Q & A with Christian Klien

CK: Yeah, there were eight races before Canada and I only finished three of them. It was absolutely not good so far. A lot of bad luck as well. The car has not been reliable and we are a bit too far away to fight for points.

I had a really good opportunity at Monaco when I had a gearbox problem while I was P5. I think that was the only good opportunity to get a lot of good points this year, but now we have to try to get single points here or there.

Q. Do you feel that if you had finished in Monaco, and probably finished on the podium, it would have changed the whole perception of your season?

CK: I think so. Yes. Would I have finished on the podium? If the car would have reliable then I think I would have been there and everything would look different now. There would be a lot less criticism and questions about me.

Q. Do you feel under pressure to perform? There have been a lot of stories in the Austrian press suggesting that you might not remain at the team next year...

CK: Yes, there is a lot of bullshit in the Austrian press and let's say in the German press all the time. Different people say different things and as a driver you just have to stay focused. I am doing my job here as well as I can, working with the team to try and make the car move forwards and be quicker.

At the end I am hopeful for good luck and a reliable car to get my results together. I think so far this year I had a lot of bad luck but actually I felt really good in the car, really good in the team and I think I have been competitive this year.

Q. As a driver, do you think you have improved this season? The results on paper, both in qualifying and the races, do not seem to be as good as previous years.

CK: If you look at qualifying this year, there have been four qualifying sessions when I had problems on the car and I could not show the real pace of me or the car. So everything has been really difficult, we have had so many problems with the car every single weekend - reliability problems and little problems in qualifying that just slow you down. You need a clean weekend to show the real performance.

Q. What have the team said to you about next season? Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has said that either you or David Coulthard will get dropped at the end of the year.

CK: I think there will be a driver decision in July or August, and it is going around that one of us has to go. But they have never told that to the drivers, so I think everything is very open at the moment. I will just try and get some good results in the next few races.

Q. Marko has been quoted as saying that the driver who has the most points at the end of the year will keep his seat for 2007...

CK: Well, it's a bit easy to say it like this. If I had had a reliable car in Monaco then I would have finished on the podium and everything would look a bit different. I don't think they can just look at the points. They have to look at the whole year and also look at the bad luck that each driver had.

David has had a lot of bad luck as well, but there were three races this year (before Canada) where we both finished and in two of those I was in front of him. In the other I was behind. So far, it looks quite good for me as well. But this Monaco was a bit bad for me actually.

Q. So you really wanted to wear that Superman Cape...

CK: I wanted to be on the podium, not wearing the cape.