Q & A with Trulli and Glock

After Trulli's first run in the TF109 and ahead of Glock's first taste of the car at Portimao today, the two drivers spoke about their expectations for 2009 and their thoughts on Formula One's new era.

Q: Timo, last year was your first full season of Formula 1. Your objective was to establish yourself as a worthy Formula 1 competitor. You are back on the grid this year so what are your objectives for this year?

Timo Glock: To do another step. Last year we had a pretty good second half of the year. We scored a lot of points and was on the podium for the first time. The development through the year was quite good, quite strong. I got used to the team more and more from race to race.

And this year the target is to take another step and be consistently in the top five, top three and be on the podium again a couple of times more. Budapest was nice and hopefully we can get some more podiums, have a strong season and finish consistently in the points.

Q: Jarno, you have done virtually everything you can with Toyota. A pole position, podiums but no wins. Can you win this year?

Jarno Trulli: As Timo said, we try to improve our performance year by year. I believe that we are established as a very good team and we are improving. It will be very important for both of us as well as for the team to fight for top positions this year. Obviously my dream would be to give Toyota the first win as much as Timo wants to. But we have got to fight for it.

Q: Jarno, you have only had a little time in the new car, but can you compare this year's car to last year's car?

JT: There is a massive drop in downforce and grip. In the conditions it was very difficult to get temperature in the tyres. It was really hard for everyone out there and it was nearly impossible to drive. This is the first feeling!

The car doesn't seem to have any big problems and it has run really well in the past few days with Kamui (Kobayashi) so I will say we are pretty confident about this year. We just need to get into the normal testing with warm conditions and probably this could be the case in Bahrain.

Q: To both drivers, but Jarno in particular. Have you got any reservations about KERS safety?

JT: We do know very little about KERS, the drivers, apart from what we have read about what has happened to some other teams. So I think it's probably important to be a little bit concerned about a system which is brand new for everyone. I hope that the FIA does know what the good points and bad points are.

I hope especially they are looking after the safety because this is also one of their jobs - to ensure the safety for the teams, the drivers and the team members. We are obviously concerned after what happened to some other teams, but I must admit on the other hand, Toyota has introduced it for the first time in the last few days and we ran with no problems. We always have to be very careful because it's a complicated system.

Q: And to Timo?

TG: Jarno said everything. From our side, I am trusting the team. They have developed the system quite well and they have run without any problems. But at the end there are some concerns because nobody has experience with it. So we have to wait and see what happens in the first couple of races.

Q: John Howett said that you need a strong season or there might be no future. What is your impression Jarno?

JT: To be honest, not for myself, but I believe for everyone else - manufacturers need to be strong in order to continue in Formula One. I believe now Toyota and everybody is facing this difficult moment and we come to an age where the team has got enough experience, everything has settled down and they need to deliver.

Everything we do there is a reason we do in life and Toyota is in Formula One to win. For me and Timo it will be an important season because both of us want to win as much as the other and we want to deliver the results. Everyone is working in the same direction with the same commitment and hopefully we can deliver the same result.

Q: Jarno, you are one of the most experienced drivers in Formula One. Do you think it can make a difference with the massive rule changes?

JT: It is quite clear that an experienced driver has got the experience. What I can see from myself is that I get right on the point if there is a problem with the car or if there's a positive or negative side. This is one part of the job which I believe I can do pretty well.

Me and Timo are doing quite a good job and the team is happy about it, but we need to concentrate especially nowadays very much in this winter testing because we will not have any more testing during the season so we need to get it right and take the right direction from now and develop the car. This year it's more crucial than any other season before just because you don't have any testing during the season.

Q: What do you think of the extra things for the driver to do such as operate KERS and adjust the front wing ? is that somewhere where a driver could gain an advantage?

TG: I would say it's quite interesting too for the drivers. There are quite a lot of possibilities to play around with in terms of the front wing and KERS, plus all the other features we still have with the diff. So there's a lot of stuff to play around with and I think in the races to use all these tools there will maybe be the possibility to overtake a bit more. It will be quite interesting and maybe a bit difficult in the beginning with quite a few buttons to get used to but that shouldn't be a problem.

JT: I agree with Timo. It's nice to have some tools to play with to set up the car once the race has started and you need to correct the car setup because the conditions are different. The front wing might help us but on the other hand we have the KERS which is a completely new world for us so we don't know exactly what is going to happen - when we are going use it, if we are going to use it. Toyota has worked really hard and we have tested it successfully these past few days, but it doesn't mean we are going to use it now because we have to be sure to be first of all safe, then reliable and they eventually if there is some advantage or not. KERS is still a question mark for most of the teams.

Q: The rule changes are designed to increase overtaking in the races. Do you expect the races to be more exciting?

JT: I can say we expect so, yes. We will have some overtaking manoeuvres and some spectacular races. But practically I can't say because it's difficult at the moment to judge. This is the goal and this is the target, to have a better race for all of us. Before if we had a difficult start or a difficult first part of the race we couldn't recover because it was impossible for us to overtake. We just want to have a better chance to enjoy it more on the track and for everyone to enjoy the race with more action.

TG: There is a big rule change in F1 this year with the aerodynamics and everyone hopes that it will be possible to overtake more. My feeling is it will not be a big change in terms of overtaking because it is still possible to brake quite deep into the corners with these cars and especially with these tyres.