The Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) is taking its first steps and widens its group of participants. As of today there are three more young talents taking part in the project by the manufacturer from Maranello, joining Jules Bianchi: Mirko Bortolotti, Daniel Zampieri and Raffaele Marciello.
Both, Bortolotti and Zampieri, won the Italian Formula 3 - Mirko in the year 2008, Daniel in 2009. These successes enabled them to drive a Ferrari Formula 1 single-seater during the tests the Scuderia has been organising, in collaboration with ACI-CSAI, over the last two years for the first three in the national racing series’ classification. The 15-year-old Marciello convinced in last years international kart Championship and will debut in 2010 in a single-seater, racing in the Formula Abarth with the JD Motorsport team. The other three drivers will participate on the international stage: Bianchi will race in the GP2 with ART Grand Prix, Bortolotti in GP3 with the Addax team, while Zampieri will participate in the World Series 3.5 with Pons Racing.
Meanwhile an agreement with the organisers of Formula Future Fiat, the new Brazilian racing series under the patronage of Felipe Massa, has been signed. The series will start on 25 April in Interlagos during the Racing Festival, with the Trofeo Linea and the 600 Supersport, a motorbike competition. Formula Future Fiat will be held with Signatech cars fitted with engines from Fiat Powertrain with 150 BHP involving young kart drivers who are at least 16 years old, who want to try a single-seater. The winner of this series’ first edition will participate in the 2011 Ferrari Driver Academy.
News from Formula One in the Formation Lap.
Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Monday, 19 October 2009
FIA post-race press conference - Brazil
Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA
1st Mark Webber (Red Bull), 1h32m23.081s; 2nd Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), 1h32m30.707s; 3rd Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1h32m42.025s.
Q: Mark, you took the lead after that first pit stop, set fastest lap, it looked like a walk in the park for you.
Mark Webber: You never know in the first stint. I knew Rubens (Barrichello) was a bit shorter, I knew Robert was a bit shorter. I was impressed with Robert’s pace to start with and then when they pitted, I knew I had a nice clear run to get a good gap starting the second stint. I just cleared JB on the out lap which is always nice as well. And then also just making sure the tyres were nice and comfortable for the whole stint, doing enough. A little bit panicky with Robert in the second stint because he started closing and I thought my pace is not too bad, but he’s closing but the guys said he was quite short in that middle stint, so that sort of confirmed that for me. And then I was just asking a few questions: who was option, if anyone was on the option in the middle stint, how did it look, what do I need to do maybe for the first part of the last stint, because the option wasn’t too great for us on Friday, to be honest. And then starting the last start it was nice to have a bit of a buffer, so just controlled that to start with. Obviously the tyres are very good straightaway but you can’t go bananas on them. And just control the gap to Robert at about five-odd seconds and then it looks like it was going to be a stalemate and then backed off a bit earlier towards the end. So that gave me a nice run home. It’s been a fantastic day for the team, to win again. We’ve had quite a few victories this year off the back of some tough seasons at Red Bull, totally confirming second for us in the Constructors. Obviously we weren’t good enough over the whole season to win any championships but we’ve done ourselves very proud as a team, as a unit. I would like to thank Renault as well, the engines have been very good. It’s not an easy environment for them, so yeah, very, very good. It’s a special weekend for Australians because Jason Crump won the World Speedway Championship last night, a very close friend of mine, under very difficult conditions, very badly injured, and Casey (Stoner) won the motorbikes yesterday, so it’s a good weekend for the Australians.
Q: Mark, a tumultuous first lap, a lot going on. Can you talk about the conditions there? Obviously it was wet yesterday going onto a dry track surface, and what the debris was like later on. We saw a lot of debris on the back straight.
MW: Yeah, always coming off the back of a green track overnight you had to get a bit of a feel for it early on. Fuel is back in the car and last time I drove like that was obviously Friday. The track wasn’t too bad, to be honest. It could have been a lot worse, the balance was not too bad as well, but as you say, a bit of debris, safety car early on, making sure we weren’t picking up any punctures or anything stupid like that, because there was some carbon around, and then also towards the end of the race it looked like maybe Heidfeld had a moment down to turn four and put a lot of mud on the track. I was happy they didn’t put the safety car out because it would have undone all my hard work and I don’t think it needed a safety car for a bit of dirt anyway. Yeah, the track cleaned up and then I was just hoping it didn’t rain, which it didn’t, so He looked after me upstairs again today.
Q: And what was the run like on the back straight on the opening lap? It was pretty crowded, a lot of people going for that first corner.
MW: The thing that really surprised me… it’s always the same with the KERS cars, the speed difference is absolutely enormous. Come out of three, to start with, and then I saw Kimi (Räikkönen) massively late. He had a massive speed advantage. I was firm, Kimi would have done the same to me, so it had to be done.
Q: Robert, what a day for you too: first podium for the team since Malaysia, way back at the start of the season. It’s been a difficult year for the team, but for you personally a great drive from eighth place.
Robert Kubica: Difficult season, as you say, for our team, but I think yesterday we did a big part of the job. We knew it might be a dry race today so we decided to keep our low downforce configuration car like we were running on Friday. It was extremely difficult when there was a lot of water. Nick was out in Q1, I managed to put in a good lap in difficult conditions, it wasn’t an easy car to drive in the wet. I managed to qualify eighth. I think some people were disappointed in this qualifying, I don’t know why because maybe they wondered if miracles could happen every session, like in Q1, but when the track was drying, I had no chance against the quicker cars. And then today I had good pace, consistent. I think I was a bit surprised about the slow pace from Rubens and Mark initially. I was able to keep up with them. We had a problem with the water temperature straightaway. I already had to reduce rpm on lap ten of the race, so for most of the race I drove with lower rpm because our engine was overheating. Yeah, I had to pull out of slipstream every time on the straight. I was just trying to cool down the temperature and bring the car home.
Q: Mark just mentioned the second stint of the race when he was a bit worried about you. How did you feel at that point in terms of what you could do?
RK: I was very unlucky after the first pit stop. I just got behind four cars which I think were Kobayashi, Nakajima, Jenson and Sebastian. They were overtaking, I was heavy, they were light and I had no chance to overtake them. I had to take care about the temperature, about the engine, so I was not pulling and Mark pulled out a nice gap there. I was assuming I was shorter but not as short… We discussed our strategy but not as short as we were, so I had to pit with 28 laps to go and put on option tyres, I was a bit worried because after five laps on Friday, the tyres were finished. I just tried not to over-drive them, to keep them nice and steady but also to look at the gap to Rubens and it paid off. I had some problems with tyre degradation in the last ten laps, but the gaps were quite easy and I brought the car home.
Q: Lewis, on the day that you passed the title of World Champion to your compatriot, Jenson Button, you were on the podium in the Brazilian Grand Prix: a heavy fuel load, a very early stop to get the soft option tyre out of the way and a great run to third place.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, today’s been an extremely tough day, tough weekend, and today was a huge surprise to me. I had no idea that we would even be able to get into the points. The team did a great job with the strategy but I was on a knife edge the whole way. I feel great, the car felt great. I think there are still some improvements we need to make but to fight all the way up to third from 18th I think is a great job from all the team, so hugely thankful to them for the hard work, the good job they did. I had an incredible battle with Rubens. I must say congratulations to Jenson: a great job from him, a great season.
Q: In the early pit stop there was a drama in your pit crew with Heikki Kovalainen, your team-mate. I guess you were not aware of that and it didn’t play any part in your race?
LH: No, I thought I saw a Ferrari behind me as I was pulling out and I thought it would be close but I didn’t really see that Heikki was actually behind. I didn’t see any dramas that he had but I hope everyone in the pit crew is OK and we will probably have to work on that to find out what went wrong.
Q: And third place in the Constructors’ Championship is still very much alive for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
LH: Yeah, I’ve got the bosses breathing down my neck to get the job done, so today would have definitely made them happy and we really needed it, considering we were both right at the back and weren’t really looking to get points, so this would go very well. I’m sure the lads in the team are very happy and bosses are too.
Q: Mark, returning to you for some closing thoughts: it’s been a year of domination by one team and then another, Brawn Mercedes and Red Bull particularly. Your second win now, Jenson is the World Champion though. Your thoughts on how the season’s gone and some comments about Jenson.
MW: Well, it’s been a very interesting season in many ways. We started off with double diffusers, some teams with KERS. Then we, as Red Bull, were phenomenal in the middle of the year, the first part of the European races. Then off to the street circuits, back in July and early August and we had a bit of a tough time. The McLaren came back, especially Lewis, and Kimi also had a good run. So there have been many, many teams… six different winners this year, I think, and quite a few different people on the podium. So it’s been a mixed season in terms of performance for people. Jenson, I think, deserves the championship, no question about it. He drove very, very well in the early part. It’s not easy to have error-free weekends, with the exception of Spa, when he had problems at the top of Les Combes when it’s easy to happen when you start in the middle of the pack. He’s driven pretty well, particularly in first stints, when he’s been on the back foot and coming through, doing a pretty good job here and there. Every car has its strengths and weaknesses and Brawn, obviously, have some strengths and a few weaknesses here and there. JB’s done a good job, so I’d like to congratulate him and Brawn as well. I think he will sleep better now, because he’s been incredibly nervous, there’s no question about that. He’s been absolutely bricking himself the last few weeks, so he can sleep better now, and all of us can go to Abu Dhabi and just enjoy the new race there. I don’t think it’s going to be like Suzuka but anyway, it’s another street track.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Mark, you probably don’t want to be reminded of this, but your two previous best results here were two ninth places.
