Q & A with Martin Whitmarsh

Martin Whitmarsh: Very important. I think Lewis has had a very difficult, challenging time, and to come out with such flying colours, I think you must believe now that he's got momentum, the team has got momentum, and that he can come through this ... we're going to go testing this week in Hockenheim, we're going to improve the car, we're going to fight back, that's for sure, and we'll see. No-one can see how competitive we'll be in Hockenheim.

I'll be disappointed if we're not, but I also recognise that we've got to keep pushing hard. For the team it was absolutely vital. By Lewis's standards, by our own standards, and by Heikki's, we've been a bit disappointed by what has happened in the previous races, but we've come out of it today, certainly in Lewis's case, feeling very strong about what happened.

Q. Has Lewis been under pressure this weekend?

MW: Yes, he's been under pressure. He's been under the pressure he puts on himself, because he wants to win. He's been under pressure from his team-mate - let's be frank, Heikki has really been pushing him. So he has had that pressure from within his own team, but in a positive way.

What I think was remarkable was he had, by his own standards, a pretty poor qualifying session, he was lucky to still be on the second row, and he came out of that in such a strong frame of mind, believing that, OK, it didn't go right in qualifying but I've still got the ability in the race to win this thing. And the believed it. Witnessing that yesterday, you start to think, 'actually, this is going to be OK today'.

Q. He was amazing in the wet. What did you think of his performance?

MW: He had tremendous grip. We were trying to slow him up for most of it, and he was driving within himself but he didn't want to slow up any more, otherwise he feared he'd lose concentration, lose temperature in the tyres, but he could have gone a lot quicker if he'd needed to. If you get into that zone that drivers can in these conditions, they can just be so far ahead of the rest of the field.

Q. How would you rate this victory? Would you go so far as to say this one of the greatest wet drives of all time, up there with Ayrton Senna's in 1993?

MW: Absolutely undoubtedly. I think there's a danger of recentism where, those of us who were fortunate enough to be there in 1993 for Ayrton at Donington. But this without doubt, even when you put it into context and look back at all these other ones, this will be a great, great victory because of the circumstances. But put all those things on the side - what he did on the track today was incredible. It will be one that those of us involved, and many other people, will remember for the rest of their lives, and I'm sure Lewis will.

Q. Lewis has had some incredible highs and lows this year. How can you level out his performances over the remainder of this season?

MW: Well, I think he is on a learning curve, isn't he. And last year he had a dream start with nine podiums at the beginning of the year, which were absolutely incredible. It seems easy when you do that, and I'm sure it seemed easy for Lewis. But a some point, however great you are, you've got to have the real challenge. We're at the highest level of motorsport and he had to expect that, and it has been a learning process.

Things haven't gone quite right, perhaps it's not quite as easy, the pressure is much, much higher. At the beginning of last year he was the rookie in a team against a two-time world champion, and no pressure. So he's had to experience that, learn about it, and learn about himself. I think we've made mistakes and he's made mistakes along the way, but I think after a result like today he can only build and go forward.

We as a team have a degree of momentum in the development of our car, and of our championship assault, so ... he will learn. He's still incredibly young, he's now 26 races into his Formula One career, and over those 26 races he has undoubtedly scored more points than any other racing driver, so despite those hollows and toughs that you referred to, he still actually aggregated in those 26 races more points than anyone else.

But inevitably, when you position the bar as high as Lewis does, if you slip underneath it or knock it off occasionally, people are understandably going to question whether this was a passing phenomenon or whether he is really going to build. He still hasn't realised his full potential - he is going to get better, and it's very clear that he has the potential to be a world champion. He hasn't been one yet, and until he has been one he hasn't achieved that potential. And he'll be, as we are, determined that he does that this year.

Q. The message was 'do not overdrive' in qualifying. Does that sum up what has been happening in recent months - it's been a question of trying too hard?

