For Tonio Liuzzi the Brazilian GP turned into a difficult weekend after a qualifying crash in the atrocious conditions of Q2 left him in 15th place. Unfortunately as a result of the accident he had to change his gearbox, and the subsequent penalty put him to the very back. When the safety car came out shortly after the start the team carried out pit stops on successive laps so that he ran one slow lap on the less favoured option tyre.
Thereafter he worked his way up to 12th place, which became 11th when Heikki Kovalainen was penalised. We spoke to Tonio about Brazil and the upcoming season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Q: After the incident in qualifying you had to start from the back. How difficult was that?
It was a tough weekend because we had to start from behind after a positive Friday. After the accident in qualifying we knew that we would have a really long Sunday. In the dry our car was not as competitive as in the rain, and that’s why we were really upset that we couldn’t maximise everything in qualifying, because we could have been easily in Q3 and in a good position for the race.
Q: Do you know what happened when you crashed?
I was just a passenger. I would love to know what happened! I had big aquaplaning in a place where usually you don’t have it because we’re in seventh gear and at nearly 300kph. Usually the downforce squeezes you on the ground and you never have aquaplaning. I was even following the ‘rails’ created by Kimi Raikkonen to be 100% safe. But suddenly I lost control of the car, I lost the rear. I was completely flat out, I didn’t touch the brakes or the steering wheel, and I became a passenger.
Q: How frustrating was it knowing that, as Adrian proved, the car was fast in the wet?
It was a pretty unlucky situation, and that’s why I was upset, because we could have been in a strong position. It was difficult to release the cars for qualifying in those conditions, but when you see a green light you have to try, and that’s what happened. The team did a really good job to rebuild the car properly for Sunday.
Q: The first lap was quite spectacular. How did it go for you?
It was a bit of a crazy race. Everybody tries hard in the first corner, and a lot of things happened. We went for a big gamble with the strategy. We were already P13 after the first lap, but we tried to use up the soft tyres, and that’s why we did a double stop in the first two laps. We think it was the right decision in the end, because on Friday we struggled a lot with the soft tyres.
Q: How did things go after that?
When it didn’t rain in the race we knew it would be a really tough for us because we didn’t look as competitive on Friday in dry conditions. That’s why I was hoping for rain in the race. We expected some showers after the middle, but it didn’t happen. When you start so far behind it’s always difficult to aim for points. But we’re pretty happy about the way it went. We had a good race with the Ferraris and Toro Rossos, and we had a good pace. We couldn’t achieve more starting from that far behind. We finished in a decent position, and now we have to look forward to Abu Dhabi, and scoring some points there. For sure it’s not going to be easy, because a lot of teams are making developments, but we’ll keep on trying.
Q: Have you sampled Abu Dhabi in the simulator yet?
Yes we did a couple of hours, and I’ll do some more this week. I think it’s an interesting circuit. In a way I don’t think it’s a really challenging one, even though there are two long straights where you might be able to overtake. There are not really special challenging corners. The pit exit will be the most challenging thing during the race
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