MW: I didn’t know it was that, but I had a reasonable idea that I’ve had a pretty rough run here. There have been lots of firsts this year and this is another one, in terms of getting a good result. It was an interesting first lap as usual. There was quite a bit at stake, all the guys know that. KERS cars always liven it up and once we got through all that, we then settled down, and I knew that Rubens and Robert were quite a bit shorter than me in the first stint, so I just managed all that as best as I could. They pitted and then I got a big gap after that first stop. The stop went well, the guys did a good job there. Then I had a long stint on the prime, same for everyone because we knew everyone was probably going to do a little bit of protection against the option. So we just controlled that second stint to a limit. It wasn’t absolutely bananas but it was pushing reasonably hard. Robert was obviously a bit quicker because he was pretty short and then in the last stint I looked after the tyres, got it home and it’s nice when it’s like that. I hoped that it was going to be very boring and it was. It’s good.
Q: How unexpected was the win?
MW: After Friday, I was quite confident that we could go for a victory. Our pace was pretty good, I was a little bit worried about this guy here (Hamilton) because the McLaren, we knew, would do pretty well here with the KERS and he’s also a pretty good driver. We knew he would be a force. Fortunately it was mixed up yesterday and that’s where the foundations were laid, particularly for me and Robert, delivering in those difficult conditions. Again, some cars were different to others, it was not easy to get through, but that’s where the foundations were laid for that type of day today. It didn’t come as a surprise that I had a chance to go for the victory, but it’s always nice with five laps to go that you realise it.
Q: How dry was your car in terms of settings?
MW: Hundred percent. We struggled in Q1, I think, because we all knew that we shouldn’t have run in those conditions. I was lucky to get a lap in which put me through. That was one of the toughest qualifying laps for a long time to get through that session, because I couldn’t believe the pace on my pit board that other people were doing. I thought I’m risking so much here to get through. Thankfully I did, but then when the aquaplaning got lower in Q2, it was a different ballgame and then the car came alive on intermediates in Q3.
Q: Robert, same question: how dry was your car?
RK: Well, we kept 99 percent of Friday’s set-up. Actually we were not really running proper downforce. We were lacking downforce, we didn’t have the proper wings here, so we were already lacking downforce in the dry and especially when it rained, we took a gamble. We hoped for a dry race, we hoped some people would adjust their set-up to the wet conditions, so yesterday I think it was a very good job, especially when Q1 was full of water, I was extremely quick, surprisingly quick. Unfortunately, when the track dried, our pace was not as good. Some people in our team were disappointed about row four, because they thought miracles might happen in every qualifying, like in Q1 when I was third and running very quickly but in changing conditions drivers adapt their driving, the tyres, the pressures, so all in all fourth row was good for me. Today I had a good race.
Q: I understand this result was pretty unexpected, so what will it mean for the team?
RK: I don’t know. I hope they will be on the grid next year. Of course it’s a good result after such a difficult season, which is still not finished. Here we were surprised about which downforce level we should use. We didn’t have it. We had a mixed car: Singapore upgrade with an old front wing. It was very, very tricky and we were just really covering the problems, so I’m very surprised with second place. I was very surprised by the quite slow pace of the top guys in the first stint and yeah, additionally we had water temperature problems after lap eight of the race, so we had to reduce engine revs and it was not easy. I ran most of the race with low revs and tried to keep the car as cool as possible, pulling out of the tow, so all in all I was surprised to be able to keep to Mark and Rubens’s pace.
Q: Lewis, how important was KERS here, particularly for overtaking?
LH: That was probably one of the toughest races I’ve had, not as tough as last year, clearly, but it was good. I think we qualified 18th. We were quite unlucky in qualifying and very fortunate with it being dry today. We had a very good pace, we just stayed out of trouble. KERS definitely helped at the start. If we had the fastest car or as fast a car as maybe Mark here and we had KERS on top we would be light years ahead but KERS, for us, just recovers what we lose in a straight-line because the efficiency of our car is not good at all. But generally today we did a great job, we’ve done a tremendous job to catch up throughout the year and we’re stuck with the car we have. We know it wasn’t the best car, we stuck with it and just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, and we’re doing the best we can and I tell you, there’s not much more if any more we can get out of this car. It’s been a really good learning experience and today was great. I just have to say a big congratulations to Jenson and the Brawn team, great job by them for the whole season. I definitely look forward to having a better car to challenge them next year.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Tom Clarkson – Tom Clarkson & Associates) Mark, how does this win compare to the Nürburgring?
MW: I think the first one was pretty nice, there’s no question about it. It’s nice to get another one, but probably Nürburgring was a little bit better, because it was a big relief more than anything. This one was more of a controlled fashion, I suppose, and although not too dissimilar to the Nürburgring, but I suppose I could only lose this one. I put myself in a very, very good position after yesterday in the first stint to win the race and then I had about 45 laps of getting it home. I went a little bit on the kerbs in a few places here and there and just had to give myself a bit of an uppercut and say ‘mate, just bring it together’ and remind myself that I’m not in tenth, I’m in the lead, so you just control it. It was a pretty good day. Also I just want to add to all the press guys who haven’t come in here but it was a good weekend for a good friend of mine, Jason Crump who won the World Speedway Championship. He’s very, very injured and I’m very happy for him that he’s won the World title and Casey (Stoner) won the motorbikes, so it was a good day for us guys.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, it’s the first time in 40 years that Britain has had back-to-back World Champions. I wonder if you could offer your thoughts on what this means over the past two years for British motor sport.
LH: I don’t think I have a clue if I’m honest. I think it’s fantastic for our country to have – I think in the last couple of years – such great athletes coming through. It’s been a good couple of years for us, with the Olympics and some seriously good talent coming through. It’s been great for the sport, great for all the fans. I’m sure the fans back home are extremely happy to have two World Champions two years in a row. I can only assume that they are very, very proud, that’s all I can say.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, would it be fair to suggest to Jenson that he’s only got it on loan for a year?
LH: I don’t know. That’s the plan, for sure. I’m not going to take anything away from his championship. He did an incredible job this year. He kept up the pressure, the pressure was extremely immense for him these last few races and I saw him today and whilst he was trying to keep a cool exterior, I know exactly what he’s going through. I just said to him ‘you don’t have to do it in this race but just keep your cool’ and clearly he did, so I’m very, very happy for him and his family. But I definitely plan on taking it back from him at some stage.
1st Mark Webber (Red Bull), 1h32m23.081s; 2nd Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), 1h32m30.707s; 3rd Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1h32m42.025s.
Q: Mark, you took the lead after that first pit stop, set fastest lap, it looked like a walk in the park for you.
Mark Webber: You never know in the first stint. I knew Rubens (Barrichello) was a bit shorter, I knew Robert was a bit shorter. I was impressed with Robert’s pace to start with and then when they pitted, I knew I had a nice clear run to get a good gap starting the second stint. I just cleared JB on the out lap which is always nice as well. And then also just making sure the tyres were nice and comfortable for the whole stint, doing enough. A little bit panicky with Robert in the second stint because he started closing and I thought my pace is not too bad, but he’s closing but the guys said he was quite short in that middle stint, so that sort of confirmed that for me. And then I was just asking a few questions: who was option, if anyone was on the option in the middle stint, how did it look, what do I need to do maybe for the first part of the last stint, because the option wasn’t too great for us on Friday, to be honest. And then starting the last start it was nice to have a bit of a buffer, so just controlled that to start with. Obviously the tyres are very good straightaway but you can’t go bananas on them. And just control the gap to Robert at about five-odd seconds and then it looks like it was going to be a stalemate and then backed off a bit earlier towards the end. So that gave me a nice run home. It’s been a fantastic day for the team, to win again. We’ve had quite a few victories this year off the back of some tough seasons at Red Bull, totally confirming second for us in the Constructors. Obviously we weren’t good enough over the whole season to win any championships but we’ve done ourselves very proud as a team, as a unit. I would like to thank Renault as well, the engines have been very good. It’s not an easy environment for them, so yeah, very, very good. It’s a special weekend for Australians because Jason Crump won the World Speedway Championship last night, a very close friend of mine, under very difficult conditions, very badly injured, and Casey (Stoner) won the motorbikes yesterday, so it’s a good weekend for the Australians.
Q: Mark, a tumultuous first lap, a lot going on. Can you talk about the conditions there? Obviously it was wet yesterday going onto a dry track surface, and what the debris was like later on. We saw a lot of debris on the back straight.
MW: Yeah, always coming off the back of a green track overnight you had to get a bit of a feel for it early on. Fuel is back in the car and last time I drove like that was obviously Friday. The track wasn’t too bad, to be honest. It could have been a lot worse, the balance was not too bad as well, but as you say, a bit of debris, safety car early on, making sure we weren’t picking up any punctures or anything stupid like that, because there was some carbon around, and then also towards the end of the race it looked like maybe Heidfeld had a moment down to turn four and put a lot of mud on the track. I was happy they didn’t put the safety car out because it would have undone all my hard work and I don’t think it needed a safety car for a bit of dirt anyway. Yeah, the track cleaned up and then I was just hoping it didn’t rain, which it didn’t, so He looked after me upstairs again today.
Q: And what was the run like on the back straight on the opening lap? It was pretty crowded, a lot of people going for that first corner.
MW: The thing that really surprised me… it’s always the same with the KERS cars, the speed difference is absolutely enormous. Come out of three, to start with, and then I saw Kimi (Räikkönen) massively late. He had a massive speed advantage. I was firm, Kimi would have done the same to me, so it had to be done.
Q: Robert, what a day for you too: first podium for the team since Malaysia, way back at the start of the season. It’s been a difficult year for the team, but for you personally a great drive from eighth place.
