Thursday's Press Conference - Malaysian GP

Participating: Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari).

Q. It's interesting that you and Ferrari see Fernando and Renault as the greatest threat to your current supremacy after Melbourne. Is that the case? Why?

Rubens Barrichello:

It goes back a little bit. In testing, if you analyse it, you see that they have been doing very good times, maybe not as much on new tyres, but they have been very competitive throughout long runs, simulations, and things like that. So the race two weeks ago was just proof of that and I think they have the most competitive car behind us, and so it seems that because they have been competitive here last year, it's only natural to think that they could be competitive again.

Q. You were on the podium here last year, and on pole position, it's obviously a favourite for you?

Fernando Alonso:

Yeah, obviously it was a fantastic race for me last year and I hope to repeat a good weekend. Every race, every year is different and more and more difficult, but we're happy with the car. It seems that we don't have any reliability problems, it's quite strong and we hope to finish the race and to score more points because it would be a good result, we think.

Q. You talk about this being a challenging circuit, what is it that makes it so challenging?

FA:

You have all types of corners here in Sepang. You have very slow corners, high speed corners, downhill, uphill, long straights. So it's difficult to set up the car for all parts of the circuit. For the driver, it makes it a very tough race, for the temperature, there are a lot of laps and it will be an interesting weekend, I think.

Q. Now you've been preparing in Maldives, what have you been doing there?

FA:

Nothing! We relaxed a little bit, we did a lot of preparation for this race. You know the temperature there was quite similar to here so we brought the two trainers with us and we worked very hard, but at the same time we relaxed a little bit. We did different things: snorkelling, beach volley, the kind of things that you can't do in Europe at the moment and it was quite fun.

Q. And there was poor old Rubens going round and round Valencia, working hard while everyone else was on holiday! Is that true?

RB:

Huh, huh. So I deserve to win, thank you!

Q. It's interesting, you were the only top race driver from the top four or five teams who was actually testing.

RB:

I was probably the only one, if you think about it. There were several other teams, and although they had the test drivers there, of the ones who were racing, I was probably the only one. Tough business. I wish I could have been in the Maldives!

Q. But after this one, you're going back to Brazil.

RB:

Yeah, yeah. So they can go back and test â€" for me.

Q. But I think it's an interesting point that you were the only race driver to go back and test and maybe some of the other teams were thinking 'hey, why aren't our guys going back to test?'

RB:

I tell you, it wasn't my choice. To be very honest with you, the first day I was useless. It was no good at all. Even though I had a good night's sleep, I was no good. I felt like my helmet was up here (draws line just below his eyes) and things were acting like… I couldn't react to everything. I was lucky it was raining, so I didn't do many laps. The next day was OK, so I was able to test, but I actually told the team that I think Badoer was probably more useful than I was because to go back and forward was a bit too much. If you talk about Malaysia, it's one flight of twelve hours, but from Australia was like two flights of 12 hours so I wasn't in good shape on the first day of the test; the second, I was OK.

Q. I don't know how warm it was there for you, but it's obviously going to be very warm here. A lot of people say that it was an advantage for you in Melbourne, that it was cooler, but how much are you prepared and how much is your tyre company prepared for the kind of conditions we are going to see here? And how much of it is guesswork?

RB:

At the end of the day, it's a guess for the two companies, Michelin and Bridgestone. There's nowhere in Europe you can get a track with that sort of temperature so Valencia, I guess, was the closest one. We had something like 25 degrees on the asphalt whereas here you can have more than 40. But the tyre that I tried to pick for here wasn't the fastest one, just because it was fastest in Valencia didn't meant it was faster here or good here, so you had to go for a feeling, you had to go for experience on the race track, just guessing, just really transporting every data that you had to Malaysia and see what comes. Even so, it's very difficult for everyone because if it's a bit hotter than in other years or a little cooler in other years, then you've made a bad choice. So it was a bit of guessing and a bit of safety on the two tyres that we've brought.

Q. Fernando, did you feel disadvantaged to Ferrari, for instance, because of the tyres during the race in Melbourne?

FA:

Well, I felt the whole package was disadvantaged. I think it was impossible to follow the Ferraris in the first part of the race and I don't know if it was because of the tyres or the car is better than ours, we will find out in the next Grands Prix.

