Q & A with Sebastien Loeb

Sebastien Loeb: "OK, Formula One and rally is a different world, but actually the approach and the professionalism is not so different. There are preparation bays, workshops, design offices in Citroen as well...it is mostly the same thing, but with just a different focus. At this level, everybody is working to a very high standard."

Q. Was the seat fitting OK?

SL: "Yes it was fine but the normal drivers, Mark Webber and David Coulthard, are much bigger than me so it took some time to find the right seating position for me to have good visibility. Of course if you sit too high though then you get buffeted by the wind. So it's hard to find."

Q. What was it like to be back in an F1 car?

SL: "It was really good, but at Silverstone I only did about 100km with very low grip conditions so I could not really exploit the car. But just accelerating up the straight I could really feel the power so it was a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to Barcelona now: I don't think it should be five degrees and raining there!"

Q. Can you tell any difference between the RB4 and the Renault?

SL: "Not yet. The conditions at Silverstone meant that I couldn't really get much idea of the differences between them. I don't have so much experience of Formula One so it's hard for me to compare...it's a new world for me."

Q. How important was the Silverstone test?

SL: "In terms of preparing for Barcelona, I don't think we'll see the same sort of conditions there. I hope not anyway! So in that way it wasn't so relevant but of course it was very useful for me to have some extra experience of the car, to find out how everything worked and check my seating position. It was also a really good opportunity to meet the team and get used to working with them."

Q. Does it make Barcelona easier or harder?

SL: "It's definitely better as all the time in the car is useful. I know a little bit more about the car now and I'm not coming into Barcelona completely new to it. But I don't expect Barcelona to be easy at all: it's the first time that I will be testing against the regular drivers in Formula One, so that's obviously going to be interesting!"