FERRARI'S DOMENICALI Interview After Spanish GP *SPOILER*

(FROM AUTOSPORT)


Q. Could you tell me what your estimates were before you came here about how much performance you added to the car with the aerodynamics?

Stefano Domenicali: Well, normally we try to simulate the performance that we gained but I would say that we would say that we were estimating about one tenth. I don't know now if it's more than that now. As I said to your Italian colleagues, I don't think it's enough. We saw that they are pushing like hell.

It was a very difficult race with two safety cars that interrupted the pace at which we were progressing but we did need to keep up the pace and we don't need to lose control of the reliability because they were only three seconds behind us.

The pace will be very tight and the championship is with us leading both but it will be very very long, believe me. Today it was pretty clear; look at Heidfeld, Heidfeld was unlucky in a way with the conditions of the safety car, because he was forced to stop when he basically had no more fuel, so he had to pay a penalty and take the example that this may happen to us in a race then, what are you going to do?

Are you going to be behind and lose some very important points? So this is why we really think that these results are very important. I don't know what the English equivalent is but you bring the food at home and maybe you will use it when you need it.

Q. How comfortable were your two drivers at the front? Lewis was obviously very close throughout the race. Were you controlling the pace or was that a realistic performance from Ferrari and McLaren today?

SD: The safety car changed the picture of the race. For sure, Lewis at the end was pretty fast and we were trying to monitor him to use the gap in a safe way. We were trying to monitor his lap times but it was fast, that's for sure.

Q. Could you make a comparison between the two drivers? Felipe didn't seem to find as good a balanced car this weekend; did they go in different directions?

SD: In that respect nothing has changed. Felipe, in qualifying yesterday, was not really happy, there was a little problem in the last sector and we had a little bit of inconsistency of grip between the different sets of tyres, so that's why he was very very fast on his first attempt, he was not so fast on his second one.

Q. What is Ferrari's position on KERS, 2009?

SD: 2009 on KERS? It's a regulation, it's not compulsory, so we are working and pushing in order to be able to use this system that potentially and from a simulation point of view it seems to give an important benefit to the performance of the car, but you have to be good on the throttle because otherwise if you put the weight of the system in comparison to what you're going to gain, you really need to find the right compromise.

But it's not a rule, we need to do it. For sure, a step further than the KERS that would be installed next year, the car needs to wait a bit because we don't know the system we don't know the users so we need to wait and see what will be the future of KERS in the next couple of years.

Q. Felipe won at Turkey last year; what's your feelings this season after the performance that we've seen today?

SD: Difficult to say for sure; as I've said before, the most important thing that we saw is the fact that qualifying is crucial, so the one who starts from the pole has a big advantage but for sure the advantage to make the pace. The qualifying will be, in my view, the thing that we have to concentrate on a lot because if you look at the pace that we had on Friday, the gap seemed to be significant and then on Saturday it was less, so we really need to focus our work on this part of the racing weekend.

Q. How big a threat do you see Renault now? It seems they've made a little step forward. Do you consider them now to be joining that group of three at the front?

SD: Well, today we saw that Fernando did an incredible lap yesterday also because he was quite light on fuel, he stopped around lap 15. For sure they made a step forward. They had problems with the reliability of one car but the other one he touched with another car, so it's difficult to say but for sure they made a step, no doubt. Everyone's made a step.

That was expected to be honest, because they worked here last week with a new car after the first part of the season. Now we will see what will be the new development of our main competitors in Turkey and then we will go to Monte Carlo where I'm expecting to see a difficult racing weekend for everyone with cars that are less stable, the fact that the guardrails are very close so I think that will be an interesting racing weekend, but it's too early. Now we have to concentrate on Turkey.

Q. You mentioned Nick Heidfeld and the safety car regulation; there's been some discussion in the SWG about making a change to the rule, to open the pit stop; what's your feelings on what should be done? Particularly with Monaco and Montreal coming up soon.

SD: Well, I think that realistically speaking I don't know if this will be possible to be changed before the end of the season. For sure it's under discussion in the next SWG, it's on the agenda, so it's something that we want to work out because for sure it's very unlucky if you get in that situation but this could happen to everyone.

Don't forget that a safety car in a normal way can be very unlucky so we need to stay cool and think what is the best option for everyone before changing something. The worst thing that we can do in Formula One now is to make a change and then suddenly realise that we've changed it for the worse and then you get lost. Before you do something, it's better to think ten times.