STEFANO DOMENICALI Interview: Post Montreal **SPOILER**

(FROM AUTOSPORT)


Q. It looked like either one of your cars could have won that race if it had turned out slightly differently. Your race pace maybe looked better than your qualifying pace yesterday, was that just down to driver errors on a difficult track or was there another reason?

Stefano Domenicali: I would say that today we are very very disappointed because of course the result of the race didn't exactly reflect the potential of our package that we showed apart from the race both for Kimi and for Felipe. For Kimi it's pretty obvious what happened.

It's clear, nothing to add apart from the fact that you can imagine that at that speed, 80 km/h, in the pitlane, without respect for that, black flag for that, it was an avoidable collision... well, lot of things that I think that… it's important to see what will be the Federation's reaction to that.

Anyway, unfortunately traffic lights in Canada are not really our friends. Last year we had a problem, this year we've had a problem on the other side.

It was also a shame for Felipe because he did a great race, and we had a problem with the refuelling machine, that the seal broke and no fuel was delivered so we had to call him straight back in and that spoiled a great race for him. So big disappointment because in the last two races… we have prepared these two races in a great way, I have to say, nothing to say to the team, and we took less points than last year.

That was a disaster in terms of performance so we are very very disappointed by that but on the other hand, I would like to say that the team… it is in these conditions when you really feel the need to react and be very strong because you see that we have all the elements that are ready for the fight. We know that the competitors are strong, no doubt, but the championship is long and we will see. We will fight until the end.

Q. Now there are great track coming that were very good for you, so how do you see them?

SD: The near future for us is very clear. We need to go back to our standard in term of points. We need to work, be humble, we know that the others are pushing. BMW took a lot of points today, McLaren not too many, but they are strong, they will be there. We need to keep on working, no mistakes, reliability, we saw that we paid for a problem on the rig, and that's it, that's the way we have to tackle the next grands prix, not only France.

Q. The stewards have just decided that Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton will get a ten place grid penalty for the next race. What's your reaction to that?

SD: I think it's a fair decision. It's something that.. on the code. I didn't know. Honestly, I would have expected something. You cannot exclude him from points in the race because he didn't finish, so to be realistic, pragmatic, knowing the rules, yes, that's what I was expecting, so that will be part of the show in the next race.

Q. A brighter end to a disappointing weekend?

SD: Well, I don't want to say that because of course it's very disappointing not having finished the race with Kimi, because he could have been really very very strong. Unfortunately, things happened, you cannot recover from that. It's important that we taken advantage of this situation for the next race, that's for sure. We don't have to lose that opportunity.

Q. With Kubica leading the standings, do you see the championship becoming even more complicated that it was already?

SD: No, I always said at the beginning of the season that I was expecting McLaren first and BMW second as our main competitors. Today was a really good race for them, no mistakes, easy, I would say because of the situation. They are there, they are strong. We need to find them.

Q. Do think their consistency is enough for them to fight for the championship, they don't appear to have a car to match a Ferrari or a McLaren on pure pace?

SD: Pragmatically we have to look at the championship points, they are there, three points less than us if I don't remember wrongly, and Kubica is leading so we need to respect them and we will do so. Kubica drove a great race I'm delighted to say, fantastic but we will see in France.

Q. Are you looking forward to the next run of tracks?

SD: Absolutely. It's very disappointing to collect the points that we collected in the last two races given the way that we prepared for them so we are really looking forward to reacting in the right way and the spirit of the team, I can assure you, is that one.

Q. Going back to yesterday, the difficulties that you had was a little bit like the type of problem that you had on these type of tracks last year.

SD: No, yesterday it was pretty clear that when we analysed with the engineers it was a problem at the exit of turn ten, we had a line that was really going on the dirty part of the track, we had a lock of wheelspin, having a problem that was losing a lot of time, and then with the straight afterwards we were losing more, so it was pretty clear, especially when you see the gap, it's something that was not connected to the performance, it was pretty clear at the end of qualifying.

Q. Does something need to be done for next year's race in order not to repeat these problems?

SD: I think, to be honest, that it's great to be here in Canada. It's fantastic, you feel the people, you feel the atmosphere that is really fantastic. But we cannot race in conditions like these, it's not very good. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that we've had this kind of problem and I think that they have to do something.

Q. On a separate subject, what's your feeling on the discussions regarding the Concorde Agreement. Do you believe that the FIA should be part of the Agreement?

SD: Well, the only thing that I can say is that for sure, as we always said, we definitely need the FIA as a regulator of the championship, that's the history of Formula One, and any word is not taking anyone to any point. We need to stay cool and work and that's it. It's a moment when I feel that this is what I feel has to be done.

Q. Do you believe that talk of a breakaway championship is damaging to Formula One?

SD: Honestly, I don't think so, to be honest. It's something that is part of the tackling… when you want to do something but honestly, for me it's really important to keep…and work together because we have potentially a great package of a sport and a business that we really need to exploit to the maximum altogether.

Q. Do you have any major upgrades coming for Magny Cours?

SD: Ah, yeah, as always we are trying to prepare something in order to be able to gain a little bit, also in France, so we are working to a little package and something connected to the car but yes, something, always, we try.

Q. Is the performance of the (low downforce) car giving you confidence going to Monza later in the year?

SD: I think so. Today we saw clearly that the car was really very very strong so that's something which will prepare Monza with a different car, hopefully with a different result of course.

Q. You didn't run the wheel covers yesterday. Were the brakes temperatures higher than expected?

SD: Yeah, the brake temperature… You have seen so many cars had problems with the brakes and of course the ventilation of them is a crucial point so that's the reason why we took them away and I saw that some other cars also did the same.