FIA Thursday Press Conference - Brazil

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

Drivers: Rubens Barrichello (Honda), David Coulthard (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Nelson Piquet (Renault)

Q: Nelson, what are your experiences of the Interlagos track? How much racing have you done here?

Nelson Piquet: To be honest not much. It is going to be like arriving at the track like I arrived in Australia or China. I did one race with my father back in 2005 if I remember. It was in an Aston Martin in a 12-hour race and that was it. When I started my F3 career here the first season we didn�t have any races here and then I went straight to England, so I don�t have much experience but I think motivation and the crowd will help me.

Q: You have had some good races recently. What chances do you think you have of holding onto the seat next year?

NP: I think I have a good chance. The team is quite happy. I mean all the boys are on my side, so I don�t see any reasons why I would be under threat. It has been a tough season obviously but I am learning a lot and improving a lot and discovering a lot of new things. It has been a tough year but I am sure we will be okay.

Q: So you are quite hopeful or confident would you say?

NP: Confident.

Q: David, what are your emotions coming into this race?

David Coulthard: I guess I should be emotional but I think it will be more on Sunday when I realise when I step out of the car, hopefully after the chequered flag, for the last time that this part of my life has come to an end. It is difficult for anyone sitting around this table, apart from Rubens who has been doing it for longer than me, to imagine what that might be like. But I am not stopping because I don�t love driving grand prix cars or I don�t love racing but I recognise that my journey has reached its natural conclusion, so when I walk out of the paddock on Sunday that will be it.

Q: You have a special livery on the car. Tell us about that.

DC: Yeah, it is great that at the last grand prix we had permission from all the teams to run my car in an independent livery which I think is a first in this modern era of Formula One. I am sure it might have happened decades ago. The teams have agreed for me to run with the �Wings for Life� foundation colours which is a foundation that was started in 2004 to promote research into spinal cord injuries. I think in a lot of cases people imagine that it is extreme sports where most people are suffering from those sorts of injuries but the statistics show it is actually only about three per cent of the injuries that come from extreme sports. All of the other injuries, which is about 130,000 people a year find themselves confined to a wheelchair through household injuries, car crashes, everyday life. Currently there is very little government funding for this type of research and the pharmaceutical companies are not interested, of course, as you can�t buy a pill to cure spinal cord injury. It was founded by Dietrich Mateschitz who obviously is the founder of Red Bull and Heinz Kinigadner whose son suffered a spinal cord injury in a motorbike accident. All of the money that is raised through public donations goes to fund various institutions throughout the world and works with other foundations, like the Christopher Reeve Foundation, to find a cure for spinal cord injuries.

Q: David, you have seen many World Championships decided. What are your thoughts about this one?

DC: Well, I have been asked this a lot coming up to this race, so I will say in front of the two championship contenders what I have said to the media. With a seven point lead Lewis is the most likely to achieve the championship. I think that is quite clear. He has led the championship for the majority of the season and it should be a formality. For me Felipe is the most improved driver of the season. We have always known that he has speed, but some of his drivers this year and notably Budapest, which ultimately he wasn�t able to win that race but his pass on Lewis clearly defined himself as one of the most attacking drivers. It was a world class pass and therefore not to sit on the fence but either of these guys for me are truly worthy of this world championship. But you have to say Lewis has the upperhand, so I guess a consolation might be if Felipe wins the grand prix, satisfies the Brazilian crowd, and Lewis comes in with a points� scoring position. But as we know, anything can happen, so I am as excited to know the outcome as everyone else.

Q: Rubens, your thoughts about the World Championship?

Rubens Barrichello: I think it has been an exciting year. It had its ups and downs but they have been fighting for a long period in quite good battles and I think it is going to be a very good ending. It is just like DC said, Lewis has the upperhand. Sunday, as far as I can see, it can be a wet day, so I think it is going to be really nice for the Brazilians to see how things come out. Thankfully, Felipe, as I have said before, has great chances to win the race which the Brazilians are really hopeful for. It is the only thing he can aim for. He has to win the race and not worry too much about the rest and see what the rest is. As a Brazilian I am really proud that we have the decision once again here as I think Brazilians deserve that.

Q: What about your own future? This is your 16th Brazilian Grand Prix.

