Q & A with Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel: Excluding him or including him?

Q. Including him.

SV: Well, I believe we have a strong car, yes. I think if you look back at the first four races overall, Brawn GP was still a bit quicker than us, so I would say they have had the quickest car so far. It will be very exciting this weekend to see after the first long break and being back in Europe who is able to pop some parts on the car to make a step forward. If all the teams do one step in the right direction then it matters who is able to do two. We will see.

But I think also the first two races, if you look at our speed and performance, I think we were very competitive and very close - getting closer to Brawn.

Q. Do you feel like you are in a fight for the world championship?

SV: At every single race you can get 10 points maximum. Every race is part of the championship, and if you want to fight for it then you have to maximise the result in every single race. Of course we are fighting for the championship and we do have a very competitive car this year, so we have to use it. But, it is never easy. No one waves you through and says - okay, have a go and get some more points.

Q. Do you work very closely with Adrian Newey?

SV: We are a team at the end of the day. You can say the drivers have a key role, and some of the engineers or Adrian have a key role. But at the end of the day you always have the group of people that you work with at the circuit. I think it is clear that Adrian is not the first person I work with, that is my race engineer, but at the end you are all working together. Here there is a lot of influence and a big impact on how the car is looking. He is open, he is asking the drivers for our feel, so you are always discussing things.

Q. Are you not afraid that the good balance of your car could be lost when you add the new double-decker diffuser?

SV: I think the difficult thing this year is that you do not have any tests, so you cannot test it before going to the race. So Friday basically is your only test session. There is not much time to play around, and obviously everything we put on the car we expect it to work - otherwise it would not make sense. So, if we introduce a new part also or at some stage the diffuser, then we expect it to work. That is why we will put it on the car.

Q. Is there a big update on the car this weekend?

SV: No, nothing really big. But we expect a step in the right direction, so we will see where we are. Basically, as I said before, we do have a strong car and a strong package that is good enough to score big points. What is possible? We will see how this race goes and if other teams made progress or not.

Q. Does it change anything that you have your family here at a race for the first time this year?

SV: No.

Q. Do you feel as settled at this team as you did at Toro Rosso when you were achieving those great results at the end of last year?

SV: Yeah, I feel at home. I feel welcome. I have a very good relationship with every single one and I can feel that the whole team is keen on working hard and looking in the right direction. We are all extremely motivated, happy, and the atmosphere is good. So, there is no reason to feel unhappy.

Q. Now we are at the start of the European season, is the stress of having more people around you a problem?

SV: I have only one seat in the car, so fortunately I cannot have any passengers! Obviously there is always pressure to come back to Europe and start the season here. I think it mainly depends on how was your last race or the last races. If I would have been nowhere and scored zero points then I think this table [for the media briefing] would be quite empty.

Q. But the fact that you are scoring points, being competitive, and fighting for the championship, does it change anything in your perspective?

SV: I think first of all it is a good thing - because that is the target. You always try and do the maximum, but of course the target is winning. We are in a very good position this year. I think we can improve a lot still, so there is a long, long way to go. If you talk about the championship, there are a lot of races left.

So far nothing is decided for anyone. If you look at the points rankings, even though for me it is not very important at this stage of the year, you can see that Jenson has the best position now. But another four races and it might look completely different, so who knows?