Q & A with Stefano Domenicali

Stefano Domenicali: Yes, very tough, no doubt. The result speaks for itself. Unfortunately it was a dreadful weekend. Nothing went as planned, so it was difficult. But if you remember in 2006 we had a similar start with the two DNFs and we were able to catch up again.

We weren't phenomenal guys before this race and we are not stupid after it, so we really need to analyze in all the details what has happened. And of course the main concern is to understand the reliability problems. We had two engines failure so this is the main issue to understand.

Q. Could you talk us through Massa's and Raikkonen's weekends?

SD: Well, I think that with Kimi yesterday we had this problem with the electric pump that didn't allow us to qualify in a position that we wanted. And as we've seen today, being involved in all this situation at the back is always difficult. Once again, it shows how important is to start from the first positions.

With regards to Felipe, yesterday there was this problem in his second attempt. We are still suffering in the first lap performance in qualifying, and today unfortunately there were some clashes with some drivers which didn't help the situation, for sure.

But we need to stay cool, calm and concentrated. We need not to be too emotional now because it's very easy to go down that route. We need to stay very rational.

Q. How do you expect the team to react for next week?

SD: You can see that we can have the chance to react straight away. And of course we need to be very careful in all the analysis of all the details. And on the other hand we need to understand if we have the time to fix the problems that we had. That's it.

Q. Were you surprised by the reliability problems that you had this weekend?

SD: It was a surprise after so many kilometers we did in the winter. We need to understand why exactly did that happen.

Q. Could the heat be a factor?

SD: To be honest, I can't answer because we haven't yet seen the engine. As soon as we understand the problems they need to be fixed.

Q. Why didn't you call Kimi into the pits when the safety car was out?

SD: That was a decision that, if you analyse, (you'll see) we couldn't gain any positions. By doing the other way around, we had a few more laps and we could try to overtake someone and try to increase the gap. For us the safety car came out at the worst moment. The second one was perfect for others but it was a disaster for us. That's the way it is.

Q. Do you think the lack of traction control was the reason for the mayhem at the start and all the safety car periods?

SD: The safety car and traction control are two different things. The safety car is more related to the nature of the track, with no run-off areas and it's difficult to recover cars. It's not like in Malaysia, where if you have a crash you just wave the yellow flags. There's plenty of space so it's not a problem. For sure, traction control can be a factor because we've seen a lots of cars sliding and moving.

Q. You were hindered by your qualifying performance.

SD: That's what we said. Qualifying is a key factor because starting behind you lose so much. We've seen Kimi staying behind Rubens for so many laps, and then when he had a clear track he was able to manage perfect times in terms of consistency and in terms of performance. It was good.

That's why it's a shame, because once again we showed that with a few laps of clear track we showed the potential and that the performance is there during the race. No doubt. We need to understand now in order to improve qualifying.

Q. David Coulthard was critical of Felipe Massa. How do you see the accident?

SD: As always when there's a racing accident like that you have to understand that Felipe was inside. To be honest, I haven't seen exactly what happened so I don't want to say much, but race control didn't take any action, but what happened with Coulthard was unfortunate.

Q. What about the other cars like McLaren? Were you expecting better pace from them?

SD: Honestly we are concentrating on our problems. For sure McLaren did a great race, but we have to focus on our problems today.

Q. What made you decide to go for the option tyres at the start of the race?

SD: If you look at the tyre degradation I think it was the right choice. Of course, with traffic it is difficult to overtake. We tried to have better grip at the start as it was important to try to overtake. But I think it was the right choice.

Q. Did you expect the one-lap performance to be better at hot tracks?

SD: I think this is the key point we need to understand. This is something we have always suffered. So we need to understand how we can improve that.

Q. Do you know what happened to Kimi's engine?

SD: Not yet. We need to understand the problem. We knew that the engine was ready to finish, but at that stage, looking at the number of laps and fighting for points, but unfortunately we didn't finish. Now we need to see because maybe we'll have one point for Kimi because Barrichello went onto the track with the red light on. With such a disastrous weekend, if we score one point it's really one plus.

Q. Can you recall a day as black as this?

SD: In 2006 in Australia. Two DNFs. Not very far away. As I said before, we need to stay very cool and not overreact because that makes the difference.