Q. One thing that Rubens said after qualifying at Melbourne was that because the two qualifying sessions were so close to one another, he wasn't at 100 per cent in the first session but he was in the second. What about your situation?

FA:

Yeah, I was more or less the same. Now both qualifying sessions are very close, you can't make any mistakes in the first one because you would probably miss the second one or you would have to take the T-car and you lose ten places, so there's no reason to push too much in the first session. But anyway, you have to get a good position to start. But I think we will see some strange 'Qualy Ones' (first part of the qualifying session) this season.

Q. But Rubens, you are saying that the first qualifying session isn't necessarily that important?

RB:

Especially in Melbourne it was not important. I've learned over the last four or five years that if somebody doesn't run for an hour, and there are no cars on the track, and you come back, the track is at least a second slower, the first time out. The second car has a bit better (track conditions), the third and so on. After five cars have run, the track gets to a minimum of the problem. So knowing I was the first car out, there was really no point, there was no point at all. I guess Malaysia is going to be a bit different, because the track is ready all the time, and with the heat… Sometimes being the first car it's actually cooler, so you can actually get an advantage from that. But having said that, I just thought there was no point in pushing in the first qualifying session and it's going to be that for the whole year, even because you're sitting at the press conference, and you tell us 'have you noticed that Juan Pablo was first in the first qualifying?' You always haven't noticed, because it has gone by to the second qualifying so quickly. So there's no value for whoever finished first, second or third in the first qualifying.

Q. Would there be more value if it was on a Friday, do you think?

RB:

I think so because then it's a different day, you have time to get it in the press, you have everything. At least it gives you a chance to push. I won my first Grand Prix last year when on the Friday I spun, if you remember, so I was dead last on Friday, and then I came on Saturday and I was on pole. So at least you have different situations. If it was last year like this year, I would have ruined my chances of being on pole.

Q. What are your feelings, Fernando?

FA:

Yeah, more or less the same. Probably Friday qualifying gives you a little bit of safe time, if you have any problems with the car, to repair the car and be ready on the Saturday. As I said before, if you have spun or damaged the car in the first qualifying, you have to take the T-car, you lose ten places. It's difficult to push at the maximum in the first qualifying I think.

Q. Is it team policy that you don't push hard, or is it just your own personal feelings?

FA:

For me it's personal feeling, but I'm sure that the team would not be happy if I damaged the car in 'Qualy One'.

RB: Me too, but they could keep the same philosophy. But if you go out on Friday and you're trying to go for a time and you damage (your car) and you have to take the T-car and lose ten positions, I think that's something which would at least maybe make it more interesting for the public. But make it separate again.

Q. One other question, before I throw everything open: I believe there's been a fire at Maranello over the last few days. Has it affected the racing team at all? What do you know about it?

RB:

Nothing. Has there been a fire there? I left my car in Monaco, so it's OK.

Questions From The Floor

Q. Fernando, sorry about this question, but how did you react when you learned what had happened in Madrid last week? And are you going to wear some sign of condolence, a black armband or something, during the race?

FA:

Yeah, I will wear two things: the Spanish flag on the helmet and something on my arm. I was in the Maldives and it was difficult to have any news because we didn't have any internet, phones, etc, etc. But I spoke with my home one day and they told me and I felt so shocked, sad because it had happened to normal people, like you, like me, workers, kids going to school. It was a sad and difficult moment. We are living at a difficult time around the world, everywhere, not only in Spain. And I want to express here my condolences to all the families. It's difficult for Spain and for the whole world, I think.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about tyre testing up until now. Most of it, I guess, has been running on dry tyres. There's a possibility of rain, at least, on Sunday. Can you comment on that?

RB:

We're very much prepared. We've been doing some work on wet tyres too. If it rains, maybe it will be a bit cooler, so maybe nicer? But apart from that, there's no comment really. We're quite okay, prepared.

FA: We hope no rain, at least dry conditions for the Michelin runners would be a little bit better. But you never know. Wet races are always a little bit different, a little bit crazy, and maybe we can have an advantage with a wet race. In Sao Paulo last year we saw a wet race and the Michelin runners were not too bad in that race. If it rains, it's the same for everybody.