MW: Lewis does try too hard sometimes, and here at this event, he was pushing very hard, certainly in the last sector, probably overdriving it there, but I think he gauged it pretty well and got it right today. Anyone who is striving to be the best in the world and be a world champion, you've got to push pretty hard.

Now when you're pushing that hard, it would be remarkable if you always absolutely judged it right. It's like getting a first serve in every time - you don't tend to do that. If you're getting it in 90 percent of the time you try to hit the ball harder, don't you. And I think that's the same with great drivers like Lewis.

Q. Felipe Massa says Ferrari are a bit surprised by their lack of pace at Silverstone compared to McLaren. Do you believe you have taken a step forward with the car?

MW: I know we have, yes. We've taken a step forward ... in fact, we took a step forward before Magny-Cours but it was not quite enough, obviously. We've taken another step forward, we had a good test here, and we'll continue to do so. Ferrari ... I can understand where they are, but the reality is that no-one's writing them off, we're certainly not, and they're going to be back and fighting.

We're going to the Hockenheim test, they'll be there, we'll be bolting bits onto our car to make it go quicker and so will they. They'll be working hard, they've got two very quick, committed drivers, so I think we're in for a really tough competition. I think we'll be competitive in Hockenheim but anyone who ... even after a result like this and in the euphoria of it, anyone who stands here and says, 'we're confident that we're going to blitz it at the next race would be very naive indeed.

It would be very foolish. You've got to accept that we're in a tough world championship. That's great. Last year it see-sawed around, we had some dominant performances, and we came crashing back with a bump two weeks later. We've got to make sure that we enjoy the next two weeks, not waste them, get the car quicker, and I hope we are strong in Hockenheim and I hope thereafter that we continue that momentum. But Ferrari are tough competitors, and we've got to make sure that we resolve momentum to stay ahead.

Q. Lewis said it has been a tough weekend. Does this result ease the pressure?

MW: Absolutely. It has been a tough weekend because of the level of expectation that he placed upon himself, the level of expectation that the nation placed upon him, and the level of pressure that his own team-mate placed upon him, in the nicest possible way. He was being overpowered in all the sessions up to and including Q3 this weekend.

In fairness he had a strong Q2, but I think overall Heikki was driving with a greater level of assurance and comfort. So he had that pressure, but it was in the most positive way. I think the fantastic thing is how gracious Heikki is being about Lewis and vice-versa.

After yesterday you were seeing Lewis being incredibly gracious about Heikki. They are two great team-mates. You can see that they wanted to beat each other at the start of this race, but they wanted to do it in a clean way, they have a lot of respect, and they have a lot of regard for each other, which is extremely positive.

Q. Was the turning point of the race when Ferrari did not change Kimi's tyres?

MW: The truth is, I hoped and believed that we had it under control and that we could win, but when they didn't change their tyres our information was that it was going to rain, so we were just very hopeful that our information was right. And as soon as it did we thought, 'we've got this one fairly comfortably nailed'.

We saw them come out in the pitlane fairly quickly afterwards, and they had two or three laps of indecision, which only made matters worse for them, unfortunately. But I can see you're in a situation there where from their perspective, they know they've made a mistake, and it seems obvious - and it is obvious from the outside that they have - but if you then try to rectify that mistake, the cost of rectifying it puts you out of play.

So you try to hope of pray that the weather radar has gone on the blink and got it wrong. So you could see them in that agony, and we all know what that feels like. But it was nice perhaps to be on the other side.

Q. When Heikki and Lewis were at it, was there any radio communication saying 'cool it'?

MW: No. There was a lot of radio on pitwall amongst ourselves, and there was a lot of opinion that we should tell them that. My view was not to because I actually do have a tremendous amount of respect and trust in the drivers and I know how highly they regard each other. It wasn't going to make any difference, to be honest.

At that point they were racing each other, and there's no point saying, 'don't take each other off'. They're not trying to do that, they just both want to be in front. So we said nothing to them. Of course, if you say nothing and they have a coming-together then you feel extremely foolish, but fortunately that wasn't the case.