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Q: (Ed Gorman
– The Times) Have you got a goal for the five races? Have you
set yourself a target in your mind that you want to achieve over
these five races with Ferrari?
GF: Well, the
target is obviously to finish third in the Constructors’
championship for Ferrari, so we need to score a lot of points with
Kimi (Räikkönen). My target is to score points in every
race if possible and it would obviously be nice to get on the podium
but we will see.
Q: (Will
Buxton – Australasian Motor Sport News) To everyone, apart from
Rubens, but it kind of includes Rubens. There are five races left:
who do you think is going to wind up as champion?
JT: It’s
so difficult to predict.
RB: I think it
will be Rubens.
RK: It’s
difficult to say. I think a lot will depend on car performance, so we
will see.
VL: Pretty
similar to Robert; with a lot of development of each of the teams
from now until the end of the year I think that will count a lot in
the final result. As they said, it’s pretty difficult to predict.
GF: Well, when
they asked after six races the answer was just one driver: Jenson,
because he was so strong, with a big gap ahead compared to Rubens and
the other guys. Now everything has changed; Jenson has lost a lot of
points compared to the others like Rubens and the Red Bull drivers,
so I think everything is open between those four guys.
Q: (Jacobo
Vega – La Sexta) Giancarlo, you said that you were using the
simulator and you were using the KERS but do you think it’s
going to be difficult to use it in the car?
GF: Hopefully
not. Obviously it’s going to be different in the car; when you
drive you are very concentrated not to brake late and to do the best
you can. But it’s not so difficult; you know you just need to
switch a button and go flat out from the exit of the corner. It’s
going to be difficult to manage it at the beginning, for sure but
once I have done 30 or 40 laps it will be much better, I’m sure.
Q: Robert,
there is a lot of speculation whether you might have been in
Fisico’s position today. What do you think about that, could you
have been in red instead of white?
RK: Well, I
think I’m in white, so there’s no more speculation. Yeah,
there was some contact and I was in the interest of Ferrari but I
don’t think it’s so easy to change teams during the year
and anyway, I think we will have a competitive car here with BMW, so
I’m happy to be where I am.
Q: (Ian Parkes
– The Press Association) Gentlemen, I’m sure you’re
all aware of the ongoing Renault situation at the moment. Could I
just get a general perspective from all five of you? Are you
surprised that something like that could happen in this sport, or
does nothing surprise you in F1 anymore?
RB: Well,
it’s quite difficult to think that somebody would crash a car
because he was told to. Very realistically speaking, I think it’s
easier to crash a Formula One car than drive a Formula One car,
that’s a fair point, because of the amount of power and
everything. It’s very easy to crash the car. But to get to that
point, I was put into a situation in Austria which was the limit of
the limit. There were eight laps of conversation, the conversation
going on and things were said to me that I had to give up, but I had
to give up in front of everyone, everyone knew what was going on
there. It’s very, very sad. If that’s true, it’s very,
very sad. The only thing I can see is that somebody wants
Briatore’s head, that’s all I can see now, because it
sounds very strange.
RK: I would
prefer not to comment.
RB: I’ve
said everything anyway.
VL:
There’s definitely a very fine line; it’s very difficult to
believe, as Rubens said, that somebody would crash on purpose.
It’s a difficult thing to believe that something would have been
started like that but for sure, it’s a really soft thing to
touch. It’s not a good thing for the sport if it’s true,
and hopefully it will never happen again.
GF: I
don’t have a lot to say, because now they are investigating and
until that happens, I don’t want to say anything.
JT:
There’s very little to say. There is an investigation and we
will find out what happened later. Honestly, we can only read a
little but no more.
Q: (Frederic
Ferret – L’Equipe) Rubens, what was it like to drive a
Ferrari in Monza?
RB: It was
great. It’s a special feeling, obviously. You can see everyone
dressed in red, I can quite clearly see what Fisico is going through.
Good for him, very, very well done. I think it’s a dream that
everybody has, not just the Italians. But for it to happen to an
Italian right here in Monza, in front of the tifosi, is just great, a
really, really good feeling, and he has to use the energy to be very
powerful and do his job, because at Ferrari it’s very easy to
forget that you do that for the love of racing, and the pressure
rises; he’s going to see the pressure for himself. But it’s
fantastic if he uses the pressure in a positive way, it’s just a
fantastic feeling.
Q: (Livio
Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Rubens, you have had problems
at the start of three races out of twelve starts. Can you tell us
what exactly has happened? Is it a car problem? RB: Well, I’m
the first one to say if I’ve made a mistake, but quite honestly,
I’ve been doing the same strategy at all the races, all the
time. Like I said, we’ve had fantastic starts and bad starts. We
haven’t had an average start. Once, in Turkey, we had problems
with a clutch that was very contaminated by oil but the other two
were a wrong call in terms of positioning the clutch for the start,
how much grip you would have. It’s very unfortunate, especially
when you think about the amount of points that I could have had in
those situations, but I’m just looking forward. I still got two
points from the last race and the team will be doing its best not to
have any more of those&ldots; we cannot afford any more, anyway.
Q: (Paulo
Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Rubens, do you think
there’s going to be a point when the team might make a decision
if the Red Bull guys are getting too close and favour Jenson or have
you been assured that this will not happen?
RB: I
won’t accept it anyway. There’s a real point there. Until
there are mathematical chances&ldots; I think it’s in the best
interests of the team to push forward because Red Bull can be quite
strong in the last races, so it would be worse for the team. I’m
a team player who wants to win the championship and I’m fighting
for it but if I can see that there is no mathematical way then for
sure, but until then&ldots; I hope there won’t be, anyway.
