GK on Gil

De Ferran was on the pole last year at Mid-Ohio and finished second in the race to team mate Helio Castroneves. The pair of Penske Reynard-Hondas were equally impressive on this year's opening day of practice at Mid-Ohio with de Ferran and Castroneves finishing the day more than half a second quicker than third-placed Jimmy Vasser.

"I'm not down, not at all," de Ferran says. "We've just got to get on with it. I can only think of two tracks where we really struggled this year - Michigan and Nazareth. Every other track we've been in contention to win, or to be in the second half of the top six. But it's been frustrating because we haven't been able to capitalise on how fast we are. Every weekend there's been a surprise in practice, or in qualifying, or the race. Sometimes it's been self-inflicted, sometimes not. Most of the time not, actually.

"But I've got to look forward, not back, and looking forward I think we have the speed. That's something at least we know. I'm certainly not desperate from that standpoint. We just need to get everything together and have those smooth weekends. There have been very few weekends where you start practice and you turn the engine on and it just runs! And you go into qualifying and the race and it's the same thing - it just runs. There haven't been a lot of those weekends. So if we can just keep doing what we're doing and hopefully get to the end a bit more often, that will be enough."

De Ferran says he drove one of the best races of his career in Cleveland early last month, coming from 20th on the grid to finish fourth. "I felt Cleveland was one of the best races I have ever driven in my entire career and I finished fourth! It was because of the rain we had in qualifying and the fast group was at the back of the grid, but nobody cares really. It's the result that counts."

In Detroit two months ago Gil qualified third and was up to second place in the race when his engine suffered a mysterious electrical glitch. After cutting-out the engine re-fired and he came back to finish sixth, but his hopes of winning were ruined.

"We were running really strong in qualifying in Detroit," de Ferran says, "but got caught out on a red and couldn't re-do it. So we started third and were running third - running a strong race - and passed the guy in second and I was beginning the think, what am I going to get today? And the engine turns off! So that was another example of the problems we've had.

"At Long Beach we had some electrical gremlins and didn't have any practice. We just went straight into qualifying and were able to qualify fifth and finish third. I could just go on and on, but that's not the point. The point is we're running strong and we've just got to get it all together."

With nine races still to go, de Ferran believes he has as good a chance as anyone to defend his championship. "All we need is the sun to shine on my garden and a windstorm to hit everybody else. Not even that. Just a cool breeze and I'll be right there. And we all know how easy that is to happen. Last year I could have nailed the championship in Australia. I went there with a 30-point advantage over Fernandez and came out of it with only five points over him going into the last race."

Tim Cindric is in his second year as the president of Team Penske. Cindric says the biggest challenge facing the team in the closing months of this season is properly executing their raceday strategy. He also says it's imperative that de Ferran or Castroneves win either this weekend in Mid-Ohio or next weekend at Road America.

"I think we've been competitive at most races," Cindric says. "There have been days when Helio has been seemingly more competitive, but on raceday to be honest, I think Gil's side of the team has had the most missed opportunities in terms of execution or reliability in some cases. I think Gil has driven every bit as well as, not just Helio, but all the guys at the front of the field.

"I feel we need to win a race in the month of August to fight for the championship. We need to go out to win. If these guys win and get a couple of podiums I think it'll be a dogfight to the end. If we don't win a race in the month of August I think it's going to be very difficult without a lot of luck to make it happen. But you have to remember that about this time last year Moreno and Michael were out in front and we closed the gap pretty quick."

Cindric says bad luck has played a big role in the team's fortunes this year, but he's quick to say that luck is not the determining factor. "I don't think it's been too much a result of us not executing," Cindric observes. "You can always pick out your races where you're at fault, but there have been circumstances that just haven't gone our way. I don't view it that this team hasn't reached its potential or anything like that. Sure, we've all had our bad days but I think last year at this point in time we had more bad days than this year. But there have been circumstances whether they be weather, qualifying or reliability issues that were unexpected on some fronts. There have been a multitude of things that have played against us.

"But I don't look at it as luck's going to be the thing to rely on. We've got to go out and execute. This weekend we should be right there at the front. It's not a foregone conclusion that we win, but we should be right there fighting for the win. If not, there's something wrong."

De Ferran missed this year's last month of pre-season testing after crashing twice, at Phoenix and Homestead, badly bruising a shoulder and some ribs. He says those missed weeks of testing definitely affected his performance this year on short ovals, none of which are left on the remainder of the calendar. Gil also says he was unable to recover from the loss of pre-season testing because of CART's new in-season test ban.

"I think from my own standpoint, particularly on the short ovals, that the two accidents at the beginning of the year really curtailed my preparation for those types of racetracks, and it has showed a little bit sometimes. I'm still feeling the consequences of the lack of running on those tracks and with the new rules, you can't test. To be quite honest, I've decided I don't particularly like these rules.

"I felt the jury was still out at the beginning of the year and now that we're halfway I think I'd rather test. You spend a lot of time and effort trying to do things on Fridays that you can't really do on a race weekend because you can't test but you still try to figure things out the best you can. But it's not as efficient as just going out and testing and particularly on the little ovals, I miss that a lot. I can imagine how tough it must be for a rookie this year."

Some critics suggest that Team Penske's dominant return to Indianapolis this year sapped the team of some its focus on CART. Both de Ferran and team boss Cindric strongly disagree.

"I don't see it that way at all," de Ferran says. "I think the team is operating at just as high a level. I don't see one thing influencing the other because the two teams were really independent. They were so separated, it was quite remarkable. It certainly hasn't influenced me. Certainly the month of May was very difficult, but we ran strong in Japan and Milwaukee. That was all in May. Sure, we ran terrible in Nazareth, but that was a short oval."

Cindric is even more emphatic. "I don't think Indianapolis had any negative effect," he declares. "It had the potential without a doubt to have a lot of negative effect, but I certainly don't see it that way. I think, if anything, it injected more enthusiasm not only into our team, but also into the series. Winning it was really a shot in the arm and that doesn't go away for a little while. If anything it was a positive situation.

"Some people probably forget that we won Detroit and led every lap. We were very strong at Milwaukee and Chicago. Portland you can discount that race for a lot of reasons. Cleveland you can discount for a lot of reasons as well, because everybody started at the back. Some had a good day, some didn't. Portland and Cleveland were odd races. At Toronto we had a chance to win with both cars. We sat on the pole, but one guy doesn't win who should've won, and the next guy is going to win it going away and the engine blows up."

De Ferran says the biggest problem the team has faced this year was the great 'pop-off' valve dispute during June and July. "I'm still upset about that whole fiasco. It was unbelievable. It really hurt us in Portland. Detroit is not a power circuit and we got out of that race all right, but I guarantee you we'll claw it all the way back again. I think what happened is that change affected us more for whatever technical reason than it did anything else.

"But we've caught back up and I guarantee you by the end of the year we'll have the best engine again. It's better this weekend again, but it was unbelievable. That was something we weren't planning on and we had to contend with. But Honda always rises to the top. That's premise number one."

After clearly setting the pace all day Friday at Mid-Ohio, Gil hopes to qualify and race at the front this weekend and follow that up at most remaining races. "We ran well here last year and are running okay so far here. I don't see any weaknesses really, looking forward. We've run well on all the tracks, except for Germany and England, which we haven't been to of course. But apart from that, we're raring to go."