Q & A with Martin Whitmarsh

Martin Whitmarsh: I think you'd start by saying to create this and grow this out of this area is a fantastic achievement. The event really has gone off without incident, so congratulations to Valencia for that. Looking at it, here in the paddock we can develop a little more atmosphere we can grow and develop this in the years to come.

Q. How concerned were the team with Lewis's neck situation yesterday?

MW: Lewis wasn't in the greatest form yesterday (Saturday) when he got up. He did a fantastic job and got stronger and better as the day wore on. These young drivers, they are made of rubber and he bounced back pretty well normally.

Q. Were you worried he wouldn't be able to race?

MW: No. We were worried about how he would cope with the day and he coped with it in the circumstances very well.

Q. Was Pedro put on standby?

MW: Pedro is always on standby, he is our standby driver.

Q. When you were sure he could drive?

MW: At least a quarter of an hour before the start of P3! He didn't go out until a quarter of an hour into that session but we just wanted to make sure he had enough opportunity to prepare.

Q. What did you learn today from the performance of your car against Ferrari?

MW: In truth, this isn't the most technical circuit. I think it's quite close. There reality is it's very close between Felipe and Lewis and quite close between Heikki and Kimi. I personally wouldn't be able to draw anything too conclusive from that. The best philosophy for us is to assume we are behind and to make the car quicker before the next race.

Q. Lewis had an incident-free race, and we haven't been able to say that for a while. It seemed like a really solid performance - is this the kind of long game strategy coming out to win the championship rather than winning every race?

MW: We turned the engine down towards the end of the race and we wanted a solid points performance. Given Lewis wasn't on sparkling form yesterday he did all that was asked of him and he did the same again today. No risks, scored points and extended his lead in the world championship.

Q. Which is quite different...

MW: I think we're all learning. Lewis is learning, he's getting stronger mentally. He's been in one championship fight and he's now in another one - I'm sure he will learn throughout this one as he did in the last one.

Q. Is this a specific strategic theme - to play for points and drive a solid race?

MW: In truth, the team shouldn't take any credit for it. Lewis is an intelligent driver, he's absolutely committed to winning every race and he likes to end every session the quickest, but I think he's becoming more relaxed and confident in his approach and realising that what really counts is winning the world championship at the end of the year.

Q. If you were in the position of Ferrari of having two engines failures, especially during an engine freeze and it's very difficult to change something inside?

MW: Well it is if they've got a proven reliability fault and they can do something about that. The reality is for Massa now he's got to carry that engine into the next race - they may have a concern, I don't know. That was a consideration when we were considering turning the engine down. We're at the end of our engine lives but we thought it prudent to make sure Lewis finished.

Another consideration was perhaps that we shouldn't be doing that, perhaps we should be pushing in the knowledge that Massa's engine had to go forward to Spa. But as it turned out we decided to take a prudent approach. Who knows, that engine may or may not survive the next race. I doubt whether we can rely on an engine failure at the next race!

Q. Do you think it's odd that after 10 races where nothing happened, in two consecutive races two Ferrari engines have failed?

MW: No I don't. The reality is that the tolerances in engines, though it is tiny everything is very heavily stressed. I can recall times in our history that we've had issues, so I think Ferrari are a professional team and they will get on top of it. They have had some fantastic reliability in the past, so I don't think we're counting on them having reliability problems to win the world championship. We've got to go out and beat them.

Q. Is Massa the key player for Ferrari?

MW: He's certainly a contender. He has exceeded many people's expectation in terms of his reliability and I think that for sure we know Kimi better and he is a formidable competitor and he will be scratching his head. This isn't a highly technical circuit, you've got to be good on the brakes and I think Kimi will bounce back strong in Spa.