Q & A with Kamui Kobayashi

But as the Japanese driver told the press afterwards, he still sees plenty of cause for optimism heading into the final five days of testing.

Q. Obviously not the kind of day you wanted in the dry, but what were the positives?

Kamui Kobayashi: We had some trouble with fuel, but it's better to know that now than next week. I did about 20 laps, and we collected some data as well. Tomorrow is supposed to be good weather as well, so we can continue with our programme. At the moment it's okay, I'm not really worried or anything. And my pace, I would say, is acceptable at the moment in terms of lap time. I'm not worried. It's okay. If we have problems now, we should be okay for the races.

Q. So you are confident that the problem has been fixed?

KK: Yeah. If we don't have any problem tomorrow we can finish our whole programme. I'm not worried. And if we have no problem in the car all week in Jerez and then we go to a race and have big trouble it will be a big mess, you know? It's better to do some troubleshooting now.

Q. Can you explain exactly what the problem was?

KK: It was in the fuel system. That's why it took a long time. But in the end we had nearly one hour [of running]. We found the problem and we finally managed some laps, so it was good for me.

Q. How does the car feel? Is it comfortable?

KK: Yes, it's really comnfortable. For myself it is quite good to drive; I am just getting used to it more. We only had some dry conditions last week, but this week I think we're getting better track conditions already compared with last week. The temperature is a little bit different as well. Tomorrow is meant to be better conditions again, so hopefully we have no problems and we can have more data from tomorrow.

I think tomorrow will be a more interesting day, because this morning the track was still a bit wet, and yesterday was crazy rain and the track was really dusty in the beginning. So I think it is quite difficult to compare with other teams, and I think the fuel loads are a bit different, from looking at the lap times. At the moment we need to focus on our car, to develop it more, and try to improve.

Q. Is 1m19.3s a good lap time around here?

KK: I think so! He [Mark Webber] was the only one into the 1m19s. And it was a 19.2s, no?

Q. 1m19.299s.

KK: Yes. Quite a good lap time. But we never know which fuel loads they had. I don't think they did a long run with this fuel load. It's difficult to say, but I don't think he was empty. From last year's performance of course they are competitive, but it's diffcult to say where they are and where some of the other teams are. Ferrari were doing long runs, for example. So it's difficult to say. And us, as well - it's difficult to say where we are.

Q. Do you have an idea?

KK: We have no idea. Today we only did 20 laps, you know? We are not really in the right situation to decide where we are. Of course we collected some data, but we didn't do a lot of work today - things like set-up work. We had the fuel system problem for most of the session. But we are quite confident. We had this trouble for today, but we have a good weather forecast for tomorrow.

Q. Are you planning long runs for tomorrow, like a grand prix distance?

KK: I don't know whether we will have enough time. We have to do some long runs but I don't know whether it will be a race distance or not, because a race distance takes a lot of time. It's difficult, but we'll see.

Q. From what you have observed of the other teams, would you say that Sauber could be the surprise of the season?

KK: Oh, I don't know if we will be a big surprise. We are not hoping to be some big surprise like last year's Brawn. We just want to be able to score consistent points; that's our goal for the moment. We just have to work and develop our car. The performance side is difficult for me to say, and this year especially.

Q. More difficult than last year?

KK: Oh, yes. Last year was easy, I think. This year the fuel tank is bigger, and the fuel tank has a big effect on time. Even if you do 20 or 30 laps, there is still plenty of space for fuel, you know?

Q. How does it affect the front tyres?

KK: The front tyres are a bit narrower but they work in the proper way. It's difficult to say in this temperature, because when we are in Bahrain the temperature will be 10 or 20 degrees different, easily. And the track temperature has a big effect. The moment we focus on this tyre in this track condition, we will have big problems in Bahrain. So we have to analyse it more on the set-up side, and for Bahrain, we have to simulate it with Bahrain temperatures.

I am not really focusing on these conditions. It's difficult to comment with this tyre, because maybe some teams will find it difficult to use in these conditions but when you bring it to Bahrain it will be nice. If this track is good with this tyre, maybe we'll go to Bahrain and it will be bad.

So it's difficult to say about tyres. Always, tyres are a mystery. I mean, if we know exactly everything about the tyre, we would always be fast. But tyres are always the difficult part. If we know what is happening with the tyre in Bahrain, I am very happy!

But it's difficult to say about tyres. That's why we are working always, and there are always tyre specialists somewhere. But even tyre specialists find it difficult to understand tyres! It's true, because a small change in track temperature, a small change in track conditions, and it's all different.

Q. Do they work in a small window?

KK: I don't think so. At this track we usually always have a lot of tyre degradation. Last year it was easy to lose one second. But it also depends on the compound. Today it did not drop so much, and as we saw with [Fernando] Alonso there were really constant lap times. It's difficult for us to say about the tyre situation because we did not have enough laps, but it seems quite good compared to last year.