Q & A with Giancarlo Fisichella

Q. You've now had some time with the VJM02. What are your feelings on the car?

Giancarlo Fisichella: I think this year's car, the VJM02, is a big improvement over last year's car, particularly on mechanical balance and stability in high speed corners and under braking.

I think there's also definite potential for improvement, particularly on the aero side as we are missing a little bit of downforce on this front. But testing has been positive so far, we know we have a reliable car, and we were able to take some steps forward in Barcelona.

Q. Talk us through your progress with the car through the Jerez and Barcelona tests.

GF: We tested several items on the set-up, making quite a lot of changes to springs and damping systems, ran a few aero parts and looked at the results. We also worked with the tyres too. Our understanding gets better the more we run, but it will always be a guess on the circuits as the tyre performance varies much more than last year over different temperature ranges.

Q. How do you think you will perform in Melbourne and the start of the season?

GF: I think the first race will be tough as we haven't had so many testing days so we will need to work a lot on Friday to get a good set-up and be competitive for the race. In the race, I want to have a good start, stay clear of any accidents and get to the finish. I hope later we will be able to race for points with the midfield, but I think in Australia we need to focus on reliability and handling.

Q. Who do you think about the performance of the rest of the field?

GF: It's always very difficult to judge from winter testing as different teams run different fuel loads and settings, but it looks very close again. Ferrari and BMW and also Toyota look good and the speed of the new Brawn GP car was very strong. I'm looking forward to Melbourne to see how it will all turn out, I think we could be in for a few surprises.

Q. The team isn't running KERS until Europe - is this a problem or disadvantage in your view?

GF: It could be an advantage when we get it, but I think it's OK to start without it as we need to concentrate on getting the car running well and after a few races look into the KERS system when we understand the car a bit better.