Enrique Bernoldi Q&A
Enrique Bernoldi was nominated for the Arrows drive as late as January 31, having been rejected by both Sauber and Prost. His first GP weekend proved to be as tough as expected. He annoyed Juan Pablo Montoya by blocking the Colombian in qualifying, and eventually started 18th, although he was only 0.6s off team mate Jos Verstappen. He then made a mess of things in the warm-up, when it was a little damp - he accelerated too hard and spun into the barrier as he left the pits! He also crashed in the race, spinning on the exit of the first chicane and hitting the wall on the left. It was not a great start, but in his defence it must be said that he hasn't had as much F1 mileage as some other newcomers. Adam Cooper spoke to Enrique after the race
"Luciano [Burti] passed me on the first lap, and then I passed him back on the pit straight. Then on the next lap I was fighting with Raikkonen, and I was in his slipstream coming out of Turn 2. I lost a little bit of downforce at the rear. I still kept flat but I touched the grass and lost the car and spun. My car was really quick, and I think I could have passed him on that lap."
"For sure it was a big learning experience for everything - qualifying, the race start, and then the mistake. I think I can learn from that. The race was long, and I feel sorry for the team because I had a good opportunity to finish the race well. I wouldn't have been in the points, but I would have been in a good place I think."
"Yes, from qualifying. In the warm-up I had a heavy car, and I was 13th, so we proved that the set-up was better. As I said on the first lap I got past Luciano and I could have passed Raikkonen, so we were quite good."
"I'm still happy you know, not because of the way that it finished, but being my first GP it was definitely good."
"For sure it will be tough, but I have a bit more experience now. Everything won't be new for me anymore, so hopefully we'll do a better job there."
"I think so. We improved the set-up on Saturday night, we found something better, and this week at Silverstone, Johnny [Herbert] will be focussing even more on finding improvements."
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