07/10/2007
NEWS STORY
The problem of soft and extra soft, is that related to the single lap of qualifying or is that in the race?
Luca Baldisserri: No, that's only on a single lap we have to work out how to use the super soft in qualifying. We've done some work at home after Budapest, I think we understood something and we have to prove in Brazil and we've been concentrating on that.
What about the bumps?
LB: I think the track is resurfaced every two years so we expect that the track should be in better condition and we have a special setting to use there, so I think the bumps should not be a problem.
After a season with Kimi, could you give us an idea of the different approach to the race and at this point to the World Champion, between Kimi and Michael?
LB: Michael is a seven times World Champion, he's definitely a ??? and we've been working together since 10 years, and at the end, the relationship with Michael was enough to look into his eyes to understand where there was a problem, to understand what he was meaning when he was speaking about the car. Generally with Kimi, we were struggling a bit at the beginning because he had some trouble to adapt his driving style to our car, to learn all our systems and to learn the Bridgestone tyres but I have to say that from mid-season to the race that he did today he can be at the same level as Michael. A driver that can do a race like today, such difficult conditions, without making a mistake is a great driver.
Could you explain how marginal the intermediates are when they run outside their peak operating window, how quickly they wear and whether you guys were concerned, because you stopped both Kimi and Felipe after the incident with Lewis. How marginal do they get when they start to go off?
LB: Today was not easy because I think depending on how the balance at the beginning of the race you can have a better tyre at the end when the track was getting dry, so the intermediates were difficult on the rear. When they were wearing down and the track was drying out, if you have a rear that is not strong, you lose five or six seconds easily and you have to come in and change the tyres. So I think Hamilton was struggling a bit at the end. He was really fast at the beginning and he had probably too much understeer in the car at the beginning of the race, but that was probably enough to save our rear tyres so we had better conditions when the track…when we had the focus mid-race to the end the rain stopped so there ??? to have dry track and so we ???
Stefano Domenicali: I just wanted to add one point on one Luca said: speaking about the teamwork, today basically, we put Felipe first on the dry tyres, just to be sure and check how was that tyre in those conditions. I just wanted to make that point because I think that when we speak about the same team, the same group of people, I think this is the right approach.
How much do you guys have to be conservative to try and come from behind and get everything you can, and having to attack to try and get as many points as you can. How do you juggle at this race and how will you approach it going into the next race?
SD: For sure, speaking about this race, after the first pit stop, we were just tackling what Hamilton was ready to do, because know that he basically put less fuel into the car in comparison to our stop, of course we were just controlling the pace and check what was the situation. Of course we knew at that stage that we could be in front, so it was much easier. But once again, if we need to look at the next race, we don't have any other choice than to be aggressive in a way, so we need to think that we need to achieve first and second and then that's it. That, for sure, will be our strategy and I think that one point that Luca mentioned is very important to see how it's important to manage the stint of the race with these tyres. If you are too aggressive maybe on the first laps, then you will destroy it, then the race will be more difficult so that, I would say, is the critical thing to manage, of course depending on how the weather will be in Brazil, but for sure that's an important element to pursue.
Were you quite sure you could win this race?
LB: If you are able to do an easy calculation - I don't know if you are able - you could see that Kimi had at least four laps more fuel and in these circuit, four laps is nearly half a second so if you are able to do an easy calculation you can see that our performance in qualifying was really good yesterday.
Did you warn Kimi about coming in?
SD: We were very on the spot to be sure that at the last corner, when he was in the backmarkers, not to spoil the team for another team with yellow flags, so we were monitoring the situation, informing him about the track condition, trying to be there because it was easy - maybe the easiest thing to do in that condition where there was a relatively easy race, and to do a mistake, overtake under yellow flag, backmarkers, it would have been a disgrace, so we were monitoring the situation very very carefully.
Is there anything you can do to get the cars better in these two weeks?
LB: We are not able to test, because there is no more testing. We have a collaudo to do but that will only be to check the parts that we will have in the race so engine and gearbox, so major job we can do is again on the simulation and we will try to do our best on that.
