Enrique Bernoldi Q&A
Not much was expected of Enrique Bernoldi last year, but he proved to be far from out of his depth and effectively finished Jos Verstappen's Arrows career by outqualifying the Dutchman on a regular basis. With Cosworth power and a better chassis, Arrows has a lot of potential this season, although so far it's been disguised by a series of mishaps, including the startline chaos in Australia and suspension failures in Brazil. However, in Malaysia Bernoldi had a good run inside the top 10, and even had a dice with Michael Schumacher, having already given David Coulthard a hard time in Monaco last year! Adam Cooper spoke to the Brazilian
"Yes, it's the second time you come to the same race tracks driving an F1 car, so it's easier. Also I know the team and I have more experience. I'm quite happy, and things are getting better and better."
"It's still developing and progressing quite a lot, and every race we are better. We didn't test much, so that's why we still have a lot to prove."
"Yes, it's quite good. And also the aerodynamic package is better. Everything is better."
"Yes it is, because then we can see where we are losing. There are four things - drivers, cars, engines and tyres. We have the same engine, so it can be just the three other things which are going wrong! It's good to have a comparison."
"He's very good, he develops the car a lot, and he's very quick, so I'm learning quite a lot. The whole team is going forward."
"That was nice, to be fighting for seventh and eighth position, and not many cars retiring. That's the positive thing, that we're looking more competitive this year than what we were last year."
"I had two failures of the suspension. One in the morning, when I crashed, and another in the race. And on Heinz-Harald's car it was the same. Brazil is a very hard circuit on the whole car. It's a shame because even if the weekend wasn't so good we were doing a good race, and we were catching up again."
"I was scared, you know! If he would have hit my car, for sure I would have broken legs and everything, because I was standing up in the car. And if I would have got out of the car five seconds before, I probably would be dead now. He almost touched my car and then he hit the Mercedes. Alex [Ribeiro] in the medical car was lucky, and there was also a doctor in the middle of the two cars. So it was really a dangerous situation. Everybody says to be careful, but when something like this happens it's not nice. The thing is that five or six cars had already passed through OK there."
"If it is judged necessary, maybe it can make the next race a little bit more interesting. And we're going to be a little bit more careful! If they don't do anything than maybe in the future a car could fly into the stands."
"Sure, it's happened already in the start this year - who is at fault? If it's something deliberate then I think you should be penalised. But sometimes you just touch another car in a an overtaking manoeuvre, and that's just racing."
"I don't know at the moment. All the teams have to discuss it with their engine provider. I'm just a driver! I hope that it's fair for everyone, and no one has a big advantage, and I think it will be OK. If the team agrees, I just drive."
"I think it's a good idea, but you know, in the end people will try to make the most powerful engines that will last longest, so I don't know if the costs will be that cheaper."
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