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Q & A with Martin Whitmarsh

Q. Is the team back in the groove now?

Martin Whitmarsh: Inevitably no weekend's perfect. I think both the drivers did a fantastic job. From a strategic point of view, Heikki was in the strongest position to win this race and I think he would have won it had it not been for a racing incident - and that's not the fault of anybody.

So he's inevitably very disappointed because he's done a fantastic job to put us there. With Lewis, we had a durability concern and safety concern with the tyres which we discussed with Bridgestone.

As a consequence, we had no choice but to go to what was really here a sub-optimal strategy of a three-stop but to be sub-optimal in your strategy and get so close to winning shows we were really quick and Lewis did a fantastic job.

In qualifying, Lewis in Q3 was the slip of the weekend. I think the durability concern on the tyres has been a setback to us but the team did a fantastic job. The race team itself made sure Lewis got the second place today - they did a faultless very quick series of pitstops as well.

Q. When did you realise you would need to three-stop?

MW: It was decided on Saturday before we were running in P3 as a consequence of a durability concern on the tyres and from that point on we knew we had a problem there.

Obviously we didn't advertise the fact but with Lewis in particular we had a problem and took a number of measures with Bridgestone, we came here running the pressures and the camber that they specified and we then increased the pressures on Saturday morning hoping that would solve the problem and Bridgestone were very confident that would solve it. It didn't sufficiently to give us the comfort we needed so we made some other adjustments and limited the range in the race.

Q. What is it about Turkey that causes Lewis tyre problems?

MW: The simple answer is Turn 8. We're very strong in high-speed corners and generate a lot of front-end and in fact last year was a chunking problem with the tyre, this was a delamination in a sidewall so it was a different problem this weekend. We're generating high vertical loads through those corners and that's the problem. Bridgestone acknowledged that but generally they're good strong partners and we'll continue to work with them to make sure we don't have a recurrence of what happened this weekend.

Q. Is there a big difference between Heikki's and Lewis's driving styles to prompt this?

MW: They've got a slightly different set-up which puts a little bit more load on the front tyres on Lewis' car. Lewis was reasonably aggressive through Turn 8 and very quick but he changed his style and driving line on Saturday. But on a circuit like this, once you see there's a concern with tyres you've got to put safety first, we took a decision which we don't regret - we regret the fact that we had to make a decisions - but the decision was how do we run this race safely for Lewis. I think it was the right decision with the information we had available to us at the time.

Q. The problem was with both compounds?

MW: No, the construction of the tyres is virtually the same so it was a problem with both tyres.

Q. What was the theoretical difference between three and two stops here?

MW: In a simple time trial, it's about five seconds. But in reality, it's more than that because you don't always have the most co-operative of traffic. So it was a disadvantage clearly to three-stop otherwise it would have been a more fashionable strategy. But we knew we had to do that and we knew we had to put ourselves on pole to be able to do anything and minimise that.

But the job we did in qualifying wasn't good enough; we should have been on pole so we really were on the back foot from the start of this race - and it makes Lewis' race drive all the more extraordinary. The real positive thing that comes from here is that we could clearly have beaten Ferrari and Lewis has got to come away from here having done a good, solid race in Spain, a strong race and an extraordinary sprinting race here in Turkey.

He's going to Monaco now where I think we'll have a competitive car there and we've worked pretty hard as I'm sure the others have done but it's a circuit that both of our drivers like. Lewis has clearly won in F3 and GP2 there and clearly feels he could have had a crack at winning last year in an F1 car and will be very keen to do that this year.

Q. How would the race have run if Heikki didn't have a puncture?

MW: If Heikki had not made that stop, he would have run longer than Felipe at the first stop and if he could have been close to Massa, which I think he could have been, he would have been able to take him at the first stop. And thereafter, the race would have played out differently.

It's easy to say that in hindsight, but I think Heikki did a fantastic job in qualifying with a reasonable fuel load onboard and had he been able to deploy and exploit that in the race, I've never known him as disappointed as this. He really felt he could win this race and as the race panned out, I think he knows he could have won it - and it eluded him. And that's disappointed.

And I said to Heikki, he's absolutely right to be disappointed but on the other hand he wouldn't be so disappointed if he hadn't done such a great job to put himself in that position. He put himself in a position to win a race and he will win races this year and in the future and he really deserves to. He's an extraordinary chap.

Q. Did you adjust the fuel when Heikki did the first stop?

MW: We put a very small splash in but because of the tyre concerns that we had, we couldn't run long with either of the cars so not only were we three-stopping with Lewis but we didn't have enough margin. Ordinarily, you would have reverted to a one-stop with Heikki but we couldn't do that either - we couldn't run any longer. Our safe range going into this race was circa 20-21 laps.

That's all we felt we could do safely with the tyres. We were handicapped by that during the race but I think both drivers - for Heikki not being able to switch to a one-stop meant it was a pretty hard slog to come round effectively three-stopping when you start your race 30s off the back of the grid.

Q. Where has the pace come from?

MW: We've got a number of parts on the car and we're working hard to develop the car. I think it's easy to say coming out of a race that we've under-performed and we did a better job here with the car and Heikki from the very first run on Friday morning felt the car was strong and could really do the job here.

For Lewis, frankly, it was a little bit tougher. In Q1 he did a great job obviously and we stuck on the prime tyre after that and if he'd have done effectively in Q3 fuel-corrected ignoring the evolution of the track, which in fact had gone quicker, he would have been easy pole and a tough race but a more straightforward race than the one we gave ourselves.

Q. Lewis said it was his best ever F1 drive?

MW: It was the finest this year. My memory's so short that I don't want to draw comparisons. It was his finest race this year and with the odds against him he was just flat out and his in- and out-laps were great and the team did a superb job in the pitstops. And he took the race to Ferrari throughout.

Q. Could he have won from pole?

MW: It would have been difficult but given his performance in the race he possibly could have done yeah.

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