Sunday, June 22, 2008

Q and A with Stefano Domenicali

Q and A with Stefano Domenicali

Q: Kimi's engine, how likely is it that you're going to have to replace it for Silverstone?

Stefano Domenicali: I would say it is quite likely. For sure, after such a heavy race from the middle to the end, it's very likely that we have to change it so we need to play the joker that allows us to do it. As I said, we will do the analysis later on and tomorrow but there's no rush to do anything more than eventually change it when we go to Silverstone.

Q: Do you know yet what the problem may have been caused by?

SD: Unfortunately no. Unfortunately it was not possible to understand it and also the other difficulty is that we had almost half of the race with all the breaking parts falling apart so it will also be difficult to have the pieces in our hands because they're somewhere around the track and we will try to do the analysis after this weekend but at the moment there's no other info.

Q: You predecessor always maintained that Felipe was a fairly undervalued driver in some ways, the press didn't really recognise his talents. Do you think that he's changed this season and that he really is a different driver to the past?

SD: I think that we always said that we were very very happy... extremely happy about our two drivers. We always need to think that it's better not to take any kind of thinking before the end of the season because if you think that after the first two Grands Prix Felipe had zero points, I recall what was the discussion about him, but we need to look ahead.

I think that strong drivers in a strong team have to look ahead without breaking on the shoulder the negative thinking around, so I think he's strong now, and as I said, I think it's the first time for him to be leading the drivers' championship so it's a great award to him but it doesn't change anything on our side. The teamwork is our main target and we said at the beginning that there's no changes in our decisions or strategies.

Q: Can you explain what the problem was with Kimi's car: was it temperature, loss of power, aero?

SD: Basically it can be everything because if you lose the exhaust there's no more performance and then you start to whether different parameters on the engine, then the temperatures goes up, the water pressure comes down. Everything is mixed up, of course. In a way, it was very very good and very important to finish the race with eight points in that condition.

Q: Why was it not possible to remove the exhaust at the pit stop?

SD: It had already fallen off. It was already flying away. There was the cable of the lamda and we decided not to cut that because we were maybe losing more seconds, and we had Trulli pushing behind so we took that into consideration, and I have to say that in terms of strategy, in terms of teamwork everything was done correctly.

Q: How surprised are you that you managed to get through half the race with that problem, because a lot of other cars might have stopped at that point?

SD: We take that on our side. For sure we were very worried, no doubt, it was a long race to finish, maybe lost a lot of years and a lot of hair but that's part of the game. Extremely happy. In that condition you never know. It may stop any lap, it's too difficult, it's critical.

Q: Kimi said that the car was getting quite bad at the end. How many more laps do you think it could have gone?

SD: The maximum the engine lasts is for two races so maybe... I think it's a bit ambitious to have another race in that condition but honestly, I don't know, difficult to say. I don't want to tell lies; I don't know.

Q: Kimi's times dropped off, but after a few laps he wasn't as quick as Massa but he seemed to be picking up speed again. Could you do anything on the mapping side of the engine to get it over this problem?

SD: Yes, that's what we said. We were trying to do what we could in order to protect the engine under those conditions and after all the things that were possible to do, just wait until the chequered flag. A lot of things. You could see that there were a lot of switches being moved around.



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