Q. Is there a feeling that this win has been a long-time coming?
WR: Yes. When we saw at the beginning of the season that we had a competitive car, but to win a race in these days when everything is perfect you cannot real force it. Everything has to work out, everything has to work perfectly. And today everything was perfect and we won a race.
Q. Autosport's front cover and top story this week was that Canada's chaotic event will hand Kubica his best chance of a win. Did you feel that coming here?
WR: Not really. A bad car, you have a few tracks where you feel that here we can score some points or here you can go on the podium. A good car, and we have a good car, is normally strong on all the tracks. Up to now, we have to say that we were quite competitive on all the tracks. In Monaco, we were a bit unlucky because Lewis was very lucky with the two incidents he had, and everything was perfect on our side. And that is the result of it.
Q. Robert said in Monaco that he was worried BMW Sauber were losing touch with Ferrari and McLaren, but Mario Theissen said wait until here. How do you see the dynamics of the top three?
WR: I think it is still the same. From the beginning of the season there is a very strong three teams, and Ferrari and McLaren were still equal or slightly ahead of us, and that is still the case. I think the picture has not really changed.
Q. How do you think it will pan out on tracks with a high demand on aerodynamic performance?
WR: I don't think the picture will change. Not really.
Q. So a mix?
WR: We have to be realistic. Normally they are slightly better than us, and today we benefited from the incident at the end of the pitlane but that is part of the game. If you want to win, everything has to be perfect and that is what happened to us. Some other teams were not so lucky.
Q. Do you believe that consistency is enough to win the championship with the mistakes that Ferrari and McLaren are making?
WR: I think it is too early to say. We are very proud of what we achieved up to now with the first victory, and the position one and two is even better. It is what you dream of! But to think about the world championship is nice, but much too early.
Q. How much more progress/speed can you get from this car?
WR: We have a quite extreme car. What we are doing is optimising the car. When you see the car from the start of the season, or even from the roll-out, to now, it is difficult to figure out all the changes. It is more in optimising the details. We will continue that because we are sure that there is still potential in the car and we will continue with our development. We will not change it just after this race because the drivers are leading the world championship.
Q. Was the period of improving the car after the roll-out a benefit in understanding the car, or a loss in terms of lost development time?
WR: We did not lose development time. We started the roll-out on a low performance, but we recognised very early what to change on the car. This is what we changed. We improved the car, but it wasn't really recognised to the outside world. But we had continuous development with the car and the target was that we make a step forward - that was the target of the team. We are smaller than our direct competition, like Ferrari and McLaren.
And if you want to make a step forward then you have to take a bigger risk to go a different route – otherwise you just follow them. This is what we did and it is clear for us there is a bigger risk with the new car. It is not likely that you start the roll-out and you have a very strong car. It was not a complete surprise to us. It would have been nice to have a very strong car from the beginning but nobody in the team was panicking. Nobody.
Q. Robert said his feeling in the car was transformed when the engine braking and traction control were turned off. Is it too simplistic to say that?
WR: I think it was to a certain degree helping him. And on the other hand, he is a better driver than last year. He is very aggressive, but we also try and develop the car in this direction – when he works together with the team it is at a very high level.
Q. Is it a similar scenario to Fernando at Renault?
WR: Maybe it is something like this. Sometimes it doesn't take a lot to change direction.
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