RB: I am really proud to be here. It used to be a tough race for me at the beginning, when we lost Ayrton and so on. It was tough with lots of pressure and not a good car. But I have done really well to do just like soccer, when you play at home you play better. I have a wonderful time but the week goes past so quickly now and it is an enjoyment, lots of work but it is really nice to be here, especially for me as I was born just 100 metres away from the main door here and for me it is the best race of the whole year.

Q: And your career next year?

RB: It is on hold, obviously. I don�t want to stop. I won�t stop because I think I deserve better. I am driving better than I used to when I finished second in the championship behind Michael. The aim is not to stop. The job done this year has been quite good. If it wasn�t for minor problems I think I would have more than 20 points with a car we can see is not good at all. What I have been telling people is that I cannot sell the experience or the speed as that is a proven point. They see that and they see all the statistics. But what I can sell is my motivation. I am very honest with myself and the day I feel that I don�t have it anymore is the day I will stop, but up until now I have been driving better than ever. It is on hold as Honda wants to try some other people, test them in Barcelona. To be very honest I think they try to change the destiny of things as if they want to win by next year they need someone who is very experienced with my qualities to do it. But I am on hold. I am hopeful. I am talking to other teams as well, so hopefully it will be fine.

Q: Lewis and Felipe. A question to both of you. We have heard about the pressure. Going back to the early part of your career, how does that pressure when you were eight years old weigh up to the pressure you are feeling now?

Lewis Hamilton: For me I think it quite similar to every championship you do. For me it is just another race, that�s the way to approach it to myself and that�s how I did it in the past. It is exciting. Everyone enjoys the last race, for sure. It is great for the spectators, it is great for the fans, for the media, for the team, for everyone. We will give it the best shot we can as a team collectively and hopefully we can come out on top.

Felipe Massa: I think it is very similar. When you are racing it doesn�t matter whether you are in Formula One or in go-karts, whatever category you are. When you get inside the car you are thinking about racing. You are not thinking I am in Formula One, it is the most important motorsport. You don�t think about that, you think about racing. You think about doing your best and fighting, so for me it is exactly the same fighting for the championship in Formula One or for victory or whatever if you are fighting in a go-kart. When you are in a go-kart you want to win. It is your dream. Your motivation is to win that race or that championship. You don�t think about Formula One as you live for that moment. That�s why it is the same now. You want to win now. For sure, you have much more expectation and pressure but when you are driving you don�t think about that.

Q: Another question to both of you. What does it mean to have your families with you? What do you draw from them?

FM: I think having the family together is very important. I have always had my family together in my career. In go-kart and the other categories it was a little bit more difficult as I didn�t have so much money for them to go to the race. But at least I always had them very close to me, talking on the phone almost every day. I think it is very important as when you are happy in your private life, when you have a good family, I think it makes your professional life even better. When you get inside the car you don�t put in all the problems that you have outside. I think it is always very nice. They don�t come to every race but they come a lot and I feel very happy. For sure I don�t follow so much the advice from my mum, otherwise I would go very slow!

LH: I think as you can see I always have my family with me. I always have a part of my family with me and I know I have all my family�s support and that is what is important. I know they are proud of me and they have worked just as hard as I have to get me here today. So when I come here it is not about me, it is about us as a team together. They pretty much come to all the races, not so much the international races as it is lot of time for my brother off school. Without my family I would not be here today, so it is great we are able to share the experience throughout the season.

Q: Lewis, how important is the Constructors� championship to you? Is there a bit of a conflict of interest there?

LH: Not really. It is quite simple really, we are here to win. We don�t have to win, so that is a pressure off our shoulders. We come here with a strong package and with a hope that we can challenge for a win and we will do the best job we can. We have not come here to finish further down the order but we obviously know that it is not do or die. It would be great for the team to win. I think the team deserve it as they have worked so hard. When you think about all the people that collectively made the two cars competitive throughout the season with a remarkable reliability. It is just down to the solid job and it would be great to give them the championship. We will do the best job we can and see what the result is.

David Coulthard Column

Singapore brought a welcome upturn in David Coulthard�s fortunes as the Red Bull driver scored his second points finish of the season � although an uncharacteristic pit miscue by the team limited his haul to two points rather than a potential five.

But after getting some stick from his fellow itv.com/f1 columnist Ted Kravitz, DC felt compelled to respond in his latest column as well as offering his assessment of the inaugural Singapore event.

