Q & A with Ferrari's Jean Todt

Jean Todt: "The best news was in Bahrain, because in Bahrain we could confirm that we had a good car, that Bridgestone did an excellent job over the winter. And for several reasons, which have already been raised several times, we did not get the best out of the package that we had.

"We had some reliability problems with the engine, which penalised us a lot in the second race. In the third race we made a mistake in choosing the tyres, we know the incident of the tyres. It makes me smile, because we had too high temperature with the choice of tyre we made. And in Australia we had two hard tyres for the temperature we had.

"It is difficult when you play with the forecast, you don't always make the right choice. Saying that, we managed today, and if we thought the temperatures would be cooler we managed to have Michael finishing the race and Felipe securing the fourth position.

"Definitely yesterday in qualifying, I heard a lot of comments that we were very light and all that, but simply we were quick yesterday in qualifying, mainly Michael."

Q: How do you explain that in the first stint, Michael was able to do 1:24.5 laps, and in the second stint only 1:27.5?

Todt: "1:27.5 is a good time. He did a strategic race to fight Alonso, but because of the temperatures he was suffering a little bit with the tyres he had, which were a bit too soft for the conditions."

Q: This did not happen with the first set of tyres?

Todt: "No. It happened with Felipe after 12-13 laps, but that is why he lost the advantage he had built at the beginning of the race."

Q: What happened with the second set of tyres?

Todt: "He lost performance. It was a soft compound and it had some graining and he looked after the tyres. Michael decided to control the race, and he can probably explain much better than me what happened. I think Michael can give more accurate information about what happened than I can do.

"In the first stint, he was controlling the race; the third part of the race he knew that it was more in his favour to control, which wasn't the case with the second part of the race."

Q: Were you afraid during the second part of the race, when Alonso was catching up, that the race would go away from you?

Todt: "Yes, I thought it could happen."

Q: Were you surprised by the strategy move that Renault did?

Todt: "It was pleasing."

Q: Was Michael's second stop exactly in the lap you were planning, or was it a reaction to Renault's decision?

Todt: "No. I mean, it was strategy correction as well."

Q: Do you think that Alonso if had waited until Michael's stop, then it would have been more difficult for you?

Todt: "We will never know."

Q: How do you explain the performance difference between Michael and Felipe today?

Todt: "As I said. First, Michael was particularly quick all weekend and one was facing a race and the other one was facing another race. You take all the cars, they make a different race in a different position, you can never really compare. Felipe did a good job today."

Q: Do you think this race will have an impact on Michael's decision for next year?

Todt: "You mean in one way or another way? I don't think so."

Q: Do you not think with Ferrari winning races again, it might encourage him to stay with the team?

Todt: "At the moment, you ask me the question as if I have to react, as if Michael has already decided to stop. I was saying, and I have mentioned this very often, you are asking people to react to what has happened half an hour ago. Michael is trying to analyse the situation in a much deeper way.

"Some things are sure: Michael likes to win, Michael likes to have the winning car, and he knew at the beginning of the year that it is more the case this year than it was last year. Michael is bright enough to know that he cannot pretend that for 10 years he will have a car that can win every single race. But of course it is the same for everybody."

Q: In what way did Michael or you lead Renault into making a strategic mistake?

Todt: "When you have a lot of pressure like they had and we had, you tend to make some decisions, and sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is not a good decision.

"As I answered before, would they have stopped later, it doesn't mean it would have worked. Michael could have decided to increase his speed, if necessary, to fight for the win, so I don't think we can say that they lost because we put them in a situation to make that choice."

Q: Did Michael drive deliberately slow?

Todt: "Sure. He was facing a problem, as we discussed before, so he had to adapt his driving to protect the tyres, and he knew he could get some better speed at the end of the stint."

Q: Do you think potentially this season we have two world champions fighting it out?

Todt: "You know, it so much depends on the car, not the driver. They have some other potential world champion if it gets the proper package. They will be hard fighters, and what is sure, they have a few teams, a few cars and a few drivers and the tyres are very close this year. The tyre manufacturers this year are very close to each other."

Q: How important was this victory for the atmosphere in the team?

Todt: "Very important. You know, because everybody has been putting so much effort, they have been working so hard and what is the best reward? To win a race."

Q: Last year we had the situation where you were strong here and afterwards it was a bad season. How will this year be different?

Todt: "In Bahrain we were not very competitive last year, and we were very competitive this year. Each race is different. Last year we were competitive in Imola, the weather conditions were different, if you remember Alonso won the race and he had no more tyres.

"The tyre rules were completely different, so we are talking about two different things. Time will tell, some probably think that was our race, Imola, some others don't. That is the interesting thing about our business. That a lot of people can think."

Q: Can you keep this step at the Nurburgring and Barcelona?

Todt: "I hope so; we will see."