to be in front of them, so it's really good.
MA: I have to say how they are positive each other, the two drivers.
McLaren have said that they consider Lewis Hamilton to be strong enough to fight for the title; what do you think?
MA: We consider McLaren probably at the moment to be the best competitors, with both drivers and BMW coming up very strongly.
SD: Be pragmatic, if you look at the numbers, it is obvious.
The last ten years, Michael established himself as the man to be beaten, completely different story this year, but now you've got two drivers fighting one another, a different kind of championship to manage.
SD: No, as always the track will give the answer at the end. For us, it's important that they will have maximum support from the team, both from an engineering point and from a psychological point of view and from the motivation point of view, and then once again, it's the lap time and the track that will give the answer.
Did he phone at the end of the race again?
SD: Yes, yes, he spoke with a lot of us.
To check out our Bahrain race day gallery, click here