It was gratifying to come away from Singapore with my first points finish since my podium in Montreal and to get some reward from one of the most demanding races of the season.
At the same time, there was inevitably a feeling of �what might have been� because I was set for fourth place rather than seventh until the mix-up at my final pit stop.
I was happy with my personal performance and felt I drove one of my best races of the year.
However my fellow itv.com/f1 columnist Ted Kravitz � who I think I may have met in the Formula 1 paddock at some point, although I�d have to check � has thrown down the gauntlet by suggesting that my performance was �mediocre� and that I�m now in retirement mode.

Having now had the opportunity to read Ted�s column, I�m afraid there are several inaccuracies that I need to correct to give a true picture of how my race unfolded.
First off, he criticises my slow in-lap before my second pit stop and asks why I was unable to overtake Fernando Alonso, who had just emerged from the pits.
Well, Lewis Hamilton � in one of the fastest cars out there � couldn�t pass me for more than 20 laps, so why would I be able to pass Alonso, who went on to win the grand prix?
If Lewis is as good as we all think he is, why did he spend more than 20 laps behind me?
Could he not have overtaken a driver in the twilight of his career if it was as easy as Ted imagines? How many people have you, Ted Kravitz, overtaken?
The true explanation is that Fernando came out right in front of me at the apex of turn one and, tanked up and on tyres that were not yet up to optimum temperature and pressure, inevitably held me up through the next two corners of the sequence.
That was what enabled Hamilton to finally get a run on me through turn five and down the back straight.
I lost further time as he passed me because I made him work for the place and was therefore off-line through turn seven.
The net effect of those two facts � being caught behind Fernando in the first three corners and losing time fighting for position with Lewis � was that I had a slow in-lap.
But when you�ve got a car holding you up through three interlinked corners, there�s nothing you can do; Hamilton capitalised on my being delayed to make a pass that he�d been unable to pull off throughout the previous stint.
Whatever anyone thinks of my performance this year, I look back at that period of my race as a very strong, consistent piece of defensive racecraft.

Ted asks how I managed to finish behind Nico Rosberg (who had to serve a penalty) and several other drivers who I had been ahead of after the first safety car period.
Again, this strikes me as a pretty superficial analysis.
The reason I (along with everyone else except the race winner) finished behind Rosberg was that Nico got lucky with the delay in applying his penalty and had the benefit of nine laps in clear air in which to build a huge lead, so he emerged from his stop still in front of me and Lewis.
And the reason I slipped from fourth to seventh place was the glitch at my last stop, when I was released before the refuelling was complete.
I played this down in my post-race interviews because I didn�t feel it was fair to criticise the Red Bull pit crew, who have been among the fastest and slickest out there this year.
But the fact is, they made a mistake. I�ve made my share this year too and mistakes happen.
But what it did mean was that I rejoined the racetrack behind Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel and Nick Heidfeld rather than in front of them, and the die was cast for the rest of the race.
Ted then points out that I fell away in the final stint and that I only set the 13th fastest lap.
I was on a used set of option tyres (the slower compound in Singapore) and it�s true that I lost ground to the front-runners, which is not surprising given the fundamentally superior pace of their cars.
But Kazuki Nakajima dropped away from me in the last stint even though he had been quicker than me earlier in the race and Williams were considerably faster than us all weekend in Singapore.
Also, my underlying pace was closer to our sister team Toro Rosso than it has been in recent grands prix.
I set a faster race lap than Sebastien Bourdais and I was three-tenths slower than Vettel, when we know that the underlying pace difference between the two cars is closer to half a second at the moment.
So when Ted says I �could only manage� the 13th fastest lap I don�t know what his basis for comparison is.
I have no problem receiving criticism for errors or what might appear like average performances, but to cite Singapore as an example of that simply doesn�t stand up in my opinion.


