Q & A with BAR's Geoff Willis

Q. How well do you think the team performed in Malaysia?

Geoff Willis (BAR's technical director):

Very good, a very good performance from everyone at the team, at Honda, at Michelin; it's good to get a podium so early, and I think it's good for everyone. It's where we want to be, and getting the podium so early is very important because it means we all get a bit of confidence and to know we can do it.

Q. Is that more gratifying than the result, to know that you can run with the teams at the front?

GW:

I think it's a combination; not only did we get a podium, we finished on the same lap, the laptimes are very comparable throughout. We were a little worried in qualifying because we have struggled on Saturday, and we need to find a good first lap on new tyres. We're pretty happy with our long run pace, our race pace, so we went into the race pretty confident that we would pick up points from sixth, but I think maybe we performed as well as we hoped, rather than below that.

Q. Is it significant that you've perhaps overcome the wear rate problems that you had in Melbourne and pre-season?

GW:

Pre-season has never been a wear problem; it's been just how we treat the tyres during the run. Melbourne was really an issue that it was a little too cold on race day for the tyres we chose; they dropped out of their best performance window. We've been relatively happy that we have been able to learn how to make the tyres work over a long run; we have done over 22 thousand kilometres now with our partners Michelin, and we're someway up the curve towards understanding. Wear has never been a problem; it's just degradation, how you use them during a run.

Q. Jenson's always gone well here; do you think you can maintain this form into Bahrain and Europe?

GW:

I think it's very important that we started off the year on good points, steady, nothing too exciting but steady. This is much better, and it's all part of improving the team on a step by step basis.

Q. Did he raise his game today? The laps we consistent, his pit stops were perfect…

GW:

Jenson's always very cool and calm in the cockpit; he doesn't make many mistakes, he's structured, he had some problems that he had to react to in the race as I suspect most people did. Certainly he's driving very well at the moment, and I'm sure that for him to have the first podium is very important that he's broken that little glass ceiling I suppose, and now he'll have confidence that he can get further up the podium.

Q. What about Taku; do you think he needs to be more balanced with the way that he works with the team?

GW:

It was a sort of mixed weekend for Takuma; certainly in the race he was very strong and his laptimes during the race were very good, and obviously we switched his strategy from knowing where he was going to start. If it wasn't for his mistake at turn six I'm trying to think where he'd have been … P5, P6. Obviously we had an engine problem right towards the end of the race without warning; well, I say engine problem, something happened which in turn killed the engine, and we've got to find out what that is. Without the engine problem I think he did a very good job, and he's certainly very confident in the races. We've got to help him to just be consistent throughout the race weekend and not making life difficult for himself.

Q. What's next for the car, and what are the weak points you have to address?

GW:

It's very important that the team works out where they are, and you can't afford to rest on your laurels; now we're competing with the top teams, every team around us will be making strides at each race. We've got a programme for aerodynamic developments, engine developments, and we're always working with Michelin on tyre developments. It's very important now that we go away from this not with a feeling of 'oh, we're there', but rather with a feeling of 'now we're going to get even quicker'.

Q. Are you pleased to see coming away from Melbourne that the performance difference seems to have closed, particularly between Williams, Renault, BAR, and perhaps the first McLaren?

GW:

As I said after Melbourne we felt we should be more competitive here in these temperatures, and we were getting a little worried yesterday but kept our nerve and it paid off. I think the winter testing has shown where we are in the league; we still need to just keep working, and of course you have to remember that Ferrari have just won two races on the trot, so there's a lot of work to be done.

Q. Are there good things to come from Michelin?

GW:

I think Michelin are very strong, have a lot of technology, and we very much enjoy working with them. We will develop the car, the engine and the tyres throughout the rest of the year.

Q. Do you think getting this result despite the extreme conditions here is going to help you over the rest of the season?

GW:

I don't think it was too significantly extreme conditions; I think it meant that we first had to do a lot of learning how to work with the Michelin tyres in these conditions, which we hadn't before. In terms of the engine reliability it's slightly less demanding as long as you have enough cooling; the loads are slightly down. So what I think is good for here is now we've got three out of four race finishes, we've got a podium, we've got nine points.

Q. You said you're about 85% there with Michelin - how much further have you pushed forward because of this?

GW:

What I mean by 85% is that clearly we've got a lot of catching up to do; the top teams running with Michelin has done 150, maybe 200 thousand kilometres with Michelin; we've done 20 thousand and there is a very steep learning curve. We are someway up that curve, and we have to just keep going.

Q. You wanted to get a third of the podiums, and you're now fifty percent for the season so far!

GW:

(laughs) It's a bit dangerous to extrapolate the season from just two races! We're going to be very cautious, and where we are trying to compete now there are some very, very strong teams, and I have no intention of underestimating how strong they're going to be!