Robert Kubica: Difficult season, as you say, for our team, but I think yesterday we did a big part of the job. We knew it might be a dry race today so we decided to keep our low downforce configuration car like we were running on Friday. It was extremely difficult when there was a lot of water. Nick was out in Q1, I managed to put in a good lap in difficult conditions, it wasn’t an easy car to drive in the wet. I managed to qualify eighth. I think some people were disappointed in this qualifying, I don’t know why because maybe they wondered if miracles could happen every session, like in Q1, but when the track was drying, I had no chance against the quicker cars. And then today I had good pace, consistent. I think I was a bit surprised about the slow pace from Rubens and Mark initially. I was able to keep up with them. We had a problem with the water temperature straightaway. I already had to reduce rpm on lap ten of the race, so for most of the race I drove with lower rpm because our engine was overheating. Yeah, I had to pull out of slipstream every time on the straight. I was just trying to cool down the temperature and bring the car home.
Q: Mark just mentioned the second stint of the race when he was a bit worried about you. How did you feel at that point in terms of what you could do?
RK: I was very unlucky after the first pit stop. I just got behind four cars which I think were Kobayashi, Nakajima, Jenson and Sebastian. They were overtaking, I was heavy, they were light and I had no chance to overtake them. I had to take care about the temperature, about the engine, so I was not pulling and Mark pulled out a nice gap there. I was assuming I was shorter but not as short… We discussed our strategy but not as short as we were, so I had to pit with 28 laps to go and put on option tyres, I was a bit worried because after five laps on Friday, the tyres were finished. I just tried not to over-drive them, to keep them nice and steady but also to look at the gap to Rubens and it paid off. I had some problems with tyre degradation in the last ten laps, but the gaps were quite easy and I brought the car home.
Q: Lewis, on the day that you passed the title of World Champion to your compatriot, Jenson Button, you were on the podium in the Brazilian Grand Prix: a heavy fuel load, a very early stop to get the soft option tyre out of the way and a great run to third place.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, today’s been an extremely tough day, tough weekend, and today was a huge surprise to me. I had no idea that we would even be able to get into the points. The team did a great job with the strategy but I was on a knife edge the whole way. I feel great, the car felt great. I think there are still some improvements we need to make but to fight all the way up to third from 18th I think is a great job from all the team, so hugely thankful to them for the hard work, the good job they did. I had an incredible battle with Rubens. I must say congratulations to Jenson: a great job from him, a great season.
Q: In the early pit stop there was a drama in your pit crew with Heikki Kovalainen, your team-mate. I guess you were not aware of that and it didn’t play any part in your race?
LH: No, I thought I saw a Ferrari behind me as I was pulling out and I thought it would be close but I didn’t really see that Heikki was actually behind. I didn’t see any dramas that he had but I hope everyone in the pit crew is OK and we will probably have to work on that to find out what went wrong.
Q: And third place in the Constructors’ Championship is still very much alive for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
LH: Yeah, I’ve got the bosses breathing down my neck to get the job done, so today would have definitely made them happy and we really needed it, considering we were both right at the back and weren’t really looking to get points, so this would go very well. I’m sure the lads in the team are very happy and bosses are too.
Q: Mark, returning to you for some closing thoughts: it’s been a year of domination by one team and then another, Brawn Mercedes and Red Bull particularly. Your second win now, Jenson is the World Champion though. Your thoughts on how the season’s gone and some comments about Jenson.
MW: Well, it’s been a very interesting season in many ways. We started off with double diffusers, some teams with KERS. Then we, as Red Bull, were phenomenal in the middle of the year, the first part of the European races. Then off to the street circuits, back in July and early August and we had a bit of a tough time. The McLaren came back, especially Lewis, and Kimi also had a good run. So there have been many, many teams… six different winners this year, I think, and quite a few different people on the podium. So it’s been a mixed season in terms of performance for people. Jenson, I think, deserves the championship, no question about it. He drove very, very well in the early part. It’s not easy to have error-free weekends, with the exception of Spa, when he had problems at the top of Les Combes when it’s easy to happen when you start in the middle of the pack. He’s driven pretty well, particularly in first stints, when he’s been on the back foot and coming through, doing a pretty good job here and there. Every car has its strengths and weaknesses and Brawn, obviously, have some strengths and a few weaknesses here and there. JB’s done a good job, so I’d like to congratulate him and Brawn as well. I think he will sleep better now, because he’s been incredibly nervous, there’s no question about that. He’s been absolutely bricking himself the last few weeks, so he can sleep better now, and all of us can go to Abu Dhabi and just enjoy the new race there. I don’t think it’s going to be like Suzuka but anyway, it’s another street track.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Mark, you probably don’t want to be reminded of this, but your two previous best results here were two ninth places.
MW: I didn’t know it was that, but I had a reasonable idea that I’ve had a pretty rough run here. There have been lots of firsts this year and this is another one, in terms of getting a good result. It was an interesting first lap as usual. There was quite a bit at stake, all the guys know that. KERS cars always liven it up and once we got through all that, we then settled down, and I knew that Rubens and Robert were quite a bit shorter than me in the first stint, so I just managed all that as best as I could. They pitted and then I got a big gap after that first stop. The stop went well, the guys did a good job there. Then I had a long stint on the prime, same for everyone because we knew everyone was probably going to do a little bit of protection against the option. So we just controlled that second stint to a limit. It wasn’t absolutely bananas but it was pushing reasonably hard. Robert was obviously a bit quicker because he was pretty short and then in the last stint I looked after the tyres, got it home and it’s nice when it’s like that. I hoped that it was going to be very boring and it was. It’s good.
Q: How unexpected was the win?
MW: After Friday, I was quite confident that we could go for a victory. Our pace was pretty good, I was a little bit worried about this guy here (Hamilton) because the McLaren, we knew, would do pretty well here with the KERS and he’s also a pretty good driver. We knew he would be a force. Fortunately it was mixed up yesterday and that’s where the foundations were laid, particularly for me and Robert, delivering in those difficult conditions. Again, some cars were different to others, it was not easy to get through, but that’s where the foundations were laid for that type of day today. It didn’t come as a surprise that I had a chance to go for the victory, but it’s always nice with five laps to go that you realise it.
Q: How dry was your car in terms of settings?
MW: Hundred percent. We struggled in Q1, I think, because we all knew that we shouldn’t have run in those conditions. I was lucky to get a lap in which put me through. That was one of the toughest qualifying laps for a long time to get through that session, because I couldn’t believe the pace on my pit board that other people were doing. I thought I’m risking so much here to get through. Thankfully I did, but then when the aquaplaning got lower in Q2, it was a different ballgame and then the car came alive on intermediates in Q3.
Q: Robert, same question: how dry was your car?
RK: Well, we kept 99 percent of Friday’s set-up. Actually we were not really running proper downforce. We were lacking downforce, we didn’t have the proper wings here, so we were already lacking downforce in the dry and especially when it rained, we took a gamble. We hoped for a dry race, we hoped some people would adjust their set-up to the wet conditions, so yesterday I think it was a very good job, especially when Q1 was full of water, I was extremely quick, surprisingly quick. Unfortunately, when the track dried, our pace was not as good. Some people in our team were disappointed about row four, because they thought miracles might happen in every qualifying, like in Q1 when I was third and running very quickly but in changing conditions drivers adapt their driving, the tyres, the pressures, so all in all fourth row was good for me. Today I had a good race.
Q: I understand this result was pretty unexpected, so what will it mean for the team?
RK: I don’t know. I hope they will be on the grid next year. Of course it’s a good result after such a difficult season, which is still not finished. Here we were surprised about which downforce level we should use. We didn’t have it. We had a mixed car: Singapore upgrade with an old front wing. It was very, very tricky and we were just really covering the problems, so I’m very surprised with second place. I was very surprised by the quite slow pace of the top guys in the first stint and yeah, additionally we had water temperature problems after lap eight of the race, so we had to reduce engine revs and it was not easy. I ran most of the race with low revs and tried to keep the car as cool as possible, pulling out of the tow, so all in all I was surprised to be able to keep to Mark and Rubens’s pace.
Q: Lewis, how important was KERS here, particularly for overtaking?
LH: That was probably one of the toughest races I’ve had, not as tough as last year, clearly, but it was good. I think we qualified 18th. We were quite unlucky in qualifying and very fortunate with it being dry today. We had a very good pace, we just stayed out of trouble. KERS definitely helped at the start. If we had the fastest car or as fast a car as maybe Mark here and we had KERS on top we would be light years ahead but KERS, for us, just recovers what we lose in a straight-line because the efficiency of our car is not good at all. But generally today we did a great job, we’ve done a tremendous job to catch up throughout the year and we’re stuck with the car we have. We know it wasn’t the best car, we stuck with it and just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, and we’re doing the best we can and I tell you, there’s not much more if any more we can get out of this car. It’s been a really good learning experience and today was great. I just have to say a big congratulations to Jenson and the Brawn team, great job by them for the whole season. I definitely look forward to having a better car to challenge them next year.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Tom Clarkson – Tom Clarkson & Associates) Mark, how does this win compare to the Nürburgring?
MW: I think the first one was pretty nice, there’s no question about it. It’s nice to get another one, but probably Nürburgring was a little bit better, because it was a big relief more than anything. This one was more of a controlled fashion, I suppose, and although not too dissimilar to the Nürburgring, but I suppose I could only lose this one. I put myself in a very, very good position after yesterday in the first stint to win the race and then I had about 45 laps of getting it home. I went a little bit on the kerbs in a few places here and there and just had to give myself a bit of an uppercut and say ‘mate, just bring it together’ and remind myself that I’m not in tenth, I’m in the lead, so you just control it. It was a pretty good day. Also I just want to add to all the press guys who haven’t come in here but it was a good weekend for a good friend of mine, Jason Crump who won the World Speedway Championship. He’s very, very injured and I’m very happy for him that he’s won the World title and Casey (Stoner) won the motorbikes, so it was a good day for us guys.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, it’s the first time in 40 years that Britain has had back-to-back World Champions. I wonder if you could offer your thoughts on what this means over the past two years for British motor sport.
