01/07/2007
NEWS STORY
Ferrari press conference at Magny Cours with Stefano Domenicali (sporting director), Chris Dyer (Kimi Raikkonen's race engineer) and Rob Smedley (Felipe Massa's race engineer)
Stefano, in Indianapolis you said that we received a slap from McLaren; today you gave McLaren a big slap or?
Stefano Domenicali: I don't know if we gave a slap. For us, in Indianapolis it was hard to have that kind of result. Today, I think that we showed one thing: as I said before, we showed that we are there, we have a good package, we have a good team, good drivers. But on the other hand, we have seen how important it is to start very well and to start in the front row, and to start without traffic in the middle. That's maybe one element of consideration that is crucial for this year. We saw that our main competitors today were struggling in the traffic so that shows that once again the approach that we had for this race was the right one, more aggressive, generally speaking.
Could all you guys give us a broader perspective on this weekend: is it a case of the car being better, the track suiting the car more particularly, or is it the fact that McLaren have taken a bit of a step back and hit a few hurdles this weekend?
Chris Dyer: Obviously we introduced new parts at the Silverstone test, so we have come here with a stronger car than we had at the last race. I don't know what McLaren have done, I assume that they've improved their car as well. This championship, every year, is not about improving your car every weekend. It's about improving your car more than the other guys improve their car. We're all developing the car every week and it looks like at the moment we took a slightly bigger step than they did. That can change every week, so we're still pushing as hard as we can to develop the car.
Rob Smedley: I think I can echo Chris's comments that it's a long championship and, as you know, you come to some races and you're a little bit behind and you go to others and you're slightly ahead. But that's why it's a World Championship and not just one race. Obviously the way that the cars are developed, there's a certain suitability for our car on tracks like this and not so much so for the McLaren as you've seen today, and the reverse is true for other certain types of tracks but just to reiterate, it's a championship and you have to have a car that works well for the average track.
Chris, externally, it does look like Kimi, in the last stint at Indianapolis and for this weekend seems to have dialled himself into the car more, the car seems to be a lot more responsive around him. Have you noticed a change in the changes you made at Silverstone; do you think he's got used to the car now?
CD: I think, looking back to Indianapolis, we were strong through the whole race. We didn't have the best of starts and that really compromised the rest of the race for us. Here we've been reasonably comfortable all weekend. I think Kimi's been reasonably comfortable with the car. I think it's just a constant process of trying to understand him better, trying to understand the car better and get the most out of both of them. I don't think we've made any huge steps in any single area, it's just a little bit of improvement in all areas and we see the results.
Chris, is it possible to say around what kind of area did you have to work with Kimi to reach this level of fitting with the car?
CD: As I said, there's not one particular area that we were struggling with. We've had to work a little bit at just improving generally the balance of the car. We've had to work a little bit in getting the first lap performance out of the tyres. That's helped us as well. We've had to work a little bit on the starts which we haven't been so strong at for a few races. It is just very small improvements in a lot of areas and you see a big improvement in performance.
Felipe was dominating the race up to the second pit stop. How frustrating was it for him and also for you to lose the race where you didn't make mistakes, but because of traffic. Is it more frustrating than losing a race because you're being overtaken?
RS: Quite simply, yeah. We were in a very good position, I think we had a reasonable strategy. He was very quick in qualifying yesterday, even if you look at it now without the fuel. We were still very quick. I think we gave him a good car. The guys have worked on the car very very well this weekend and given him a quite fantastic car, and I think if you listen to his comments after the race he was very happy. So to lose the race whilst leading it because everything doesn't go your way is a little bit frustrating. On the other hand, you have to accept that, you have to accept that it is a team sport and today things went Kimi's way and he won the race. At the end of the day, we got 18 points for the team and I think that's what we're all working towards. But yeah, as far as we're concerned, with Felipe, it's slightly disappointing, slightly disappointing on one side, and on the other, we still closed the gap in the World Championship to the two McLarens, so less so on the other.
Chris, is there a distance between the first victory in Melbourne and this one. And the relationship between you is different? And also, Kimi has a different approach or not?
CD: We've had to work a lot harder for this one. We had a pretty comfortable weekend in Melbourne, it was the first race of the year. There wasn't a lot of pressure on us and then I think since then, we obviously haven't won any races, there's been a lot of pressure especially on Kimi, I think, about the fact that we weren't winning, so yeah, it's more satisfying to win here than it was in Melbourne and I hope we can continue with a few more before the end of the year.
Today's margin of 29s over McLaren, was that realistic or was it slightly flattering?
SD: I can answer this question. As I said, we don't have to over-estimate or under-estimate any kind of this information, race by race, because once again, Hamilton decided to have a different strategy and in the traffic he was following behind. As I said before, I think that it is important to be concentrated on the package that we are presenting, on the strategy that we are doing, because every race is different. For example, we have seen all this weekend and today, Alonso was struggling because he was in the middle of other cars so we don't have to be too happy about having 30 seconds at the end of the race on Hamilton. We are very happy because we first of all we cut down by ten points the gap in the Constructors' championship and that was important for sure. Now we can see a bit more closer their back, so once again, that's the best thing of this weekend. But we know that the gap is sometimes, above all in the last stint of the race, is not real. On our side, it was the second race for the engine so it was more important to bring the car back with no problems and I think also the other managing the position, considering the traffic situation, considering the points and considering where the others are, so that's the most important thing, for sure.
You said that you have worked on improvements on the starts and on the qualifying lap. What is you next goal to improve?
SD: I think that the improvement has to go in all the parts of the car that can give you performance straight away: aerodynamic, engine, mechanical set-up. All these things are very important and the programme that we have is really to go in all these details to also in Silverstone to bring some new things, new bits that can be helpful for a better performance of our car.
Ron Dennis, after the race, said that McLaren, because of their points advantage, can afford to be slightly more conservative in the way that they attack the rest of the races this season, and that obviously means that you will have to be more aggressive, more attacking and more risk taking. Is that something you're prepared to do, perhaps like a repeat of the 2005 season, to win this World Championship?
SD: I think it's true. They had two jokers to play, because the points that we have is for sure, is more than 20 points so for sure we need to attack to be aggressive and the other thing that we cannot lose any chance, that's something that we know. That's part of racing, that's part of our job. And maybe with this condition, under pressure, we can give you more. They have lost points today and for sure, our objective is that also in Silverstone this gap has to be less than what we have now. And then when the points are close, then of course the strategy can be different on their side, and also on our side. I have to say that the situation of championship of today, what we have to do is really to be very aggressive and very motivated, in order to be on their shoulder as soon as possible,.
I know that you will say that performance comes from all different kind of variables and projects and stuff, but did the two week closure of your wind tunnel six weeks ago, have a direct correlation with the different performance over North America?
SD: Easy to say yes, easy to say no. Of course we work 24 hour days and we need to be able to recover if any kind of problem that you have in the company. You mentioned wind tunnel, but if we have any kind of problem in the production area or maybe some engineers got fever and cannot work so… The real power of a company is to react in all the areas with a maximum strength that we are able to put on the table.
Chris, perhaps you didn't answer about your relationship with Kimi, the way you're working. Has it improved in these months, are we now beginning to see the real Kimi, does he fit in the team and it's way of working?
CD: To be honest, I don't think we've ever had any problems with Kimi fitting into the team and the way we've worked with Kimi, the way Kimi's worked with us. It's not something we had a problem with and we had to improve. It's takes time to understand him as a driver, for him to understand our car and the way our systems work. I don't see that we had a problem, as such, that we fit. I just think it's part of the natural process of a driver coming to a team and settling into that team, and the team settling into the driver.
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