Q & A with Scott Speed

In Melbourne on Wednesday morning he found himself at the centre of attention when Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and Supernova lead singer Lukas Rossi paid a visit to Albert Park.

After taking the rock stars for a lap of the track in a Ferrari, autosport.com caught up with Speed to find out how he feels ahead of the new season.

Q. What did you think about meeting Tommy Lee?

Scott Speed: It's cool. Those guys are my people. They are laid back, too, people.

Q. And how was your lap?

SS: It was cool. I am sure I am going to get in trouble - there will be some guy coming down and yelling at me pretty soon.

Q. And how much did you tell him about your car?

SS: I showed him the most interesting thing for anyone who comes to Formula One, which is the steering wheel. I showed him all the buttons on there and all the shit we have to do when we were driving. I think it is interesting.

Q. How are you looking for this weekend?

SS: To be honest I think it is going to be a tough weekend for us. It is the start of the year and the car and everything is quite late for us. But in any case we look forward to getting out there and see what we can do.

Q. Is there any problem from your end that the cars have not yet been passed for scrutineering?

SS: For me, not. I am focused on what I have to do to race and as far as I know everything will be fine. I think it would be a very, very big surprise for everyone if one of us doesn't start.

Q. Are you optimistic heading into the weekend?

SS: Yeah, optimistic heading into the year because I think it is going to be a great year for us. But the beginning of the year will be quite tough for our team and we still have quite a bit to learn.

I think that out of everyone here we are the ones who will progress the quickest at the beginning of the year - from race to race four for us is going to be a big jump.

Q. How much better prepared do you feel for this season compared to last year?

SS: It is such a big difference. I could not say I was much better prepared that I was, say, at the end of last year but you surely learn a lot of stuff in F1 race by race.

It is so much different to any other form of motorsport, all the way from GP2. It was such a huge step and there was so much to learn, but definitely going into this year I am way ahead of where I was at the beginning of last year - we can that's for sure.

Q. There was a long delay in confirming your contract for this season. Were you ever concerned about that situation?

SS: No. You can't be. Any stress that you add onto yourself is only negative, so I was always pretty sure I was going to drive. I just kept my head down and did the training I needed to do in the off season and here we are in Melbourne.

Q. There were some comments from Gerhard Berger over the winter when he questioned your commitment in some way. Was that just a case of him playing games with the contract?

SS: I think you would have to ask Gerhard about that. As far as my commitments are concerned, over the whole winter off-season I had I spent just one week with my family in California. I hadn't seen them all year so went there for Christmas. And the rest of the time I spent in Arizona training, because that is where I had the best training opportunities. I think that should answer everyone's commitment questions.

Q. What is the relationship like with Gerhard. Is there tension?

SS: I think we all have the same goal right now. We all want to win races and we all want to move forwards. We are all pushing in the same direction.

Q. How has the car been in testing?

SS: It has been a struggle for us in particular because we have got everything so late, and we are still having quite a few problems.

This car is such a huge difference for us this car than last year. It is so much more complex, and all the guys are really still getting used to it. I think it is going to be a slow start for us but I think we have a car that has a lot of potential and as the season goes on we are going to be getting closer and closer.

Q. And the possibility must be there for the car to be fighting at the front of the midfield later this year?

SS: That is the goal. I think by the end of the season we should be in the points a few times, and we will see. At the beginning of the year it is going to be tough, though.

Q. How much of a disadvantage is it that you have not had much testing mileage compared to the other guys who have done thousands of kilometres on the new Bridgestone tyres?

SS: For the tyres, not much I think. At the end you have got the tyres you have got anyway. We have got two compounds here and you have to run both, so I don't think it is going to make a huge difference that we don't have much knowledge about that. Our car, our reliability, and the overall performance of the car is for sure going to be down compared to where it could be if we had an extra month.

Q. You are coming back here a year on from losing that point. Any regrets?

SS: No. It is over. It was a lesson learned.