LH: I don’t think I have a clue if I’m honest. I think it’s fantastic for our country to have – I think in the last couple of years – such great athletes coming through. It’s been a good couple of years for us, with the Olympics and some seriously good talent coming through. It’s been great for the sport, great for all the fans. I’m sure the fans back home are extremely happy to have two World Champions two years in a row. I can only assume that they are very, very proud, that’s all I can say.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, would it be fair to suggest to Jenson that he’s only got it on loan for a year?
LH: I don’t know. That’s the plan, for sure. I’m not going to take anything away from his championship. He did an incredible job this year. He kept up the pressure, the pressure was extremely immense for him these last few races and I saw him today and whilst he was trying to keep a cool exterior, I know exactly what he’s going through. I just said to him ‘you don’t have to do it in this race but just keep your cool’ and clearly he did, so I’m very, very happy for him and his family. But I definitely plan on taking it back from him at some stage.
Brazil race analysis - Button and Brawn get the job done
Mark Webber drove a near perfect Brazilian Grand Prix, but his win was too little too late to keep Red Bull in the hunt for the constructors’ title. Similarly, there was nothing the Australian could do to prevent team mate Sebastian Vettel’s hopes of the drivers’ crown evaporating. Instead it was Brawn’s Jenson Button who was singing ‘We are the champions’ as the chequered flag fell. He’d made up nine places on his P14 grid slot, while team mate and polesitter Rubens Barrichello had lost seven, sealing the destiny of both championships in the process…
Red Bull
Mark Webber, P1
Sebastian Vettel P4
Webber had an almost perfect day, preserving his Red Bull’s rubber in the early going as he chased Barrichello and fended off Kubica, then pulling out a big gap after out-running them in the first round of pit stops. Thereafter it was just a matter of bringing the car home, his only real problems being to rein in his natural urge to push, and the fact that his second success was overshadowed by Button’s. Vettel made ground fast in the opening laps, and felt that fourth was the best he could have expected after his qualifying drama. Like Barrichello, he was philosophical that his title chance was over, but was also happy to have overtaken the Brazilian. Red Bull were likewise resigned to Brawn wrapping up the constructors’ championship.
BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, P2
Nick Heidfeld, Retired lap 22, fuel rig problem
Kubica admitted that he was surprised by his BMW Sauber’s pace, especially as he had to wind down the revs from the 15th lap when the engine showed signs of overheating. He was also unlucky to get stuck behind four cars after his first pit stop, which allowed Webber to increase his lead, but otherwise he was grateful for a strong result in what has been a really tough season. Heidfeld was one of several drivers who qualified way down to get the breaks on the opening lap. He was pushing Vettel hard when he made his first stop, and thereafter he ground to a halt out of fuel after his refuelling rig short-changed him.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, P3
Heikki Kovalainen, P9, penalised to P12
Hamilton benefited when McLaren changed their refuelling strategy under the safety car, and got the hammer down in a fabulous but tough drive that took him from 17th on the grid to the podium by the chequered flag. It was a typical feisty showing from the world champion. Kovalainen’s race was ruined at the start when Vettel tapped him into a spin, then came the early release from his pit stop which left him trailing his rig’s hose. McLaren were fined $50,000 for making an unsafe release, while Kovalainen was subsequently adjudged a drive-through penalty after the race; 25s was hence added to his race time, dropping him from ninth to 12th.
Brawn
Rubens Barrichello, P8
Jenson Button, P5
Button was absolutely delirious after a fantastic drive brought him the fifth place points that he needed to cement his world championship. After a few wobbly races his was a fighting performance that made him a worthy champion. It also sealed the constructors’ championship for an emotional Ross Brawn, making his team the first in history to win the title in its first season. Poor old Barrichello led initially from pole, but lacked the ultimate pace to fend off Webber after the first stops, or Kubica. Later, while fighting for third with Hamilton, his BGP001 sustained a puncture that dropped him down to an unhappy eighth place finish and finally killed his own world title aspirations.
Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, P6
Giancarlo Fisichella, P11, classified P10
Raikkonen had an adventurous race, with a first-corner swipe from Sutil which punctured his left rear Bridgestone, then a clash in which he wrecked his front wing hitting Webber. After his forced pit stop at the end of that opening lap he literally had to run through fire after Kovalainen’s premature exit from the McLaren pit. All things considered, the Finn did well to take sixth place. Fisichella had to avoid a spinning Kovalainen at the bottom of the first turn on the opening lap, switched to a one-stop strategy, and then suffered when his KERS operated intermittently.
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, P7
Jaime Alguersuari, P14
Once again Buemi drove a nice race, and deserved his two points after a strong showing for Toro Rosso. They were his first since China. Alguersuari was happy just to finish after his dramas in Japan.
Toyota
Kamui Kobayashi, P10, classified P9
Jarno Trulli, Retired lap one, collision
Button was quite critical of Kobayashi’s tactics, especially under braking, but the Japanese rookie did a good job to finish 10th on his debut after running ahead of the champion-elect for a while. He survived a major brush with Nakajima along the way, and generally acquitted himself well. Trulli was livid with Sutil after their first-lap clash, but the stewards sided with the German and fined the Italian $10,000 for disobeying marshals’ orders and remonstrating with Sutil.
Force India
Tonio Liuzzi, P12, classified P11
Adrian Sutil, Retired lap one, collision
Sutil had a brush with Raikkonen in the first corner as the KERS system in the Ferrari boosted it into third place. Then he got hit by Trulli, and exited the race in spectacular style. Liuzzi made a first-lap pit stop to get rid of his supersoft tyres which would not have lasted long on a car with so little downforce. His first stint on mediums was good, but subsequently he had oversteer on his second set of them.
Williams
Nico Rosberg, Retired lap 27, gearbox
Kazuki Nakajima, Retired lap 31, collision
Brazil seemed to promise so much for Williams, but it all went wrong again. Rosberg was running fourth when his gearbox malfunctioned, while Nakajima was eliminated in spectacular style after a clash with Kobayashi.
Renault
Romain Grosjean, P13
Fernando Alonso, Retired lap one, collision
Grosjean gained experience bringing his R29 home 13th, complaining that it lacked grip, but Alonso was the innocent victim when Sutil came back on track after his clash with Trulli, and was a first-lap retirement.
Red Bull
Mark Webber, P1
Sebastian Vettel P4
Webber had an almost perfect day, preserving his Red Bull’s rubber in the early going as he chased Barrichello and fended off Kubica, then pulling out a big gap after out-running them in the first round of pit stops. Thereafter it was just a matter of bringing the car home, his only real problems being to rein in his natural urge to push, and the fact that his second success was overshadowed by Button’s. Vettel made ground fast in the opening laps, and felt that fourth was the best he could have expected after his qualifying drama. Like Barrichello, he was philosophical that his title chance was over, but was also happy to have overtaken the Brazilian. Red Bull were likewise resigned to Brawn wrapping up the constructors’ championship.
BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, P2
Nick Heidfeld, Retired lap 22, fuel rig problem
Kubica admitted that he was surprised by his BMW Sauber’s pace, especially as he had to wind down the revs from the 15th lap when the engine showed signs of overheating. He was also unlucky to get stuck behind four cars after his first pit stop, which allowed Webber to increase his lead, but otherwise he was grateful for a strong result in what has been a really tough season. Heidfeld was one of several drivers who qualified way down to get the breaks on the opening lap. He was pushing Vettel hard when he made his first stop, and thereafter he ground to a halt out of fuel after his refuelling rig short-changed him.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, P3
Heikki Kovalainen, P9, penalised to P12
Hamilton benefited when McLaren changed their refuelling strategy under the safety car, and got the hammer down in a fabulous but tough drive that took him from 17th on the grid to the podium by the chequered flag. It was a typical feisty showing from the world champion. Kovalainen’s race was ruined at the start when Vettel tapped him into a spin, then came the early release from his pit stop which left him trailing his rig’s hose. McLaren were fined $50,000 for making an unsafe release, while Kovalainen was subsequently adjudged a drive-through penalty after the race; 25s was hence added to his race time, dropping him from ninth to 12th.
Brawn
Rubens Barrichello, P8
Jenson Button, P5
Button was absolutely delirious after a fantastic drive brought him the fifth place points that he needed to cement his world championship. After a few wobbly races his was a fighting performance that made him a worthy champion. It also sealed the constructors’ championship for an emotional Ross Brawn, making his team the first in history to win the title in its first season. Poor old Barrichello led initially from pole, but lacked the ultimate pace to fend off Webber after the first stops, or Kubica. Later, while fighting for third with Hamilton, his BGP001 sustained a puncture that dropped him down to an unhappy eighth place finish and finally killed his own world title aspirations.
Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, P6
Giancarlo Fisichella, P11, classified P10
Raikkonen had an adventurous race, with a first-corner swipe from Sutil which punctured his left rear Bridgestone, then a clash in which he wrecked his front wing hitting Webber. After his forced pit stop at the end of that opening lap he literally had to run through fire after Kovalainen’s premature exit from the McLaren pit. All things considered, the Finn did well to take sixth place. Fisichella had to avoid a spinning Kovalainen at the bottom of the first turn on the opening lap, switched to a one-stop strategy, and then suffered when his KERS operated intermittently.
