Cristiano da Matta Q&A

"You always want to improve on last year. I considered last season somewhat successful but not as much as I wanted. We had an OK number of wins, but were not as consistent as I would have liked. So that's what I want to work on, making the car more consistent on all kinds of tracks. I have very high expectations after two tests, but it's too early to say. I hope we're going to be a championship contender. Racing is not an exact science, but everything so far indicates we're going to have a good season."



"I spent most of it in Brazil and did a lot of training, especially on my bicycle. Last year I had 10 days of testing in January and February. Now I still have ten days, but they're spread from December to March. So we don't want to use up all of our test days, especially since the Lola oval package is still not ready. It's strange. I've been in the car two days since Fontana, and you start feeling guilty, thinking you should be doing something."



"The times are faster at Sebring because they repaved most of the track and it's a lot smoother than it was. That makes it difficult to draw comparisons because all the old Sebring data had to be thrown out. It's like a completely different circuit. It's certainly much better than I've ever seen it, and the new surface tends to hold more rubber than the old one did."



"It seems to have better traction and better braking and more total downforce. Those things stand out. There are smaller differences you can't detect at Sebring because of the changes to the track. That's why the two days running here at Laguna Seca are so important, because it's the first time we're running the car on a known circuit. We'll have only one more opportunity like this, when we test at Mid-Ohio in May."



"I won't be driving, but for sure I will be there as a spectator. I think we're all going to go back to Indy eventually, so it would be an advantage to get there as soon as possible to start gathering data. But I think Carl wants to be the last holdout. He really believes strongly in the CART series. But I think now that Dario [Franchitti] and Paul [Tracy] and Team Green are going, it has opened up his mind a little."