Q. Fernando, given the tragic events of last week, I'm sure it would be marvellous to dedicate a victory to all those who lost their lives, and it would be a great morale booster to the people of Spain. Do you think you are in a position to deliver something like that this weekend?

FA:

It will be difficult. Victories are always very hard in Formula One, but it's one of the best moments of the year to have one first place.

Q. Fernando, do you feel that, of the Michelin runners, Renault has a bit of an advantage over Williams-BMW and McLaren-Mercedes from what you've seen in Melbourne and from winter testing?

FA:

Well, it's a little bit too early to say after only one race but I'm sure that in Melbourne we were a little bit quicker than McLaren, they seemed to have a few more problems than us, especially reliability. I think Williams is very strong, I think they have very competitive cars. The race in Melbourne was a little bit difficult for them. I think they got a lot of traffic after the first corner and I think they will again be very strong here. I don't think we have any advantage compared to them. They will be very hard to beat.

Q. Many people commented on the very good start that you and Jarno had in Melbourne. Is it just a better system this year or you and Jarno have trained a lot on this and came out pretty well?

FA:

The reaction was very good. No, obviously the team did a very good job this winter. We tested the starts a lot. We worked very close with the technocentre as well, with the normal cars at Renault, and I think the good starts also came from the natural traction that the cars have, probably more than the others. But, as before, it's a little bit too early to say. We have had only one race and we hope to repeat it here as well.

Q. You were talking about the technocentre at Renault; how do they get involved?

FA:

They work very close to the team, in terms of traction control, in terms of engine, fuel saving, also in safety. They do a lot of crash tests for us, with the Formula One as well and they have been working very closely for the last two years.

Q. Does that happen at Ferrari as well, particularly with the Fiat Group?

RB:

For us it's probably a little bit easier because there's just one company working on the whole package. It happens much more often that things that we experiment with on the racing car go to the road car. But it could happen with some ideas from other people as well.

Q. Looking forward to the next race in Bahrain, what sort of information do you have at this stage, a completely unknown circuit in terms of racing?

RB:

At the press conference today, a guy said it was more humid and hotter than here, so I told him we were going to die inside the car. That's the only information I have because before I had heard it was hotter but not humid at all. So that's pretty much like Brazil. But I've only seen the racing track on paper. I've no idea which is Shanghai and which one is Bahrain. I'll probably get there very early just to get a feel for it.

FA: Same thing. I know the track from the paper but I've heard that it's very hot and dry, not humid, and now we will find out.

Q. Fernando, we know there is a good relationship between you and Jarno Trulli. What about the rumours saying that next year Ralf Schumacher could be your teammate?

FA:

I know nothing. I know nothing. I don't think so. I'm very happy to work with Jarno and I hope that next year we stay at Renault again.

Q. Did you speak with Jarno about what happened at the first turn, because Jarno was a little bit disappointed in Melbourne?

FA:

No, no. We didn't speak, but everything was OK. We spent all week playing football in the Maldives and nothing, nothing obviously to speak about. You, the press, you take a little more. We say one thing and you write more things than we said.

Q. Were you just playing football, or are you still playing tennis?

FA:

Continuing. We play football â€" tennis this time.

Q. Who wins?

FA:

The physios won. We are very disappointing. In doubles it's Jarno and me against them and we lost - every day!

Participating: David Coulthard (McLaren) and Ralf Schumacher (Williams)

Q. How did you see your own team's car's performance at the last Grand Prix, the opening Grand Prix of the year?

David Coulthard:

I think it was quite clear to all of us that it was not where we wanted to be and we just got on with the hard work of trying to develop the package rather than wasting too much time talking about it.

Ralf Schumacher: Pretty similar actually. It was clear to see certainly we are not pretty happy with it. First of all being behind Ferrari so far away, then obviously behind Renault, that is what we didn't expect, but I am sure we can turn it around. It will take a bit of time but I guess it will be a bit different here anyway. Melbourne was pretty cool for our circumstances at least for the tyres and everything, so it should be better here.

Q. Do you feel the same about that David?

DC:

Yeah, I think if you just look back a year ago then the gap Ferrari had in Melbourne was significantly more than they had here. Obviously the two races were affected one by weather and one by Michael having an incident at turn one, but if that same trend follows then it will be much closer. I think the warmer conditions as well will help the tyre choice we have here.