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, P7
Jaime Alguersuari, P14
Once again Buemi drove a nice race, and deserved his two points after a strong showing for Toro Rosso. They were his first since China. Alguersuari was happy just to finish after his dramas in Japan.
Toyota
Kamui Kobayashi, P10, classified P9
Jarno Trulli, Retired lap one, collision
Button was quite critical of Kobayashi’s tactics, especially under braking, but the Japanese rookie did a good job to finish 10th on his debut after running ahead of the champion-elect for a while. He survived a major brush with Nakajima along the way, and generally acquitted himself well. Trulli was livid with Sutil after their first-lap clash, but the stewards sided with the German and fined the Italian $10,000 for disobeying marshals’ orders and remonstrating with Sutil.
Force India
Tonio Liuzzi, P12, classified P11
Adrian Sutil, Retired lap one, collision
Sutil had a brush with Raikkonen in the first corner as the KERS system in the Ferrari boosted it into third place. Then he got hit by Trulli, and exited the race in spectacular style. Liuzzi made a first-lap pit stop to get rid of his supersoft tyres which would not have lasted long on a car with so little downforce. His first stint on mediums was good, but subsequently he had oversteer on his second set of them.
Williams
Nico Rosberg, Retired lap 27, gearbox
Kazuki Nakajima, Retired lap 31, collision
Brazil seemed to promise so much for Williams, but it all went wrong again. Rosberg was running fourth when his gearbox malfunctioned, while Nakajima was eliminated in spectacular style after a clash with Kobayashi.
Renault
Romain Grosjean, P13
Fernando Alonso, Retired lap one, collision
Grosjean gained experience bringing his R29 home 13th, complaining that it lacked grip, but Alonso was the innocent victim when Sutil came back on track after his clash with Trulli, and was a first-lap retirement.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Thursday's press conference – Brazil
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q. Gentlemen, first of all questions to you all. Are there any particular preparations you have made for this race? Who would like to start? Sebastian. You have prayed for rain obviously.
Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, successfully today. No, we will see. Nothing special really. I have been here a couple of times and I like the circuit. It is up and down but preparation-wise nothing special.
Q. Jenson?
Jenson BUTTON: Not really. I've been spending a few days in the sun which is quite nice before coming here. I arrived here on Tuesday to get used to the time zone but it is really strange with the weather. Tuesday it was cold, yesterday it was really hot and today it is raining. It is very up and down with the conditions and it is going to be the same for the weekend. There is a very good chance of rain but also there is the possibility of it being dry, so it's a tough one. It's the same for all of us and I am sure we will make the best out of every situation.
Q. Rubens? A few laps with the children?
Rubens BARRICHELLO: I have been spending my time booking churrascarias for friends of mine. I got into Brazil on Tuesday morning after Japan, so just my normal life. Exercising, picking up the kids from school and just being at home exercising nicely. It was a day off last Monday, so we had time to stay away from Sao Paulo a little bit more which was good.
Q. Any particular efforts your team has been making or any modifications coming here?
SV: We had a very good package for Singapore. If you look at the last two races we have been very competitive even though the circuits are very different to each other. For here we have got another couple of things in the bag. As you have probably seen from Japan, Mark (Webber) tested another kind of front wing, so it should be another step forward, so it should be good.
JB: We have got a few changes which should help us here. It should help us around a circuit like this quite a bit. I don't know if you've noticed but in Suzuka we were very quick in sectors two and three. In qualifying I was actually purple but the first sector we struggled massively. Mid-speed changes of direction we really struggled and that's where we lost all of our time in Suzuka. But the changes that we have got for this race should help out a little bit but also the areas that are crucial on this type of circuit should be a good step forward.
RB: It is good. We know where the problem was the last few races, so we kind of addressed the problems and the track should suit us very well. The weather is the only thing that we should pay attention to but I am quite optimistic for the home grand prix.
Q. All of you have got races that you look back at and think 'if only such and such hadn't happened'. Do you do that as the championship gets tighter and tighter?
SV: It doesn't help. I mean, it's done. Looking back I had five races where I didn't finish, so of course it doesn't help. But we cannot change it now, so nothing to regret. I think it is still a good season for us, the best one we have ever had, so very positive and we can still do it. Of course it is a couple of points in between us and the leader but anything is possible and we are here to win.
JB: I think it is the same for all of us. That's the way it is over a 17 race season. There are races which you are very happy with and other races which you are not. As Sebastian said it is all in the past and it is about making the most out of the next two races. There are the most important two races for all three of us this season and I am coming into this race looking forward to it. This is a circuit I enjoy. After here we have Abu Dhabi which is new for all of us, so it is going to be a challenge. But there is no point looking back. Mentally I don't think it is good looking back. I think it is better to look forward and that is exactly what I am doing.
RB: Since I have changed my brake material for Silverstone I have been very happy. In terms of performance it has been quite good and I am just driving a car that I think has been very fast and consistent. The season showed ups and downs for everyone. I think Brawn is the one that when it has been down it has still been okay. I have been very happy. The second part of my season has been quite good and I just hope I can keep it on.
Q. Sebastian, it is a big mountain to climb. Two wins. Surely the pressure is great or would you say the pressure is not great at all?
SV: I mean the only thing I can do is win. The pressure is on the two people in front of me. For me it is pretty straightforward. You don't have to be a genius to work out that from now on we simply have to win the two races and hope that those two mess it up.
Q. And after Japan are you riding on the crest of a wave?
SV: I think so. Both the last two races, Singapore and Japan, were very good for us. Obviously, Singapore should have been a bit better but it is in the past now and I am just hoping those three points are not missing in the end. But we will see. Japan, obviously, was fantastic for us. The car was great all weekend, so looking forward to the next two races.
Q. Jenson, has it been car confidence? Has it been this change mid-corner or has it been starting behind Rubens? What has been the problem over the last few races?
JB: The last race was obviously difficult because of the starting position and the mistake on Saturday with the yellow flags and in Singapore the qualifying was difficult. We were trying to find the maximum from the car but we went a little bit too far and the car was running a bit low and I hit the brakes and locked up. But the race pace has been very good. I think I have got the most out of the car, what there has been to take in the races and the pace has been good especially in Singapore. But it is always very difficult when you are starting far back. It is very difficult to overtake these days in F1 and every opportunity there is to make a move I have made this season. But starting where I did made it very difficult for me to pick up good points. But the couple of races before that I was happy with the car, I was happy with the balance and the results were reasonably good, so coming into the last two I am reasonably positive. I have a good feeling with the car and our upgrades should help us quite a bit. We will see what happens. Sebastian is saying the pressure is on us. I don't think that is quite the case. It is the same for all of us. We are all excited about the next two races. It means a lot to us for sure. We are all fighting for the championship. It is the first time I have been fighting for a championship in F1, same for Sebastian and maybe the same for Rubens, so it is an exciting situation to be in but I am the one that has got the lead.
Q. You are team-mates but at the same time rivals with Rubens. Here you are in his backyard with tens of thousands of his closest friends. Aren't you going to be the villain as it were here?
JB: No, I don't think so. If we were people that didn't get on and we hated each other's guts I think it would be a very different situation. We have worked well over the last four years we have been working together and this year is no exception. Rubens beat me in Silverstone, in my home country, and I would like to do the same to him here. It is a nice feeling when you get beaten by your team-mate in your own country.
RB: Not.
JB: But I think they understand the situation and we are all fighting for something that is far greater than we have achieved in the past. I think they will respect that.
Q. Rubens, is people power an advantage or a pressure? They are all expecting so much of you and they have been thinking that for years.
RB: It has been a long road coming to Brazil and at the beginning, feeling the pressure but learning, more than anything, how to deal with it and changing to get that positive energy and just using that to your advantage. I feel so great to be here. It is really nice and like I said, for me it is a winning year already. I put my hands into the sky to thank for the car I have and for the wins that I have and for the chance I have to win in Brazil. Something that I have been dreaming of for a long, long time, so hopefully the car will be back into the performance that we wish. The second part of the season has been a little tough in terms of getting the performance, especially because the Red Bulls and some other cars are going quite fast but hopefully here I can just put everything out and go for the win as I need it and because I want it so badly.
Q. So is wet weather a good thing for you?
RB: The wet weather has always been good for me. Looking at the forecast it looks like Friday and Saturday could be quite wet and Sunday a little bit better. That's the first impression that we have. I think the Red Bulls are quite fast on the wet and we could be a little bit better in the dry but having said that it is all the same for everyone and we have got to be prepared for the situations.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q. (Juha Päätalo - Financial Times Germany) Jenson, it has been kind of a strange season. You have won six races but the last one goes back to Turkey. Since then you have more or less kept the distance to the other. How is it going towards the end and having not won for a long time but still having that lead?
JB: As I said this is not a one race series. It is 17 races and as you've said I've kept the lead over the last few races. If you look after Monaco I had a 14 or 16 points lead, I cannot remember what it was, and I still have a 14 point lead now. If I knew I would have the same lead after Monaco I would have been very happy at that point of time. I am not in such a bad situation. That's it.
Q. (Joris Fioriti – APF) Would you say that you have been controlling the whole season?
JB: I have not purposely gone out to finish in the points but not win the race, for sure. I go out to get the best out of the car at every race that I compete in. I have led the championship all the way through the season, so it is a different situation to the people chasing. It has to be. They need to be more aggressive than I am. I don't want to just finish in the points. That has never been my objective but there are situations that you don't want to put yourself into and you can have an accident. You have got to be a bit cautious in some areas but also in other areas you need to be aggressive, otherwise you are not picking up points at all. I think I have had a reasonably good balance of that.
Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Sebastian, firstly how do you rate Sao Paulo for your car and, secondly, do you think Mark could be helpful for you in the battle for the championship with the trial he made in Suzuka and the fact he is no longer in the race?
SV: This circuit should suit us. You still have a lot of corners where you need the downforce and it seems that is our strength, so we are looking forward to it. On the other hand you don't really know what to expect as this year has been very much up and down. You have seen different teams at the top. I think this weekend the teams with KERS will be also very strong as you have got places when you a have a steep uphill and you need the acceleration. It will be exciting to see that. For your second question, I think first of all it is a good thing not to have the situation they (Brawn) are facing, they have to race each other. It is a shame for Mark that he is not any more in the race for the title, but we are a very strong team. We are working together hand in hand and I think if the situation should come up, then I think he is the last one to deny any help.
Q. (Ian Parks – The Press Association) Rubens, you announced earlier in the week that you were in discussions with Williams and you're also speaking with Brawn. Is it a distraction having to discuss your future while you're trying to fight for the title and is it also a disappointment that you're having to look for another team potentially, despite your best season in Formula One with Brawn?
RB: It was a distraction last year when I got here and I had no jobs; that was a distraction because it was tough going in not knowing if I could come back, wishing that I was there all the time. So to be able to talk to teams and just to see myself in a competitive car next year is all I wish. My focus has been a long, long time into this season. In a way I'm so proud that after the race in Silverstone I have kind of turned things around a little bit and I was able to really get a lot of speed out of the car, with the car working for me as well. So no, I'm fine, it's no distraction, it was really a distraction last year to see if I had to consider it as my last race or not. I didn't want it to be, but things were tougher than they seemed to be.
Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, you have used all your eight engines; which kind of engine are you going to use here? Have you already chosen at the previous race? It could be a handicap.
SV: I don't know exactly which one; one of the ones that we have left. I think the last couple of races were good for us, because it was often wet on the Friday, for instance Spa or Suzuka, and in the wet you have less running, so everyone does less mileage and so did we. So we saved mileage without paying too much of a price. So it shouldn't be a problem here. Interlagos has always been a circuit that in dry conditions is improving quite a lot. On top of that, we don't know if it will be wet or dry, so we will see how much and how many cars are running tomorrow. But it shouldn't be a problem.
Q. (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Jenson, do you think you would have been able to control the season this way five years ago – in other words is it thanks to your maturity or your experience that now you have been able to be in such a good position?
JB: It's always a difficult question to answer because I wasn't in this situation five years ago. In 2004, we had a pretty good season with BAR. We were the best of the rest after the Ferraris. In that situation, we had nothing to lose for sure, but the consistency was very good then. I think I got ten or eleven podiums back in '04, actually more than I've got this year so far. But for sure it was a very different situation, because, as I said, I had nothing to lose. I could really go all out because I knew there was no real chance of taking the championship, we could be very aggressive in every race. It's difficult to know if I would have been the same five years ago. Nobody really knows. I think that people are at their peak at different points in their career. Lewis won the World Championship in his second year in Formula One which you wouldn't think most drivers could do, so it's your experience through other formulae and the situation that every single person is in is different. For me, this feels like the right time, for sure, but I'm going to say that...
Q. (MC) You talked about aggression and caution just there; how much has that balance changed this year from the start to now, given the situation?
JB: I think it's when you've got a reasonable lead, you think that you need to be a little bit cautious in certain situations. I think you need to have a balance. For sure you can't just drive round waving people past, hoping that you're not going to crash. There has to be a balance there and I think that normally with racing there is anyway, none of us want to crash at turn one, we all want to get through and have a good result, but it's just making sure that you're not doing anything stupid and maybe a little bit out of character. It's nothing extreme, it's just different than maybe I would have thought five or six years ago.
Q. (MC) But have you been aware of that balance changing throughout this season, as it's progressed?
JB: Probably a little bit more, I think, when you get a bigger lead, I think it changes a little bit. It's not suddenly night and day, it's the smallest of margins, but as I've shown in a few races of late that I'm not just going to sit back and hope for the best result. For example Monza with Heikki (Kovalainen), with (Robert) Kubica at the last race. You need to make the moves when you can and that's exactly what I've been doing.
Q. (Thierry Wilmotte – Le Soir) Rubens, you've experienced a lot of bad luck in your races at Interlagos. Firstly, are you thinking about this bad luck this year before the race, and secondly, what are your best and worst memories of this Grand Prix?
RB: Well, first of all I don't believe in bad luck. I just think that this is… there was a famous phrase from a driver saying that ‘the more I work, the more luck I have.' It depends on your work and all the problems that I've had here in Brazil have sort of been human failures. I've actually gone off a few times, so for me it's not bad luck that I finish a race without fuel in the car. I don't believe that is bad luck, so I'm fine. I think in life we have what we plan or what we dream, so I have all the possibilities to have the best race of my career here and now and that's what I'm prepared to do. Obviously, I don't live in the past and like I said, I don't care about the results in the past. I care about what I can change and maybe next year you come here and you see that it's very positive and then you won the race and this and that, so for me it's more on those terms. I have plenty of good memories here, because, if you remember, I qualified in the top three with the Stewart and I remember all the people coming down the tribunes. I finished on the podium with the Ferrari. I have plenty; sure, I wish I had won here already but I have really good memories, and I feel that I drive well on this circuit, so it's just a matter of time for someone who works.
Q. (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Rubens, you've known Felipe Massa for a very long time. It's seems that since he's been on the sidelines looking at Formula One from a distance he's become a lot more outspoken, he's been talking about his new team-mate recently, saying that he suspects he knew more than he's been letting on about Singapore. He's been saying that he was robbed of the championship, he's been saying that Jenson might bottle the championship. I wonder if you think that he's changed at all since his absence?
RB: No, I don't think he has. I think he's been the same person and all my wishes, when I was at the hospital, were that he was the same guy. And after I saw him with my own eyes and I saw that he was the same, I wished that he could drive the same way, and he went to Fiorano and did that. From all the people that I've spoken to and to himself, it looked like he got into the car and on the third lap he was on the pace. But there is one fact that in Formula One if you're not travelling with everyone all the time and not hearing what the same people are talking about, you just get different ideas and maybe you're flying on your own ideas. He's been out for a month and then he comes back in and talks about something and it becomes a lot more important, so it's not like what we hear every fifteen days or sometimes every week, we talk about the same things and we're prepared to talk about the same things that you guys are talking about for the whole week. So maybe that's what causes us to be so much more… for us to give it so much more importance to what he says, but for me it's just the fact that he's been out and not living the world that we're living in.
Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Jenson, do you feel anything different in yourself when you wake up and know that this weekend you can be World Champion, and, if it's easier to control your emotions when you are inside the cockpit?
JB: Well, I woke up very happy this morning. I had some pretty good dreams. So I woke up with a smile on my face, sweating, yes. No, I woke up happy and looking forward to the weekend. I don't think it adds to pressure, knowing that you could win the World Championship that weekend. I think it adds to the excitement, for sure. It's not a negative, it's a positive. I'm excited about the weekend, as I'm sure these two are. Inside the car? I don't know. I haven't got in it yet. On the way in, I didn't have any unusual excitement, but we'll see tomorrow. The exciting thing about this weekend is the weather: it could be wet, it could be dry, so it's going to be important to make the right decisions over the weekend and not make it too complicated.
Q. (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) If I could just ask Rubens and Jenson: leaving aside your own personal battle, it looks almost inevitable that you're going to win the Constructors' Championship this weekend. I wonder if you could just say a few words on just how extraordinary that is for a team in its first season, given what happened in January and February.
JB: It's an amazing story and it is a Hollywood movie, for sure. If it happens. It's not a hundred percent yet. I would like to say that it is but it's not. Taking us out of it, not talking about ourselves, I think the team has been through a lot this winter and it's not just whether they could compete in Formula One, it's whether they had a job that could pay for their kids' school and what have you. It was a very difficult situation for them over the winter and I think a lot of them found it very tough but they had good leadership and that's what counted and it gave them hope and it gave them a positive outlook for the future. In the end, we got the deal done and we were able to come racing. I think when everyone saw the car drive for the first time in Barcelona they were very surprised by the pace of the car. They had obviously worked very, very hard over the winter but nothing went wrong. Everything that could have gone wrong didn't. It was perfect, a perfect test. The bodywork – everything fitted together just so nicely, there was no burning bodywork after the first running in practice, the reliability of everything, it was just a perfect first test and you don't get those tests unless the season is going to be good. So if we come away with the Constructors' Championship this season in the first year of Brawn GP, I know it's not a completely new team and there are a lot of very experienced people in the team, but it will be a very emotional moment for everyone, as it was in Australia when we finished one-two. It's the first time I've seen Ross (Brawn) speechless and if it is going to happen here or in Abu Dhabi I think it will the same situation. Ross has achieved so much in this sport, but to win a championship with his own team is far greater than what he's achieved in the past, I think. And that goes for everyone within the team. They've worked so hard with this team, whatever its name was in the past, they've worked very, very hard and they deserve whatever we achieve this season.
Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Similar question to Alan's: you were talking about the team effort from Brawn, and in that sense, Jenson, would you be able to comment if the title went to Rubens, and Rubens, if it went to Jenson would you able to comment on why it would be deserving, because you guys have both been battling for a long time and I guess both of you would like to win the title?
JB: Wow, that's an interesting question. If Rubens won the championship I would absolutely hate him! We come here for one thing only and that's to win the World Championship. That's our aim in life since we were an eight year old kid or even younger. Your aim is to be the best and to win a championship in Formula One over a season. That's what we're all here to do. We are working well together and I think we're good friends, aren't we?
RB: Yeah, just here.