What I think this highlights is the difficulty that people who are not ex-drivers have in explaining some of the nuances of Formula 1 to the viewing public.
The public relies on so-called expert opinions, but very often the opinion-formers are people who don�t have any direct experience of what they are talking about.
As I explained in my autobiography, a big source of disappointment in my racing career has been the manner in which the media wield a lot of influence without necessarily either speaking from a position of knowledge or being held to account.
I can give an opinion on Peter Mandelson being brought back to the cabinet, but I don�t know enough about politics so someone will tear it apart because it�s not a credible opinion.
Equally, would you want a doctor who has never performed brain surgery giving an opinion on how to go about the procedure and whether the neurosurgeon who carried out the procedure did a good job?
I appreciate it�s not realistic to expect all F1 journalists to be ex-F1 drivers, but I do feel a bit more humility would be in order when offering opinions that are not based on facts.
Ted can surmise that because I�m in my last season and I�m about to be a father then I must have lifted off the throttle.
No one is in a position to know that other than me � and as I�ve said many times, if I ever felt that I no longer had the commitment to drive the car I wouldn�t still be doing it.
I certainly wouldn�t have committed to a contract for next year that will see me carrying out one of the more dangerous aspects of Formula 1, which is testing and development of the car.
The reality is that I still enjoy the technical aspects of F1 and I still love driving the cars, but I recognise that my competitive racing days are coming to an end.
I�m not in denial of that fact, so to suggest that my time is up � when I�ve already acknowledged that�s the case, after a long and in my opinion mildly successful career � is hardly an earth-shattering revelation.
I�m entirely comfortable being in the category of has-been because the other options are to be a wannabe or a never-has-been.

Night Fever

The Singapore event was a great success in several different ways: as Formula 1�s first ever night race; as a new street circuit that, bumps aside, the drivers really enjoyed; and as a well organised and presented event with a big crowd on hand.
Racing under floodlights didn�t pose any great problems; in fact, given Singapore�s draining heat and humidity, and the physical nature of the track, it made perfect sense to run the race at night.
The rough surface, on the other hand, was a significant issue.
Unfortunately the bumpiest part of the track was from turn five to turn seven, which was also the best overtaking opportunity.
The circuit was crested as you went through the kink at turn six and extremely bumpy in seven, and it meant that having a go was very risky.
We saw some severe lock-ups in turn seven on a couple of occasions because the cars were literally jumping off the ground at that point.
I�m sure that�s something that will be rectified for next year and we will see significantly better racing as a result.
You can always judge the physical difficulty of a grand prix by how long the drivers hang around in the weigh-in garage, and a lot of people waited in there for several minutes before walking out to speak to the media.
I was pretty dehydrated after the race because I had driven all 61 laps without a supply of fluid, having discovered just before the start that my new helmet hadn�t had a drinks system fitted!
One aspect of the weekend that was very strange was the fact that the drivers and teams were all staying on European time zones while life in Singapore carried on as normal.
It was bizarre to have us drivers hanging around the hotel lobby at 3am wondering what to do because everyone else � locals, fans, corporate sponsors � was tucked up in bed and the town was in lockdown.
We were holding drivers� briefings at one o�clock in the morning and going for something to eat at two or three o�clock.
We found one open-all-hours restaurant in the Conrad hotel called Oscar�s, but the rest of the time we survived on room service.
All in all, everyone seemed to enjoy the weekend, there was a big turnout of Paddock Club and corporate guests and it was an exciting spectacle for fans and TV viewers.
I think street circuits and night races have a niche role to play on the Formula 1 calendar, but I wouldn�t want to see too many of them because then some of the novelty and extra anticipation would be lost.

David Coulthard was speaking to Alex Sabine http://www.itv-f1.com/

Coulthard not thinking about retirement

David Coulthard is not thinking about retirement from Formula 1. The oldest driver in Formula 1, at the age of 37, will be racing in his 14th British Grand Prix this weekend, but it is unsure if this will be the last time he races at Silverstone.

"We're all different, and I'm quite a realist," said Coulthard. "When something has happened, or a decision has been taken or whatever it happens to be, it's not something I dwell on, I just get on with the next thing. It's just one of those things. When that moment comes, it's the journey of life. You just move on to the next thing.'

"I'm currently a grand prix driver, I have been for many seasons, and I'm sitting here still as a grand prix driver because I still enjoy it, and I get a buzz from it, and clearly I deliver a value enough for the team to commit to me for the last few years."

"There will come a point, naturally, where that's not going to continue and... boo hoo, you know? There are a lot of worse things that can happen to you. You just move on to the next challenge."

Coulthard who drives for the Red Bull team has drawn the anger of fans and competitors for being old and in the way, but had a great run in Canada finishing on the podium. And there is now speculation that Coulthard will be replaced by the young German Sebastian Vettel in 2009.

Coulthard realistic about F1 future [Autosport.com]