Gil de Ferran Q&A

"I think it's going to be an amazing race. Those races are crazy, anyway, so fighting for the championship and the race altogether is truly going to be incredible. As far as we're concerned I certainly have to do very well, and I have to count on a little bit of bad luck on my competitors' behalf. I'll just worry about the part of the equation that I control, and go on from there. If I can win, then it'll be fantastic."



"It is. It's a bit of a mathematical long shot. The top three guys are much closer mathematically."



"The bottom line is I've still got a job to do. For me I will try to wipe everything out of my mind. For sure I'm doing my job for the last time, and it will be an odd feeling."



"No. I want to party myself at the end of the year, which is something I do anyway. This year I'm commemorating 10 years of marriage, retirement, the Indy 500 win, and my birthday in November - all in one!"



"If it played a part it's certainly not a big one. At the end of the day for me to get back in a racing car after the accidents I had to get over them anyway. One cannot drive with fear or any sort of hesitation or anything like that. That was an obstacle I had to go through immediately after the Chicago accident, and also immediately after the Phoenix accident."



"Exactly. Head injuries are not a good thing, and it seems to me that it's still not a totally understood thing anyway, so you definitely don't want to have lots of head injuries. I guess when you're in this game you understand the risks and you have to accept them or not accept them."



"It was more confusing! I was actually thinking whether I should continue or not even before the season started. In that first half of the year I experienced the worse that racing has to offer by having a big accident in Phoenix and coming out of it with a few injuries, and the best that racing can offer, which was winning the Indianapolis 500. So it was interesting, because it gave me a perspective of the best of the sport and the worst of the sport."



"That's the way I feel about it. Whether I win the championship this year or not, I don't know, but I'm certainly in the middle of it. I was able to win my last Indy 500, and I want to stop it there. I don't want to live through a declining period. I'm happy and satisfies and very motivated. I feel very much like I did when I was leaving college, and I had a lot of unknowns, and I'm excited and anxious. I'm still a young guy so I've got a lot ahead of me."



"I don't know. I guess the only decision I made is to stop driving for now. Over 21 years I feel like I've gained a lot of experience in racing, and maybe a little bit in business. I've developed a lot of good relationships with important people and business and I guess I would like to put all that together into a new activity. What exactly that would be, I don't know. I'm very open minded. Right now I'm not going through a period of shutting doors or shutting options out. For me it's a whole new world out there, because I've all done is driving, driving, driving, what do I do to be a better driver."



"A friend of mine from Brazil had a good expression. He said, 'Your road is another one.' It had more curves and it took you a different way.' In the end of the day I certainly never raced an F1 car, or never did an F1 season, and I guess that will remain undone. On the other hand I am a content person and I had fulfilling career, and at the end of my career I was able to drive for one of the best teams in the history of the sport. F1 was once very much a dream and it's something I've left undone."



"Racing is very consuming when you're a driver, so you don't get a lot of time to spend with your friends. In my case I have very good friends in Europe and in Brazil, and I guess I would like to dedicate a little more time for that."