Q & A with Green and di Resta

The pair appeared together on the main stage at the Autosport International Show, where they talked openly about their own performances, plus the controversy with Audi at Barcelona.

Q. Jamie, you finally broke your duck in the DTM last year, and then you won again straight away. It was a great end to the season, wasn't it?

Jamie Green: Yeah it was. My first half of the year in particular was fairly average, and I think I had four sixth place finishes. The team had told me that they wanted me to be consistent, but obviously that wasn't the target.

In previous years I'd achieved pole positions but no wins, and that was playing on my mind. It was great to get that out of the way at Barcelona, and then to win again next time out at Hockenheim to move me up to fourth in the championship, so it turned out pretty good in the end.

Q. What did you put that down to? You clearly had the speed, with all the pole positions, why couldn't you convert it into a win?

JG: That was 2006. During that season I was quick on new tyres but over long runs and also my starts I was quite poor, so they were two areas that I had to improve. And then while I was trying to sort that out, the tyres changed for 2007, which took them in a different direction where you didn't really need to conserve them as much, and that held me up a little bit, because I was developing my driving towards a style that wasn't necessary any more with the new tyres, so that definitely didn't help.

Q. Paul, you burst onto the scene in DTM after winning the F3 Euro Series. Did you have expectations when you came into DTM?

Paul di Resta: Yeah, I think I have to have expectations. I went into that year hoping that I could win a race, and I came close on four occasions, but it just wasn't quite strong enough to make that step. I had a lot to learn, during winter testing I worked a lot on race strategy, which was the main factor that I had to work on.

My qualifying pace came quite quickly, but we can't complain with how the year went. We had some good results, and towards the end of the year we struggled a bit against the new cars as they pushed the development on. But to come fifth in the championship, realistically we couldn't have won the championship, even if mathematically we were still in with a chance going to Barcelona. So I think it was a job well done.

Q. Mercedes obviously has a system where some drivers are driving the brand new cars, while others have to make do with older cars. Do you think it would have been a case of you not being allowed to win the championship in your first year, in an older car?

PdR: I'm not sure how it would have worked, but certainly the new car should win. The teams spend a lot of money on development, so it's only right that car should win. I was inexperienced, so there was no pressure on me, being in a two-year-old car, and it proved to be strong. The team put in some good performances with it and those guys are also very happy with how the year went, to prove that car was a strong car.

Q. Was it a culture shock getting out of a Formula 3 car and into a touring car? Jamie, you did the same thing just a couple of years before Paul.

JG: For me, it was tricky. My first year in DTM, as Paul said, the qualifying pace comes quite naturally. But because its such a big and heavy car, the tyres wear massively compared to F3, and that changes the car in a long race like you have in DTM, so you have to adapt to that style, and that was the bit that was difficult for me to really master, and then the tyres changed a little bit for '07, which made that easier to deal with.

Q. What was it like having Mika Hakkinen as a teammate, and beating him as you regularly did?

JG: It was an odd experience. When I was racing karts years ago, you would watch TV and see Hakkinen and Schumacher battling in Formula One, so then to be racing against the guy, and to be quicker than him quite often. It was a bit strange. I guess it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to race someone from a different era to myself. It was a great opportunity, and I'm proud to have been his teammate and learn quite a lot from him, but I'm also proud to have beaten him a few times.

Q. Paul, at Barcelona this year, Jamie was out in front, you finished third, what was going on with all that door-banging, Audi pulling out of the race, it was a bit of a mess wasn't it?

PdR: Well I didn't really see the problem, it was tough racing. There was a lot things that went on at Zandvoort that nobody saw. I was one of the victims at the first corner with Kristensen, but people never read into it.

Again, at Barcelona, the first couple of corners were a nightmare again for Mercedes, the Audi guys really beat us up, but in no form were we told to do anything like that. I think it was just some incidents that happened, it was good hard racing between Mercedes and Audi. They are our only competitor so there are going to be clashes and sometimes you win and sometimes you don't.

Q. Jamie, do you think all that controversy in Barcelona was just because the series is so competitive?

JG: I think it's testament to how much Mercedes and Audi don't want to lose. Audi had been beaten in the championship the two previous years, '05 and '06, and they didn't want to lose it again this year, so I think they decided to pull all their cars off the circuit rather than lose the race in normal circumstances. I obviously disagree with what Audi did, and I don't think it did them any favours, it backfired on them.

I think they were hoping to get a loophole in the regulations that if only so many cars finished then the result would be void. I think that was the sort of thing they were looking for, and they've done something like that before with Ekstrom a couple of years ago when they did two pit stops in one. He came in, they changed the tyres, he moved about a yard, they jacked the car up again and they changed the tyres again, so they do do strange things sometimes.

Q. Paul, was there a feeling at the time that Audi might actually pull out of the DTM?

PdR: That's the big question that everyone was asking straight after the race. Especially with the new manufacturers that are looking at the DTM for 2009, with the change of car and the new regulations. Prior to that race Audi had just signed a contract to continue for another year, or three years, I'm not quite sure, and (Audi boss) Dr Ullrich still congratulated us, he was still pretty relaxed about the whole thing. He basically said to us they would race as hard as they can at Hockenheim to win the championship, and Mercedes said likewise.

Q. Fast forward to 2008, you're both still on the Mercedes roster, no plans as yet as to who's going to be driving which car?

PdR: No. There's a lot of young guys in this team, and Mika has retired so there's some seats available, and we're waiting to hear the final line-up for the four new cars, and also the old cars. I'm hopeful that we can do something, I tested a new car last year, so hopefully I did a good enough job to get me a promotion.

Q. Jamie, now you've learned how to win in the DTM, is your aim the championship this year?

JG: Yes, definitely. Every formula I've competed in, I've been much more successful, sooner. But DTM's been a difficult thing for me to win in. I've achieved that now and the aim for me has got to be to win the championship.