USGP - Massa & Raikkonen Interview

USGP - Massa Interview

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In boiling hot conditions at the world famous, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the venue for this Sunday's second leg of F1's North American Felipe Massa met the media, just five days after having seen them in Montreal, after he had been disqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix. "What happened five days ago?" he joked, when asked to recall his last race. "I don't remember or at least I don't want to remember so let's just look forward. It is very hot here in Indy, much hotter than at the last two races so I think we can expect a different result. I think our car will go much better here."

The rankings in the championship are always uppermost in the minds of the media, even though the series has not even reached its halfway point. "At the moment I am aware that the gap to the championship leader is quite big at 15 points and this is more concerning than the gap to the second placed man, as my target of course is to win," was the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro man's assessment of the situation. "Now we must try and reduce the gap and then move ahead. I don't know how easy that would be to do because I don't know what goes on in the Hamilton-Alonso camp, but I do know what goes on here at Ferrari and that is that we are working very hard and in harmony with the will to win," he added when questioned about alleged conflict in the rival team. "Here at Ferrari, there is a collaboration between myself and Kimi to improve and it is a hundred percent commitment. I known Kimi better now than I did at the start of the year and although he does not talk a lot, I feel we have a good working relationship and are both doing a professional job of working with the team to improve the car. He is what I expected he would be."

Massa's optimism for this weekend is partly based on the nature of the American track. "As for the F2007, I feel that on tracks with very little grip, like Monaco and Canada, it is a bit harder to find the right balance and get some grip. So I am happy to have got these two races out of the way. Here we have always been competitive and the track surface has suited us in the past. It will be very interesting to see how this weekend turns out as it will also give us a much clearer picture of the true situation. Naturally the car is the same as in Montreal, but while the aerodynamics might be similar to Canada we will be running a different set-up and different tyres.

"I prefer to think that something happened in these last two races in terms of track surface and temperature and that what has passed is passed, so I'm just looking forward. It is too easy to say we were just unlucky, to easy to find an excuse. We just did not do a good enough job. So we are not giving up and will fight right to the end. Whatever happens, I am confident we have a great car. I expect a good weekend. Last year, we had a difficult time up until this race but from here onwards, where we scored a one-two, we were very strong. So I hope I can change the way the championship has been going recently."

Felipe was eventually happy to take a quick look back at events in Montreal and the red light incident. "I believe the rules are the rules and so, as the driver, it was my fault because I did not look at the light and it was also a mistake from the team because they didn't tell me to look at the light. It won't happen again because we have added this situation to our checklist. But I also feel the rules are not so clear as they say you have to wait until the last car has passed the line, but as I came out of the pits I was the last car and the light was red, so it is possible that the guy controlling the red light wasn't quick enough, which would also be unfair on me. Two cars fighting for a good position were disqualified."

Finally, an unusual question for our Brazilian driver: would he like to drive in the 24 Hours Race at Le Mans which is also taking place in France this weekend. "It seems interesting and I really appreciate it and like what it involves, but it is not the sort of event I would want to take part in, because I don't like the idea of having to drive for so long. I prefer sprint races where you can push on every lap, rather than the strategic side of an endurance race."


USGP - Raikkonen Interview

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Kimi Raikkonen faced the media around lunchtime in the Indy paddock, earlier than usual for a Thursday but done deliberately to help with European newspaper deadlines. "It was not a good time, and it started badly as I had no grip off the line and the car did not move," said the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro man, as he jumped straight into the subject of his Canadian Grand Prix. "The race was very difficult with the way things were going, made even more complicated when some debris from Kubica's car got stuck in my front wing and then I lost the brakes. Not the easiest race, but at least we got some points in the end, which could be useful later. There is no point thinking about what might have happened if there had been less chaos. It is always like this in Canada and part of the reason is that the tyres kept getting cold behind the Safety Cars and losing grip while the track surface there is the sort that is like driving on ice once you get off the line."

Over in Raikkonen's former team, most of the attention is now focussed on Hamilton who is having an exceptional rookie season. "As for our rivals, I cannot say I am more worried about Hamilton than Alonso now, as in Monaco, Alonso also had a difficult race," commented the Finn. "Here for example I think we will have a good car. The fact that Alonso finished behind me and that my team-mate did not finish did help my personal position in the drivers' classification. I hope I can have a "proper" race here and then we can see what the situation looks like again. Of course I wanted to do better over these last three difficult races but I think we can turn it around. There is no big problem on the car and of course we can improve. But it is not as though we have lost a whole second in the last two races. There is nothing wrong with the car. Here we will get a better idea of where we stand. There is still a good atmosphere in our team and I am not interested in these stories about an argument between the two driversat our main rivals, because it has no effect on our work. We just need to get better results than them. Here at Ferrari I feel at home and I like the people so I think from that point of view, everything is going well. Now we just need to start getting the results which we are capable of. I just have to be patient and I know I am getting exactly the same support as Felipe within the team, it is just that he has had some better results earlier this year.

In Canada, BMW had an excellent race, but Raikkonen feels they might not show such good form here. "We knew they have been strong since the start of the year and Nick has been going well all season, but here I expect it to be more of a fight between us and McLaren and I also expect it to be very close," he suggested also explaining that he was happier with his performance in qualifying than in the beginning of the season. "I think I now understand the tyres better and my qualifying performance over the single lap is much better. That is very important, because one thing that has affected us is that with the cars in this year's configuration and with the tyres we have, it is very difficult to overtake if you start from a poor grid position. The effect of losing aerodynamic grip when following a car closely is the same as before but now we cannot make up much of that grip through the tyres as we could in the past. But that situation is not specific to us and applies to everyone."

So what should Indianapolis have in store for him. "It is my first time with my new team here at this track so I don't know what to expect even though Ferrari has a very good record here. We will find out tomorrow once testing starts."