Adrian Newey Q&A

"I think that Kimi felt he was certainly able to keep up with Montoya without any problem. David was also gaining on Montoya. Relative to Williams it was not too bad, and also to Renault, but relative to Ferrari, it was pretty rubbish!"



"There's certainly a lot of vibration from the rumble strips, and it's that coupled with the fact that you go over rumble strips on the last corner at high wing loading. It does give the wings a hard time. It does seem that if you're going to have a wing failure, it's here that it happens."



"We've had no problems before. We examined the failure and felt that it was probably fatigue related. We looked at the mileage sheets, and the mileage on that wing was relatively high, compared to David's, which was very low mileage. On that basis we took the decision that we felt it was safe to let David continue to race."



"I always felt that this year was going to be a little bit difficult, and I have to say it's been a bit more difficult than I'd anticipated. We've changed tyres to Michelin, and we're happy with that move, but having said that there's a learning curve to go through. I don't think we've necessarily got the best out of the chassis yet - I hope we haven't - so we're just working through our programme."



"I think the car has a few differences. Hopefully those haven't in themselves caused problems. It's really working out some of the details, and also trying to learn how best to use the Michelin tyres."



"It can be a struggle at times during a tyre war, and a pretty aggressive tyre war like this one. Things do change quite quickly, but that's all part of the challenge."



"You'll have to ask Mercedes that one. If we're behind, we're behind as a package, and we've both got to work on our respective sides."



"I think he's giving a new, fresh level of enthusiasm. He's very easy and straightforward to work with, as young drivers often are. He just gets in the car and gets on with it, so he's a good guy to work with."



"It's different. It has its strong points and its weak points. Kimi as I say has a great deal of enthusiasm, but he lacks a bit of experience compared to Mika, so there are plusses and minuses. Overall we're very happy with Kimi."



"I don't know, to be perfectly honest. We've had a pretty good record in Spain as well. I think Barcelona was never going to be a Michelin circuit, but I think they were a bit stronger in Austria last year."