Thursday press conference - Canadian GP - Pt. 1.

Drivers: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari), Christian Klein (Red Bull Racing), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) and Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber).

Press conference.

Q:
Christian, tell us about not racing.

Christian Klien:
It is not so interesting than racing a car. It was a bit of a difficult time for me, a bit frustrating to step back and to be third driver, but I knew in the beginning of the year that me and Vitantonio [Liuzzi] would share the car and that was the case for the last four races. I am really looking forward to it, I am happy to be in the car again and try to do a good job now.

Q:
But the team seems to have Scott Speed, Vitantonio, David Coulthard, and it is almost as if there is two teams there really.

CK:
Yeah, we have too many drivers! Scott is driving this weekend, it will be his first time in a Formula One car during a race weekend and I think he will have a lot of fun and it will be a great weekend for him. But yes, for me it is the most important thing to actually be back in the car and I focus on that.

Q:
Does a driver look over his shoulder and think, ooh, there is a lot of people queuing up behind me.

CK:
You could think about it all the time but I focus on what I do, I try to do the best job I can do, try to be quick in the car, try to impress the people around me and the people in the paddock and see that I am quick and I cannot do more than that.

Q:
Has it been a surprise how competitive the team has been this year?

CK:
Absolutely. I think we were also surprised at the beginning of the season how strong we are. For sure, it will get more difficult during the season because the bigger teams can develop the car more than us, but we saw at the Nurburgring that we are still competitive and with a bit of luck we can both drive in the points and I hope we can get some points this weekend.

Q:
These two races you think you can be as competitive?

CK:
I think so, yes. I mean, I was still in the car, I did third driver in the Friday tests, so I saw how quick I am relative to the other drivers, I was quite quick in testing, so I am pretty confident that I can go back in the car and be quick again and, for sure, try to beat my team-mate and be in front of him.

Q:
Jacques, here we are, back at home with you. One thing I noticed at a press conference yesterday is that it was mentioned you have a contract for next year, so you still have a year and a half's worth of contract. Can you just clarify that?

Jacques Villeneuve:
It has always been the case. It is not a surprise. That's what was said last year, that's what was said in winter, and that's what was said for the last few months, yes.

Q:
So the rumours about you perhaps being replaced, they have got to overcome that first?

JV:
Well, rumours are part of everyday racing. There have always been a lot of rumours. I have no idea where it comes from, but I guess it is easy to make rumours because there have been rumours about people getting more involved in the team and, who knows, with money people think they can start buying anything out, so I guess that is where the rumours started.

Q:
What is needed for you to get back into the top ten?

JV:
We just need to go faster to get into the top ten. There is nothing else we can do. We had a good step in Imola and it looks like we got it right and most other people got it wrong and that suited us. The other track where we were competitive was Monaco and that was it. At the beginning of the season we hadn't been very competitive and the car is not difficult to drive, it is quite neutral, but it is just not fast enough on the lap time.

Q:
You had a big test at Monza last week, has that provided some encouragement?

JV:
Not really, no. The car was working fine, but once again not fast enough.

Q:
So, what are your thoughts about these two races?

JV:
I have no idea what to expect. There is new asphalt here, which will be a surprise for everyone, and it is just a matter of getting it right. When there is new asphalt like that you need to luck-in a little bit and that could work out for us. Also, if the tyres are on the limit, like Monaco, that suits us because we are quite easy on our tyres so that is what I am hoping for.

Q:
That's the only thing you can hope for is it?

JV:
Yeah, when you are not fast what can help you is rain, because that balances everything.

Q:
Do you feel there is anything missing in yourself?

JV:
No, not at all.

Q:
That part of it is perfect?

JV:
You always improve. There is always room for improvement and to learn and that happens with work. But right now there is not much we can do with the car. We are where we are and that's about it.

Q:
Rubens, a good result at the Nurburgring. Was that an encouragement for you?

Rubens Barrichello:
Yeah, I think so. We knew the car was going to go quite well in the race, there was a weak point in qualifying as we saw for both cars, then as the race developed I had quite a good chance, because I almost always had the track open for me, so I was able to push and use the three stops, so that was quite nice.

Q:
What about testing since then? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to tyre performance?

RB:
Well, we made improvements. It is not night and day, you make small steps, but also you want to see how much you want to go faster in qualifying. If you go faster in qualifying and still have a reliable tyre like we have now, probably the best tyre in the race at the end of the race, how much do you want to lose? If you have the qualifying and you still have the tyre for the race that is fine, but if you don't then that is not so good. So we need to take a balance between them. Silverstone last week was a bit too cold to get an opinion on things, we were not testing things for Canada specifically. It was probably our last test in Silverstone and we were testing other things apart from tyres. So you just have to balance yourself. We had two cars, we had another one in Monza, which was more to do with here. Things are better and we most definitely think our car is a fast car, it is the tyres, so we just have to take a balance and see where we are.

Q:
But it is a compromise, you can't have both?

RB:
You know, at the start of the season Renault seemed to have both. They were qualifying ahead and racing ahead and that was good enough. Now the competition has upped the game a little bit, not just with us but I think McLaren, sometimes Williams, everyone really, just challenging for the win, and I don't think you can have both right now. You have to have a combination that allows you to be at the front but be ahead in the race, which is the most important.

Q:
Looking back at the Nurburgring and the predicament that Kimi was in there with a flat-spotted front tyre, do you think that is too much of a predicament to be put in as a driver?

RB:
I don't want to go too much into his problem, but it is just separating things and I think if it was me driving that car I would most certainly have stopped, not because it was dangerous and I am afraid to have a crash or die or something like this, but just because it was not going to work. It could have worked at the end, but you have to have a proof to change your tyre, you cannot do it when you are pitting for fuel, so you have to do it another time. Sometimes in life you have to go backwards to go ahead, so I think it was better to get eight points.

Q:
Kimi, obviously you were placed in a difficult position at the last race. Would you have changed anything when you look back?

Kimi Raikkonen:
No, I don't think so.

Q:
Obviously, you had the support of the team. It was interesting to hear Rubens say he would have come in. Was there much of a discussion?

KR:
Not too much, because in the end we need to try to gain more points than Alonso and he was behind me, so I didn't see any reason to come in and change the tyre and lose points to him because we were in a position to score maybe two points more. Maybe we were a little bit unlucky that the car didn't last one more lap, but we took the gamble and it didn't pay off. But I would still do the same thing.

Q:
How difficult is it for a driver, when you were having to make the overtaking move on Jacques, that you might flat-spot your tyres and it could compromise the whole race. It must be difficult to bear that in mind.

KR:
Yeah, but I don't complain to anyone else, that is my mistake and it cost me quite a bit. It is always easier to say afterwards that maybe if I braked a bit earlier it wouldn't have happened, but then it was a bit bumpy and I just locked the rear and couldn't turn in again so we went in a bad shape, but you always try to lap people as quickly as you can because you don't want to lose so much time. I lost a lot of time on the Jordans before so I wanted to get past people quickly and not lose any more time, then I made a mistake and it cost me a lot.

Q:
What about your thoughts for these two races?

KR:
We had a very good test, the car is quick, I think it is better than it was in the last race, so I am pretty hopeful that it will be good here. For sure the car is good in the USA, because so far every car has been pretty strong there. This one is a bit of a question mark but I still think it will be good here because every circuit since we have changed the car a little bit has been good, so I don't see a reason why we won't be strong here.