JB: Just a little bit. But you come here to win with very competitive people, and if Rubens won I would be very disappointed, for sure. But I would also respect the fact that he did a better job over the 17 races and I would also respect the fact that he's worked as hard as I have or maybe harder in that case and he's the better driver over those 17 races.
RB: I think it makes the situation a bit more comfortable because, like Jenson said, we haven't won the Constructors' just yet but I believe that it's very, very close and it should be done, and hopefully this weekend. And by doing that, we have this feeling that we've both worked for that, and it's what we're giving to the team and the team gave us. So in the other championship, we just have to work for ourselves to win, like Jenson said, we don't want to lose the chance. I feel that particularly it's my very first chance, that I really have the chance to… it was put this way, somebody gave me the chance to go for the title and win myself. So for me it feels comfortable that we are working hard to beat each other, but it's comfortable for the fact that we both work very well together for the Constructors, so the team should be very happy and proud with that.
Q. Gentlemen, first of all questions to you all. Are there any particular preparations you have made for this race? Who would like to start? Sebastian. You have prayed for rain obviously.
Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, successfully today. No, we will see. Nothing special really. I have been here a couple of times and I like the circuit. It is up and down but preparation-wise nothing special.
Q. Jenson?
Jenson BUTTON: Not really. I've been spending a few days in the sun which is quite nice before coming here. I arrived here on Tuesday to get used to the time zone but it is really strange with the weather. Tuesday it was cold, yesterday it was really hot and today it is raining. It is very up and down with the conditions and it is going to be the same for the weekend. There is a very good chance of rain but also there is the possibility of it being dry, so it's a tough one. It's the same for all of us and I am sure we will make the best out of every situation.
Q. Rubens? A few laps with the children?
Rubens BARRICHELLO: I have been spending my time booking churrascarias for friends of mine. I got into Brazil on Tuesday morning after Japan, so just my normal life. Exercising, picking up the kids from school and just being at home exercising nicely. It was a day off last Monday, so we had time to stay away from Sao Paulo a little bit more which was good.
Q. Any particular efforts your team has been making or any modifications coming here?
SV: We had a very good package for Singapore. If you look at the last two races we have been very competitive even though the circuits are very different to each other. For here we have got another couple of things in the bag. As you have probably seen from Japan, Mark (Webber) tested another kind of front wing, so it should be another step forward, so it should be good.
JB: We have got a few changes which should help us here. It should help us around a circuit like this quite a bit. I don't know if you've noticed but in Suzuka we were very quick in sectors two and three. In qualifying I was actually purple but the first sector we struggled massively. Mid-speed changes of direction we really struggled and that's where we lost all of our time in Suzuka. But the changes that we have got for this race should help out a little bit but also the areas that are crucial on this type of circuit should be a good step forward.
RB: It is good. We know where the problem was the last few races, so we kind of addressed the problems and the track should suit us very well. The weather is the only thing that we should pay attention to but I am quite optimistic for the home grand prix.
Q. All of you have got races that you look back at and think 'if only such and such hadn't happened'. Do you do that as the championship gets tighter and tighter?
SV: It doesn't help. I mean, it's done. Looking back I had five races where I didn't finish, so of course it doesn't help. But we cannot change it now, so nothing to regret. I think it is still a good season for us, the best one we have ever had, so very positive and we can still do it. Of course it is a couple of points in between us and the leader but anything is possible and we are here to win.
JB: I think it is the same for all of us. That's the way it is over a 17 race season. There are races which you are very happy with and other races which you are not. As Sebastian said it is all in the past and it is about making the most out of the next two races. There are the most important two races for all three of us this season and I am coming into this race looking forward to it. This is a circuit I enjoy. After here we have Abu Dhabi which is new for all of us, so it is going to be a challenge. But there is no point looking back. Mentally I don't think it is good looking back. I think it is better to look forward and that is exactly what I am doing.
RB: Since I have changed my brake material for Silverstone I have been very happy. In terms of performance it has been quite good and I am just driving a car that I think has been very fast and consistent. The season showed ups and downs for everyone. I think Brawn is the one that when it has been down it has still been okay. I have been very happy. The second part of my season has been quite good and I just hope I can keep it on.
Q. Sebastian, it is a big mountain to climb. Two wins. Surely the pressure is great or would you say the pressure is not great at all?
SV: I mean the only thing I can do is win. The pressure is on the two people in front of me. For me it is pretty straightforward. You don't have to be a genius to work out that from now on we simply have to win the two races and hope that those two mess it up.
Q. And after Japan are you riding on the crest of a wave?
SV: I think so. Both the last two races, Singapore and Japan, were very good for us. Obviously, Singapore should have been a bit better but it is in the past now and I am just hoping those three points are not missing in the end. But we will see. Japan, obviously, was fantastic for us. The car was great all weekend, so looking forward to the next two races.
Q. Jenson, has it been car confidence? Has it been this change mid-corner or has it been starting behind Rubens? What has been the problem over the last few races?
JB: The last race was obviously difficult because of the starting position and the mistake on Saturday with the yellow flags and in Singapore the qualifying was difficult. We were trying to find the maximum from the car but we went a little bit too far and the car was running a bit low and I hit the brakes and locked up. But the race pace has been very good. I think I have got the most out of the car, what there has been to take in the races and the pace has been good especially in Singapore. But it is always very difficult when you are starting far back. It is very difficult to overtake these days in F1 and every opportunity there is to make a move I have made this season. But starting where I did made it very difficult for me to pick up good points. But the couple of races before that I was happy with the car, I was happy with the balance and the results were reasonably good, so coming into the last two I am reasonably positive. I have a good feeling with the car and our upgrades should help us quite a bit. We will see what happens. Sebastian is saying the pressure is on us. I don't think that is quite the case. It is the same for all of us. We are all excited about the next two races. It means a lot to us for sure. We are all fighting for the championship. It is the first time I have been fighting for a championship in F1, same for Sebastian and maybe the same for Rubens, so it is an exciting situation to be in but I am the one that has got the lead.
Q. You are team-mates but at the same time rivals with Rubens. Here you are in his backyard with tens of thousands of his closest friends. Aren't you going to be the villain as it were here?
JB: No, I don't think so. If we were people that didn't get on and we hated each other's guts I think it would be a very different situation. We have worked well over the last four years we have been working together and this year is no exception. Rubens beat me in Silverstone, in my home country, and I would like to do the same to him here. It is a nice feeling when you get beaten by your team-mate in your own country.
RB: Not.
JB: But I think they understand the situation and we are all fighting for something that is far greater than we have achieved in the past. I think they will respect that.
Q. Rubens, is people power an advantage or a pressure? They are all expecting so much of you and they have been thinking that for years.
RB: It has been a long road coming to Brazil and at the beginning, feeling the pressure but learning, more than anything, how to deal with it and changing to get that positive energy and just using that to your advantage. I feel so great to be here. It is really nice and like I said, for me it is a winning year already. I put my hands into the sky to thank for the car I have and for the wins that I have and for the chance I have to win in Brazil. Something that I have been dreaming of for a long, long time, so hopefully the car will be back into the performance that we wish. The second part of the season has been a little tough in terms of getting the performance, especially because the Red Bulls and some other cars are going quite fast but hopefully here I can just put everything out and go for the win as I need it and because I want it so badly.
Q. So is wet weather a good thing for you?
RB: The wet weather has always been good for me. Looking at the forecast it looks like Friday and Saturday could be quite wet and Sunday a little bit better. That's the first impression that we have. I think the Red Bulls are quite fast on the wet and we could be a little bit better in the dry but having said that it is all the same for everyone and we have got to be prepared for the situations.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q. (Juha Päätalo - Financial Times Germany) Jenson, it has been kind of a strange season. You have won six races but the last one goes back to Turkey. Since then you have more or less kept the distance to the other. How is it going towards the end and having not won for a long time but still having that lead?
JB: As I said this is not a one race series. It is 17 races and as you've said I've kept the lead over the last few races. If you look after Monaco I had a 14 or 16 points lead, I cannot remember what it was, and I still have a 14 point lead now. If I knew I would have the same lead after Monaco I would have been very happy at that point of time. I am not in such a bad situation. That's it.
Q. (Joris Fioriti – APF) Would you say that you have been controlling the whole season?
JB: I have not purposely gone out to finish in the points but not win the race, for sure. I go out to get the best out of the car at every race that I compete in. I have led the championship all the way through the season, so it is a different situation to the people chasing. It has to be. They need to be more aggressive than I am. I don't want to just finish in the points. That has never been my objective but there are situations that you don't want to put yourself into and you can have an accident. You have got to be a bit cautious in some areas but also in other areas you need to be aggressive, otherwise you are not picking up points at all. I think I have had a reasonably good balance of that.
Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Sebastian, firstly how do you rate Sao Paulo for your car and, secondly, do you think Mark could be helpful for you in the battle for the championship with the trial he made in Suzuka and the fact he is no longer in the race?
SV: This circuit should suit us. You still have a lot of corners where you need the downforce and it seems that is our strength, so we are looking forward to it. On the other hand you don't really know what to expect as this year has been very much up and down. You have seen different teams at the top. I think this weekend the teams with KERS will be also very strong as you have got places when you a have a steep uphill and you need the acceleration. It will be exciting to see that. For your second question, I think first of all it is a good thing not to have the situation they (Brawn) are facing, they have to race each other. It is a shame for Mark that he is not any more in the race for the title, but we are a very strong team. We are working together hand in hand and I think if the situation should come up, then I think he is the last one to deny any help.
Q. (Ian Parks – The Press Association) Rubens, you announced earlier in the week that you were in discussions with Williams and you're also speaking with Brawn. Is it a distraction having to discuss your future while you're trying to fight for the title and is it also a disappointment that you're having to look for another team potentially, despite your best season in Formula One with Brawn?
