Q & A with Mike Gascoyne

Q.You didn't make it to the finish in Canada on a day when points were up for grabs. What's your verdict?

Mike Gascoyne, Spyker's chief technical officer: The verdict is one of disappointment because obviously it was a great opportunity to score points, and I think with that sort of race you've got to take the opportunities. But also we had the pace to make something of it.

At a race where pretty well every team made some basic errors, we were very much on top of it on the pit wall. We had the right strategy and it was going to come to us. In the end what should have been a great opportunity for us was lost through a couple of driving mistakes, and that's very disappointing. To compete at this level you've got to avoid mistakes.

Q.Was it a case of the guys pushing to the limit on a very tricky circuit?

MG: I think our pace was what we expected and closer to the cars in front than previously. Yes, you've got to push to keep up, but you're an F1 racing driver, and you've got to drive to the limit. Look at Lewis Hamilton - he got very close to the walls in Monaco, he was close to the limit in Canada, but he got to the flag both times. You can't just say I'm pushing to the limit because the car's not quick enough. If you want to be a World Champion, you have to do every lap at the limit, like Alonso for the last couple of years, or Michael. That's the job!

Q.Do you think that, other than a wet race, Monaco and Montreal were probably the two best chances to score points?

MG: They were. But the guys have got to learn from it. Adrian's got to realise that he's made a mistake. He's a young kid, he's very talented, and I'm sure he'll come back. But that's the name of the game we're in.

Q.Did you do a lot of damage, and is that a problem for next weekend?

MG: Actually we damaged surprisingly little equipment. We didn't have any suspension damage on Adrian's car, it was just the two wheel rims and punctures. So we've still got some wishbones left. And it was just the wing on Christijan's car, so that's not really a problem. But as a team you always pride yourself on getting race finishes, and when you don't get them, that's a real disappointment.

Q.Any thoughts on Indianapolis - another track with long straights?

MG: Our straightline speeds in Canada were pretty good, and we genuinely had our most competitive weekend. Again, Indy is a low downforce track. In P3 [Saturday morning] and Q1 in Canada we were two seconds off the front, and we were 21st and 22nd!

There are plenty of times in the past when you would have been 11th and 12th. So we'll just keep doing our job, and the good thing is if we can make the car half a second or a second quicker, then we'll be right in the hunt.