Q. How much of a surprise was it to be back where you were in Melbourne? Was it a bit of a wake-up call for both teams?

DC:

I don't think that…certainly for me when I was looking at winter testing, we were always a little bit behind in our one-lap performance and at different times our race pace was reasonable. But then you are presuming the level of fuel you are running relative to the others, just based on how many laps they've done but they could finish a 20-lap run and still have significant levels of fuel on. So, it wasn't a big surprise that were weren't quick in Melbourne and I think inevitably, when you are on the front line you are more aware of that and I think it was more of a surprise to other people, other members of the team.

Q. Was it a surprise to Williams to be where they were?

RS: Definitely. I think winter testing went pretty well for us, we were pretty much at the top, so we expected to be at the top in Melbourne as well. Qualifying, at least for my team-mate, was decent, but then in the race it was clearly a different world. That is what we didn't expect and we woke up pretty quick. We were really surprised, yes.

Q. So, both teams have got improvements in the pipeline, the normal development. Has that now been accelerated? What is the situation post-Melbourne?

DC:

Well, we had a reasonable test last week in Valencia and we have some new parts to run on the car which were actually available before Melbourne but we didn't have the right conditions in Imola at the last test prior to going to Melbourne to be confident they were actually a step forward. In that situation you leave them on the shelf until you can actually evaluate them properly, so I expect if we were able to re-run Melbourne now with those parts we would be a little bit quicker.

RS: Well, we tested as well. There are no significant changes here for us because we are a bit short of time. For Bahrain we expect something but for here it is basically the same package, only little changes.

Q. David, it has been said that you were 'rev limited' during the Melbourne weekend. Can you confirm or deny that?

DC:

I could confirm that all Grand Prix cars are rev limited, so anyone who is in any doubt, obviously you have got that…I think inevitably in these sort of situations you can get misquoted by trying to give someone a direction and I was asked a question on whether we had been handicapped at all on engine performance to achieve reliability and I said they should speak to someone from Ilmor, meaning you will get an exact answer based on the facts. My read on it was it might have been perceived as me trying to say 'oh, talk to Ilmor, I am not happy about something' which wasn't at all the case. If you used the rpm detector that is on the bottom of the tv screen â€" although I don't know how accurate it is â€" I don't believe you would see us as being significantly lower in rpm compared to our competitors and not significantly different from last year.

Q. Obviously, turning around an engine is somewhat different to a chassis â€" at least you can bolt bits onto a chassis whereas an engine is a bit more fundamental.

DC:

Oh, its incredible the technical challenge of getting an engine to work over 18,000 rpm. It's quite phenomenal to imagine how they can get them all to hang together and obviously technically it is much more tricky to get the engine to work. But I think our starting point this year is reasonable considering where we finished last year and the one-engine rule, which obviously means a lot more kilometres on one engine.

Q. Did you feel handicapped by the one-engine rule? You didn't seem to enjoy it.

DC:

Well, the problem Kimi had wasn't actually an engine problem it was another problem that led to the failure, so I think we have got a much higher level of confidence in reliability which will see us run more laps during practice. Inevitably, when you are not sure 100 percent or you want to give a bit of a margin, then you restrict the mileage you do. I don't see the benefit of that to Formula One as a whole â€" to the fans, to the drivers â€" in restricting the laps. I can see the cost benefit in one engine for the entire weekend but whether we will ever get back to the complete free running that we saw in the past when you had an engine for each day…ultimately it might not make any difference â€" maybe people don't really mind what happens on a Friday.

Q. What were your feelings about the one-engine rule over the weekend?

RS:

We weren't limited in mileage, we did our programme, but in a way it is right. And anyway I cannot see the cost saving effect. Talking to our supplier there is no difference basically. And obviously for smaller teams it is going to be more difficult because we will see less driving, definitely.

Q. How about the lack of launch control? Did you enjoy that?

RS:

Well, it could be an advantage because starting is not going to be as consistent as it used to be but it is something the driver takes care for and it is another mistake we could do and not blame it on the team so it makes our life more difficult.

