Q & A with Nick Heidfeld

Nick Heidfeld: As I said yesterday it's a new car and there are some positive parts and some that are not ideal. Positive is the reliability, which is very good. What's not optimal is the balance, which is not as good as we would like it to be and we still have to find some things for the car to improve it in terms of laptime.

Already last week we saw that and we think we identified the problems and we are working on it now, getting new parts hopefully on a daily basis and for sure some in Barcelona to improve.

Q. You said the car had balance problems?

NH: No, that was a misunderstanding. In a car it's never optimal. You always have understeer or oversteer, otherwise it would be perfect. I meant that we have both, that's what I meant.

Q. You think it's down to the aerodynamics or something on the chassis side?

NH: We think we know. We are not 100 percent sure, but I cannot tell.

Q. The old car seems to be faster than the new one, how alarming is this?

NH: That's probably how it looks for you from the outside, but I cannot give away that information. I cannot tell you the difference between the two cars. What I definitely feel is that the old car is balanced better. At the moment that is the biggest difference.

Q. Is there anything that you felt, having driven both cars, that the new car has improved over the old one in a certain area?

NH: Yes, it definitely improved on certain areas but I also don't want to go into detail. Not everything is bad. There are also parts where it has improved and not only on the electronics side, but also driving wise.

Q. Are you nervous seeing other teams having had a smoother start with their new cars?

NH: It's not nice seeing that, but we are watching ourselves. Even if the others were in trouble too I would still not be happy with what we see in our car.

Q. Have you had to modify your driving style with the new car?

NH: At the moment yes. To go quicker I am driving differently from what I would want to, but with the changes we are planning the target is to have a good balance and to return to driving in a normal way.

Q. Do you have to make a conscious effort to make that compromise when driving?

NH: Yes. First you have to understand what it is and then you have to translate it. So far we haven't done enough laps to make it something natural but I hope it's not necessary that it becomes natural.

Q. Is there any fear that the problems will carry on throughout the whole season or are you really sure the people at home know what they are really doing?

NH: A bit of both really. If I speak to the guys, I know they are quite convinced, after analysing the problems. But you never know for certain. I'm quite sure but there's always a risk.

Q. So how confident are you that the problem is going to be solved between here and the Barcelona test?

NH: Between here and Barcelona I don't know. I'm quite convinced that it will be changed before Melbourne. Obviously the quicker the better, but the problem is if it's not fixed before Melbourne. If it's not done by Barcelona, okay. It's not nice, but we still have quite some time.

Q. When you have a balance problem, how much does it disturb the development programme of a new car?

NH: It disturbs the programme, for sure. At the moment we don't have the balance that we would have if the car was okay, so a lot of the set-up work that we are doing now might change when we get new and different parts for the car.

Q. Heikki Kovalainen said that without engine braking it's almost impossible to do a mistake-free lap now. Do you agree?

NH: I think it's impossible to get close to 100 percent as when we had the systems. With what we have it's possible to make a mistake-free lap, it's just that you don't get so close to do it at 100 percent. And on top of that, it's more difficult for sure.

Q. Are you surprised how difficult it is to get it right?

NH: In the beginning I thought it would be a bit easier, but already now I'm getting quite used to it and I think if we have a well balanced car then it is as expected and still a lot more fun than without the systems.