I believe that all three drivers will have new engines in the next race; is that an area where you can be aggressive or take risks and perhaps take more risks than your competitors?
LB: Well, this was already planned, to be honest, and in the last test, we tried something in the engine and normally they have to do two races, whereas in this case we only have the engine for one race, so you can imagine that we are having the extra bit of power that is always a risk.
SD: This is positive thinking you know, we were testing something that should be helpful in the last race. I'm joking of course.
Can you officially confirm, once more, that the official drivers next year will be Kimi and Felipe.
SD: Yes.
Is the rivalry between the two McLaren drivers a big advantage for you?
SD: We need to look within our cars. It's already difficult because we need to be first and second and then we will see, but for sure, with all due respect, we understand that the pressure is high on both of their drivers. The only thing that I can say is to focus on our job and that's it to be honest. We respect the work of the others but what we are going to do is to try to put pressure on them, that's for sure.
Today, when Hamilton was beginning to struggle, Kimi put a lot of pressure on him, and this has helped him make this mistake?
SD: I don't know. To be honest, as Luca was mentioning before, maybe he was struggling with the tyres, but Kimi was there, he was just behind, he was attacking at the right moment and it was important to avoid any kind of contact because you never know. At this stage, a contact for us would have been dramatic because the championship was over, so that shows how Kimi was so cool to be right in the way to attack Hamilton.
In Brazil last year with the 248 car, you went there with a large performance advantage, how do you see the gap and the performance of the 2007 car, bearing in mind the high kerbs of Brazil and the configuration?
LB: It's difficult to say. The car this year is a bit different than the past year, and as I said before, last year we tuned the tyres, we had Bridgestones, so we basically decided the cars to have and this year it's different, because we have to stay on what Bridgestone bring and they decide to bring the soft and super soft and this, to be honest, is not our preferable choice because historically this year, we were struggling where we had that couple of compounds. And you know the tyres are quite important in a car's performance, and if you are not able to use them as the best of their performance, you can easily lose tenths.
Were you surprised by Hamilton's mistake.
SD: You know, when you are under pressure or you pragmatic, you can do mistakes everywhere, that shows how is Formula One and maybe he was thinking it was the easiest part of his race, but that's racing.
Do you think that McLaren was too greedy today: Hamilton should have settled for points, he didn't have to win necessarily and probably they wanted to win the race and win the championship.
SD: I don't know to be honest. We are really so concentrated on our job that we cannot afford to look in their house to see what they are thinking or what they want to achieve. We will see.
Was it a miracle for you that the World Championship is not over until now?
SD: No, I don't think it is a miracle, first of all, because if you look, we have won eight races out of 16, so fifty per cent of that, we have done great results. Unfortunately this year, we have suffered from other problems but we are still there and we need to be, as always, not to anxious and looking behind at the last race, but we need to make a deep analysis since the beginning of the championship and this is what we are doing now, as an audit just to be sure that at the last race everything is covered. But it's not a miracle. We always said that we never give up, it's not just a way of saying it, it's just what we feel and once again, I want to stress the point that the team is very close together, we know that from the outside, after one race, big pressure but that's part of the game. The most important thing is that we are really working very well together and we know that the only thing we need is to be feet on the ground and try to respond with the results, and that's it, and that is the reason why we are here. So it's good to back in Brazil with the chance to win also the second championship, that's for sure.
Is there anything you can do to get Massa reliability for the last race?
LB: yes, as I said before, unfortunately one of the things that are different this year form last year is the fact that we don't have the possibility to test as we were used to do and a major part of our reliability was to try things on track and make mileage, so from now to the next race there is no test so what we can do is try to run the simulation to find the best from the car and its set-up and to run all parts on the bench and try to cover all the points that are ???
At the beginning of the race you had too much understeer or oversteer to help the tyres at the end?
LB: Understeer.
Is it difficult to motivate Felipe to give any special help to Kimi?
SD: No, not at all because he is fitting very well into the team. You can understand that a driver always wants to be on top in a way, but he has always said that he's a driver in this team, we are all working for Ferrari and he understands that, so he will do whatever is needed in the fair way to help Kimi achieve the result which will be a reward for Ferrari, so in this way ????