After having a relatively disappointing season last
year, how confident are you that a step up can be made
in 2011?
I wouldn't say it was a disappointing season. I think it
could have been better, the team worked hard. We knew it
was not going to be easy, especially with the new rules
and the team had to build its car on its own, so we know
it wasn't going to be a positive season. Now I think we
are a lot more confident the car looks good I think they
worked really hard. Obviously we need to wait until we
actually test it on the circuit to see what we can
expect for this year but it is definitely looking more
promising and we will see once testing starts.
You are going
into your third season with Toro Rosso, do you see this
as a make or break season for yourself that unless you
move up into a team that's higher up the championship
that you've basically lost in Formula 1?
I would say it
is an important season like all of them. It is always
important and we will try to do our best. Obviously I'm
going to give everything to be able to have very good
results and be as much as possible in the points, and
then what next season is doing we don't know. We need to
concentrate on this one, it's a long season, 20 races,
but we will see what we can do. The team is doing a very
good job at the moment, we already plan some evolution
coming. It's a lot more under control considering what
we could do this winter and also in comparison to last
year when it was a little bit more difficult because we
didn't have the wind-tunnel and all the people working
well together. So now we're a lot more experienced, we
have more time, the winter has been good and we need to
wait and see what the car can do.
Q. What areas
do you think the team needs to improve this season?
Obviously
I know all the circuits now so what is important is to
get the KERS, the rear wing, the tyres everything
together as soon as possible and I think there is more
experience to get quicker to the point where can start
on the set up of the car so I think in that respect I
improved a lot, but there is still room to improve and I
need to improve again. This is a place where there is
some margin to get better, other than that racing is
racing, you never know what can happen. You make a
decision in tenths of a second, you have to see if it's
a good one, sometimes I think last year I was quite
unlucky but this year it's a new season. I'm looking
forward to start testing and then racing.
There is a
number of guys around at the moment such as Daniel who
could potentially could be looking to join this team
next year, do you feel a bit under pressure from that
point of view knowing there is drivers waiting?
This is a
philosophy of F1 in the end and I think its good that we
have Daniel testing on Friday because everybody knows he
was quick in the Red Bull, so in a way we will have a
good benchmark and will be able to compare myself with
him. So I think it is really a good point and also on
the Friday morning we don't run so much so I don't think
this is going to be a big problem in terms of setting up
the car because the first session is always quite dirty
and the circuit is not quite up to speed but it will
definitely be good to compare with everything.
Two drivers
have complained that they are going to be working too
hard this year behind the wheel, with the KERS and the
wing, are you in agreement with that?
It is definitely not
going to be easy but at the same time when KERS was
introduced everybody said it was going to be difficult
and also with the front wing it's a lot of work but then
in the end it became quite natural and nobody had any
problems. It's maybe 20 activations per lap perhaps, if
you look at the rear wing and KERS and brake balance,
and mappings. But I think we will get used to it quite
quickly. By the first race we may not even have any
problems anymore, I don't know. Maybe there is a limit
where it starts to be difficult. It is definitely not
easy, but it's the same for everybody and if you don't
use those tools then you will not be able to be quick
enough.
