Q & A with Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica: I think things are going pretty well. Valencia was a very good test for us, although we were the only team there so the track conditions were not the best, and the wind was pretty strong. Here yesterday we had a slow start in the morning, because of the fog, but later it was quite good.

The grip was quite good and even though there were only three cars running we have had quite good testing in the hot weather. It is good to see how the tyres are reacting and stuff like this.

Q. How were the tyres reacting?

RK: Very good I would say. We have here two different compounds, we are using one main standard one, so maybe it was not the best but I think all in all we haven't seen as many problems as we did last December with the tyres, so this is good. And of course I am getting to know the car better, and trying to found out which area we have to improve, how much we have to improve, and feeling from a driver's point-of-view what the car should do to go quicker.

Q. What's different about this car compared to one with last year's level of downforce?

RK: There is quite a big difference. It is a big challenge for the engineers and designers, but also for the drivers. We get some grip from the tyres, which is fortunate, otherwise it would be very, very slippery. Overall, the reduction of the aerodynamic downforce is really big, so you feel it, the car has a completely different characteristic to drive.

The slick tyres deliver a lot of grip quickly, especially the fronts, so the tyres slide a lot at the rear. When the track is green it is quite an oversteery car to drive. But I think it is still at quite an early stage and everybody will adapt. Car set-up, drivers's style, stuff like this so we will see.

Q. Are the new cars more fun to drive than a 2008 car?

RK: I will not say it like this. A Formula One car is always fun to drive. It is fun because they have slick tyres, which is a big step forward from a driving point-of-view. But of course, from my point of view I would prefer to have more downforce. But it is still good fun.

Q. How does the F1.09 feel compared to the interim car BMW used in December?

RK: I would say quite a big difference.

Q. An improvement?

RK: I don't know. We hope so! I will say it is bit different to drive, but still we were happy to drive in December with the B car, to get some knowledge to find out what is necessary to decide which direction to go in. We hope this car will pay off, and the information it gave to the '09 car. We put a lot of work into this project last year so we will see.

Q. The gaps in Jerez, between the teams, have been quite big, whereas it looks quite close here. Do you have a feel for relative performance yet?

RK: I think, as always in testing it is very, very difficult to grasp, especially at this early stage. So nobody knows what other teams are doing, so I don't know. In the end we will see the full potential and the true story of where we are only in Australia. But of course we can some, more or less, idea of where we are, but still it is more guessing than true information.

Q. What is your guess?

RK: I think we are not in bad shape. But as always to find the results we have to make sure we use our maximum potential of the car, the drivers, everything, to beat everybody. Which will be not easy for sure, because in the end, if you go up against top teams everything has to work 100% or even better. If you want to win you have to be better than them. I think we are working well, but as I said it is difficult to say where we are.

Q. Do you have a superlicense yet for this year?

RK: For now I don't know.

Q. What can you say following the statement by the GPDA last week, what is your view on the situation?

RK: There is nothing really to go into the details of it, everything was said in the letter. The situation is like this and we will try to... the drivers are open to discuss it and we hope to sit down and get a final result.

Q. What if Max Mosley isn't open to a discussion is there a chance of a strike in Melbourne?

RK: I don't know. There is still a long time to go.

Q. You look at the news, 30,000 people lose their jobs at Woolworths in the UK, people losing their jobs at steel companies, Honda etc. Is it smart of the drivers, who earn millions of Euros to complain about their license fee given the current climate?

RK: I don't know.

Q. You could argue that the drivers won't earn much sympathy at a time when so many people are losing their jobs.

RK: I don't think so. Everybody thinks of it in that way, we forget that drivers were complaining last year, and then we didn't know that we would have this situation in the world.

Q. But they didn't complain as vocally. It seems strange to complain so publicly, about something 12 months after it has happened.

RK: Maybe. The public didn't know. It is not as if the story started one week ago, that's all.