DC: My start in Melbourne, from doing the analysis afterwards, was the third or fourth best start after the Renaults, who were obviously the best. So I was reasonably happy with that and if it was to continue as a trend and we can improve on that then if you can average your starts out like that all year then you would be reasonably happy. Obviously it is an important part of a race and as we move up the grid hopefully we will be able to make good use of it.

Q. Ralf, since the Australian Grand Prix your name has been connected with Renault and Toyota. Are these just rumours? What is going on?

RS:

I have no intention to stop yet, or for the next ten years maybe. No, but, definitely, my clear…I just…I'm pretty clear about what we want to achieve with Williams this year. Obviously we are a bit far away from that at the moment but we saw last year that can always turn around, so I am pretty confident in that. And whatever will be the future, as soon as we know it, we will let you know, obviously.

Q. But is Renault true? Is Toyota true? Have you been talking to all these people?

RS:

At the moment I am talking to BMW-Williams, that is the team where I am and where I would like to stay and we are still talking about it. That is all I can say.

Q. David, should you leave McLaren, would you consider one of the vacancies, should there be two, at Williams?

DC:

Yeah Ralf, hurry up and make a decision, for God's sake! Yeah, it is my intention to be on the grid next year and obviously that means finding the most competitive drive I can other than McLaren, because McLaren's position is quite clear.

Questions From The Floor

Q. Ralf, after Melbourne Juan Pablo was quoted as saying you nearly had him off the track. Do you have anything to say on that?

RS:

Um, the only thing I have to say is that it was a pretty strong move and next time I WILL have him off the track.

DC: Phew, that's brilliant! Oh, sorry, I was just meant to think that! I was thinking how mild the question was, because I was thinking you would have said something a bit more like 'Juan Pablo said you were an idiot…' you know, really wind him up, but you didn't need to!

Q. Do you feel that strongly about it?

RS:

No, it was just a move that was based on me making space for him, which I did not, obviously because that early in the race I did not want to put our positions into danger on the basis of scoring as much as possible and getting the best out of the weekend. I just think that move was not the right thing to do at the time.

Q. And have you had a word with him about it?

RS:

I don't need to say anything about it, other than what I said before.

Q. So, presumably what you are saying is you detect quite a significant difference in him and his approach to racing this year. How much of that do you put down to the fact that he knows he is leaving the team at the end of the year and that he knows he doesn't have much to lose in his relationship with you or the team?

RS:

To be honest, we have a reasonable relationship as team-mates, that's not the thing. Sometimes we clearly do not agree on the circuit, which is normal because we both want to win. Otherwise I am concentrating on the team's problem at the moment, which is trying to fill the gap, that on whatever my team-mate does, to be honest.

Q. What didn't you like about his manoeuvre?

RS:

I think I have said enough about it. The only thing I would add is that if someone brakes into a corner with the intention of either crashing into somebody or assuming that he will give space then that is the wrong move, let's put it that way.

Q. David, what sort of timetable do you think you are working on in terms of turning this situation around? You have an enormous amount of experience now and you have been in this position before in the mid nineties. Based on your experience, what is your view of how long it will take to get the thing turned around?

DC:

Well, even before we went to Melbourne the 19B was already in the pipeline so there was a number of changes already put in process and the ones that can be accelerated will be. Certainly, I don't have an absolute date on what the outcome of the post-mortem from Melbourne will be, a lot of the analysis is still being done, but I would expect that before we get halfway through the European season we will see some significant changes.

Q. Can both of you comment on how the heat affects your driving here?

DC:

Obviously you lose more fluid and it is medically proven that as you lose fluid you lose performance so you are just trying to make sure the training you have done beforehand is to acclimatise to that as much as possible and that the amount of fluid you take on board will reduce the performance loss.

RS: Yeah, very similar. I think that besides losing fluid it is not a big problem. It is really depending on how hard it is to drive. When I won here two years ago it was a nice easy Sunday afternoon drive but last year it was more difficult. It depends whether the car is easy or difficult to drive.

Q. Do you both have water bottles in the car? Do you have fluid available during the race?

RS:

Yeah, if I want to, yes, maybe I will take some on board

DC: I haven't had over the last several years because of not having run it in other races and the one time I did run it here it was a relatively straightforward race and I never used it until the in-lap. Obviously from a team point of view, in terms of packaging, they are not so keen to have it in there but I have requested it will be in for this weekend.