Q: (Joris
Fioriti – AFP) Giancarlo, you replace Luca Badoer who had very
poor performances in the Ferrari; do you think that this makes your
life easier for the rest of the season, because you can only be
better than him?
GF: No, I just
want to do a proper job, to try and score points in every race and do
my best, be much closer to Kimi and that’s all I have to do.
Q: (Byron
Young – The Daily Mirror) Giancarlo, I can understand why
you’re playing this down but you’re a winning driver in a
winning car, so surely the only ambition this weekend is to win,
isn’t it?
GF: Yeah, but
for Ferrari this doesn’t meet this ambition because, as I told
you, the car in the last race was good, with Kimi’s good
performance. It’s been quite strong. In my case, it’s my
dream to win straightaway on Sunday, but it’s not easy to jump
from a Force India car to a Ferrari car and be comfortable straight
away. I’m sure I can do it, I can be quick, so I’m
positive, but step-by-step.
Q: (Andrea
Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Giancarlo, what did you
think this morning driving from Maranello to here and when you
arrived here in front of the main gate?
GF: Well,
every day since last Thursday has been a fantastic experience, since
the announcement, when I got into the factory, doing the seat
fitting. Going around now I’m much more popular after 14 years
of Formula One, so Ferrari is amazing. Even this morning, I was so
excited, so nervous, coming here. Actually I enjoyed driving up the
motorway with Robert, because I met him in my car – we
weren’t on the limit, obviously. But it’s just great, so I
need to thank Mr Vijay Mallya, because he gave me the possibility to
move to Ferrari; the president Montezemolo, I have been his personal
choice; Stefano Domenicali; even my manager Enrico Zanarini did a
fantastic job, so it’s a dream coming true, it’s fantastic
for me.
Q: (Andrea
Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Rubens, what advice would
you give to Giancarlo for these five Grands Prix with Ferrari?
RB: Well, I
don’t have a lot to suggest. I think that for me, even not being
an Italian when I first drove for Ferrari, it was a dream as well.
But quite soon, you just have to put yourself off the dream and just
drive the car. Every time you get reminded when you see that it’s
red, and this is a good feeling. But as we’ve said before,
Giancarlo is a winner and it’s not the first time he’s
going out in a competitive car to win a race. He has experience.
There’s not much to say, I think he’s going to do very well.
Q: ( Sarah
Holt – BBC) A question for Giancarlo. Stefano Domenicali said
that he would be happy for you to race for another team next year as
well as your duties as Ferrari test driver. Are you interested in
finding a race team for 2010?
GF: Well,
first of all, I’ve got a contract for next year to be the third
driver at Ferrari, and if there is a good option to find another seat
in a different team it would be good, but obviously it’s a
season to be together with Ferrari, with Stefano and the team.
Q: (Ottavio
Daviddi – Tuttosport) Jarno, you organised an auction for the
earthquake victims in Abruzzo. I would like to know if you have yet
reached the target you set?
JT: We have
organised several events. We had a football match yesterday when we
raised €70,000, so it was a fantastic event. Unfortunately, we
didn’t have Giancarlo and Michael (Schumacher) because obviously
they were busy. And there will be a big auction on Saturday when we
are going to sell some items from the drivers, from the GPDA, like
overalls, helmets. Giancarlo was kind enough to donate his helmet and&ldots;
GF: &ldots; a
Ferrari one
JT: Yeah?
Fantastic. So I think we are doing very well. Obviously, we are going
to have some more events and auctions between now and the end of the
season and at the end of the season we will see what we can do for
L’Aquila and I will be glad even if my Italian colleagues like
Tonio and Giancarlo can come with me to Abruzzo and eventually go
there and see the people and decide what to do with this money,
because obviously they have been part of it.
Q: (Boaz
Korpel – The Sports Channel, Israel) Rubens, everybody is
wondering about the symbol on the top of your helmet which looks like
the Star of David. You have a big community of fans in Israel, so can
you solve this question for us about this symbol on the top of your helmet?
RB: The star
first started with someone telling me that I should have something on
the top. That happened in 1995, someone came to me and said
‘someone in the sky is looking at you’ and for me, I felt
something good about it, and I put a star there, which you could call
anything, but it’s just a star. It was a five pointed star.
After that, I made some changes because my energy comes from a six
pointed star, not a five pointed star, and people aren’t just
associating that to the Jewish community. It is the Star of David but
if you study everything worldwide it doesn’t link straight to
the Jewish community. I’m Catholic but it doesn’t mean
anything, it’s just the fact that I’m a spiritualist and I
believe in any points of goodwill. I basically had one thing for the
start of my career in ’93, ’94, ’95 and now it’s
just the energy from the six pointed star.
Q: (Boaz
Korpel – The Sports Channel, Israel) Tonio, you drove for Toro
Rosso which was not so competitive when you drove for it, and now
Force India seems a very strong car, so what is your aim: finishing
in the points or the top ten?
VL: Yeah, my
period at Toro Rosso has been a great experience which made me grow
up a lot into Formula One. In that period, for sure, we were in a
difficult position because the car wasn’t competitive but it
taught me a lot, growing up into Formula One with Toro Rosso at the
beginning. But now I’m in a different position, I grew up a lot,
I learned a lot even in these one and a half years as test driver and
now that the car is getting much more competitive for Force India, I
get the chance to start again in a competitive car. Fortunately, I
have to thank my boss Vijay Mallya who has given me this chance in my
home race, to race in front of my home crowd, and that’s a
special feeling for me. But now I’m a more mature driver,
I’m a different person from two years ago when I was at Toro
Rosso, so I think I can maximise my opportunities much better and I
really hope that I can help and make the team happy as we were in Spa. |