RB: It was a distraction last year when I got here and I had no jobs; that was a distraction because it was tough going in not knowing if I could come back, wishing that I was there all the time. So to be able to talk to teams and just to see myself in a competitive car next year is all I wish. My focus has been a long, long time into this season. In a way I'm so proud that after the race in Silverstone I have kind of turned things around a little bit and I was able to really get a lot of speed out of the car, with the car working for me as well. So no, I'm fine, it's no distraction, it was really a distraction last year to see if I had to consider it as my last race or not. I didn't want it to be, but things were tougher than they seemed to be.
Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, you have used all your eight engines; which kind of engine are you going to use here? Have you already chosen at the previous race? It could be a handicap.
SV: I don't know exactly which one; one of the ones that we have left. I think the last couple of races were good for us, because it was often wet on the Friday, for instance Spa or Suzuka, and in the wet you have less running, so everyone does less mileage and so did we. So we saved mileage without paying too much of a price. So it shouldn't be a problem here. Interlagos has always been a circuit that in dry conditions is improving quite a lot. On top of that, we don't know if it will be wet or dry, so we will see how much and how many cars are running tomorrow. But it shouldn't be a problem.
Q. (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Jenson, do you think you would have been able to control the season this way five years ago – in other words is it thanks to your maturity or your experience that now you have been able to be in such a good position?
JB: It's always a difficult question to answer because I wasn't in this situation five years ago. In 2004, we had a pretty good season with BAR. We were the best of the rest after the Ferraris. In that situation, we had nothing to lose for sure, but the consistency was very good then. I think I got ten or eleven podiums back in '04, actually more than I've got this year so far. But for sure it was a very different situation, because, as I said, I had nothing to lose. I could really go all out because I knew there was no real chance of taking the championship, we could be very aggressive in every race. It's difficult to know if I would have been the same five years ago. Nobody really knows. I think that people are at their peak at different points in their career. Lewis won the World Championship in his second year in Formula One which you wouldn't think most drivers could do, so it's your experience through other formulae and the situation that every single person is in is different. For me, this feels like the right time, for sure, but I'm going to say that...
Q. (MC) You talked about aggression and caution just there; how much has that balance changed this year from the start to now, given the situation?
JB: I think it's when you've got a reasonable lead, you think that you need to be a little bit cautious in certain situations. I think you need to have a balance. For sure you can't just drive round waving people past, hoping that you're not going to crash. There has to be a balance there and I think that normally with racing there is anyway, none of us want to crash at turn one, we all want to get through and have a good result, but it's just making sure that you're not doing anything stupid and maybe a little bit out of character. It's nothing extreme, it's just different than maybe I would have thought five or six years ago.
Q. (MC) But have you been aware of that balance changing throughout this season, as it's progressed?
JB: Probably a little bit more, I think, when you get a bigger lead, I think it changes a little bit. It's not suddenly night and day, it's the smallest of margins, but as I've shown in a few races of late that I'm not just going to sit back and hope for the best result. For example Monza with Heikki (Kovalainen), with (Robert) Kubica at the last race. You need to make the moves when you can and that's exactly what I've been doing.
Q. (Thierry Wilmotte – Le Soir) Rubens, you've experienced a lot of bad luck in your races at Interlagos. Firstly, are you thinking about this bad luck this year before the race, and secondly, what are your best and worst memories of this Grand Prix?
RB: Well, first of all I don't believe in bad luck. I just think that this is… there was a famous phrase from a driver saying that ‘the more I work, the more luck I have.' It depends on your work and all the problems that I've had here in Brazil have sort of been human failures. I've actually gone off a few times, so for me it's not bad luck that I finish a race without fuel in the car. I don't believe that is bad luck, so I'm fine. I think in life we have what we plan or what we dream, so I have all the possibilities to have the best race of my career here and now and that's what I'm prepared to do. Obviously, I don't live in the past and like I said, I don't care about the results in the past. I care about what I can change and maybe next year you come here and you see that it's very positive and then you won the race and this and that, so for me it's more on those terms. I have plenty of good memories here, because, if you remember, I qualified in the top three with the Stewart and I remember all the people coming down the tribunes. I finished on the podium with the Ferrari. I have plenty; sure, I wish I had won here already but I have really good memories, and I feel that I drive well on this circuit, so it's just a matter of time for someone who works.
Q. (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Rubens, you've known Felipe Massa for a very long time. It's seems that since he's been on the sidelines looking at Formula One from a distance he's become a lot more outspoken, he's been talking about his new team-mate recently, saying that he suspects he knew more than he's been letting on about Singapore. He's been saying that he was robbed of the championship, he's been saying that Jenson might bottle the championship. I wonder if you think that he's changed at all since his absence?
RB: No, I don't think he has. I think he's been the same person and all my wishes, when I was at the hospital, were that he was the same guy. And after I saw him with my own eyes and I saw that he was the same, I wished that he could drive the same way, and he went to Fiorano and did that. From all the people that I've spoken to and to himself, it looked like he got into the car and on the third lap he was on the pace. But there is one fact that in Formula One if you're not travelling with everyone all the time and not hearing what the same people are talking about, you just get different ideas and maybe you're flying on your own ideas. He's been out for a month and then he comes back in and talks about something and it becomes a lot more important, so it's not like what we hear every fifteen days or sometimes every week, we talk about the same things and we're prepared to talk about the same things that you guys are talking about for the whole week. So maybe that's what causes us to be so much more… for us to give it so much more importance to what he says, but for me it's just the fact that he's been out and not living the world that we're living in.
Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Jenson, do you feel anything different in yourself when you wake up and know that this weekend you can be World Champion, and, if it's easier to control your emotions when you are inside the cockpit?
JB: Well, I woke up very happy this morning. I had some pretty good dreams. So I woke up with a smile on my face, sweating, yes. No, I woke up happy and looking forward to the weekend. I don't think it adds to pressure, knowing that you could win the World Championship that weekend. I think it adds to the excitement, for sure. It's not a negative, it's a positive. I'm excited about the weekend, as I'm sure these two are. Inside the car? I don't know. I haven't got in it yet. On the way in, I didn't have any unusual excitement, but we'll see tomorrow. The exciting thing about this weekend is the weather: it could be wet, it could be dry, so it's going to be important to make the right decisions over the weekend and not make it too complicated.
Q. (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) If I could just ask Rubens and Jenson: leaving aside your own personal battle, it looks almost inevitable that you're going to win the Constructors' Championship this weekend. I wonder if you could just say a few words on just how extraordinary that is for a team in its first season, given what happened in January and February.
JB: It's an amazing story and it is a Hollywood movie, for sure. If it happens. It's not a hundred percent yet. I would like to say that it is but it's not. Taking us out of it, not talking about ourselves, I think the team has been through a lot this winter and it's not just whether they could compete in Formula One, it's whether they had a job that could pay for their kids' school and what have you. It was a very difficult situation for them over the winter and I think a lot of them found it very tough but they had good leadership and that's what counted and it gave them hope and it gave them a positive outlook for the future. In the end, we got the deal done and we were able to come racing. I think when everyone saw the car drive for the first time in Barcelona they were very surprised by the pace of the car. They had obviously worked very, very hard over the winter but nothing went wrong. Everything that could have gone wrong didn't. It was perfect, a perfect test. The bodywork – everything fitted together just so nicely, there was no burning bodywork after the first running in practice, the reliability of everything, it was just a perfect first test and you don't get those tests unless the season is going to be good. So if we come away with the Constructors' Championship this season in the first year of Brawn GP, I know it's not a completely new team and there are a lot of very experienced people in the team, but it will be a very emotional moment for everyone, as it was in Australia when we finished one-two. It's the first time I've seen Ross (Brawn) speechless and if it is going to happen here or in Abu Dhabi I think it will the same situation. Ross has achieved so much in this sport, but to win a championship with his own team is far greater than what he's achieved in the past, I think. And that goes for everyone within the team. They've worked so hard with this team, whatever its name was in the past, they've worked very, very hard and they deserve whatever we achieve this season.
Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Similar question to Alan's: you were talking about the team effort from Brawn, and in that sense, Jenson, would you be able to comment if the title went to Rubens, and Rubens, if it went to Jenson would you able to comment on why it would be deserving, because you guys have both been battling for a long time and I guess both of you would like to win the title?
JB: Wow, that's an interesting question. If Rubens won the championship I would absolutely hate him! We come here for one thing only and that's to win the World Championship. That's our aim in life since we were an eight year old kid or even younger. Your aim is to be the best and to win a championship in Formula One over a season. That's what we're all here to do. We are working well together and I think we're good friends, aren't we?
RB: Yeah, just here.
JB: Just a little bit. But you come here to win with very competitive people, and if Rubens won I would be very disappointed, for sure. But I would also respect the fact that he did a better job over the 17 races and I would also respect the fact that he's worked as hard as I have or maybe harder in that case and he's the better driver over those 17 races.
RB: I think it makes the situation a bit more comfortable because, like Jenson said, we haven't won the Constructors' just yet but I believe that it's very, very close and it should be done, and hopefully this weekend. And by doing that, we have this feeling that we've both worked for that, and it's what we're giving to the team and the team gave us. So in the other championship, we just have to work for ourselves to win, like Jenson said, we don't want to lose the chance. I feel that particularly it's my very first chance, that I really have the chance to… it was put this way, somebody gave me the chance to go for the title and win myself. So for me it feels comfortable that we are working hard to beat each other, but it's comfortable for the fact that we both work very well together for the Constructors, so the team should be very happy and proud with that.
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