Very very important interview with Stefano Domenicali
Q & A with Stefano Domenicali
By Jonathan Noble Monday, August 25th 2008, 10:05 GMT
Q. Since when have you no longer used the lollypop for pitstops, and can you explain how your system works?
Stefano Domenicali: Basically, the system is working in the following way. Basically when the fuel nozzle is connected to the car, you see that there is a red light on. At a certain moment, you see that there is a flashing light that is close to the red light that is flashing, showing the driver that he has to be ready.
Then, as soon as the nozzle is coming off, the light becomes green unless the guy that is controlling the pitstop position is controlling that manually, because that means that there is a car on the fast lane that is coming through, so he has to block the car. That is the system, how it works. We've used it since last year.
Q. You noticed that you removed the wheel hub covers at Felipe's first stop, can you tell us what the thinking was behind that?
SD: Yeah, both cars, we decided to change the cover of the front wheels just to make sure that... you know that here braking is very hard, so we didn't want to risk any problem with the brake wear and with the brake temperature so that was the safest thing to do, considering the performance, and considering the gap that we had.
Q. Stefano, you've been using this system for a while now but it does seem to be very complicated and it just didn't work to your advantage today in the pitstops. Are you over-complicating it and is there too much room for error, during what is a very tense moment when drivers are coming in, especially in the case of Kimi Raikkonen's pitstop today?
SD: I don't think so, to be honest. When there is a red flight, it's a red light, it's like the lollypop is down. I don't think that we need to go towards that depth. Of course we need to make sure that the system is always working, that is something that we have to make sure, but this is another story.
Q. Obviously there was also the incident involving Felipe's exit from the pits today. Can you talk us through what happened there and how you saw it?
SD: As you know, we've received a fine for the team and not for the driver for unsafe release of the car from the pitstop position. To be honest, we didn't consider that as an unsafe move. As you can see, there was no hindering, there was no braking, Felipe was on the right hand side, he stopped and let the Force India let him through but that was the view of the FIA and we have to respect it.
Q. Stefano, was there any indication of Kimi's impending engine failure or was it very immediate and sudden?
SD: Unfortunately as it was last time in Hungary for Felipe was no indication at all, we saw the smoke on the main straight once again. And we are just now disassembling the engine to understand what is the real problem of that, so I cannot give you that answer straight away because really the guys are still working on the engine. No warning at all.
Q. In the past you had a T-car to do pitstop training on Saturday morning. That is no longer the case obviously. Has that affected your pitstops at all?
SD: To be honest I don't think so because we are doing the pitstop at home, trying to do more simulation or do some rehearsals at home, but that fact that we can't do it at a race but I don't think that's a problem.
Q. Kimi is the world champion for sure but he's not having a good time in Formula One. Today he failed at the start and even in the pitstop, does Ferrari think of doing something to support him, try to understand what is going on for the last races in the championship?
SD: Of course. It's easy when things are going well, that everyone close to you puts your arms on their shoulders to say you are number one, number one, number one and then suddenly when you have a difficult situation, then you see, ha ha, this is already a boiled driver. That's not the case.
He's the world champion, we are a team, and of course we will support everyone of the team, and above all, of course Kimi, because we trust him 100 percent. It's in the difficult moments that the team has to stay together. We don't have any doubt at all about Kimi's performance and I'm pretty sure he will come back from here up to the end in Brazil.
Q. In Kimi's pitstop, the instant Kimi started to move, what was the status of the light? What was it showing?
SD: It was red.
Q. You've had two engine failures in two races. Is this indicative there's a reliability problem with your engine and does that mean that you're concerned for Spa with Felipe going into the second race at a circuit that's hard on engines?
SD: Well of course this is a problem that in this condition make us not sleep very well. If you don't arrive in races it is difficult in a championship that is so tight, and you lose points on the reliability to be up in both classifications. The only thing we can do is to work hard and try to understand what's the reason for these failures and work.
That's the only thing we have to do and keep fighting because on the other side, we saw great performance of the car coming back and this is what we want. On one side we are still in the championship, on the other side the gap is there. We will push very very hard all the way to the end.
Q. What is your latest information about the injured mechanic?
SD: It's alright. He had a little fracture of one toe but he's alright. I spoke with him, he's alright. He's very happy that we won. Just to show how is the feeling of the people, he said to me 'I'm very sorry, I'm very sorry' and it was not his fault.
It just shows how Ferrari people are, the passion that they have, the way they behave and the professionalism that put in every day and they know they are mechanics. We need to be very proud of the guys that are working in this team.
Q. Back to Kimi Raikkonen who got beaten off the line by Heikki Kovalainen, and as you've just admitted, went away from his pitstop with the light on red, so he's not concentrating, he's not performing to the standards that you would set from your driver. What is wrong with him?
SD: You're a good friend of Kimi, I would say! When you're a driver, first of all you are really able to look inside and understand what things are going well and the things that are going wrong, and for sure, at this moment, we - because I want to stress and underline the fact that we – have to work together and understand how on our side we can improve and help and I'm pretty sure that as I said before, once again, that he's totally committed and you will see up again in the end because he wants to show and we want to show that he's the World Champion, believe me.
Q. Kimi has been saying that he wants to put emphasis on qualifying set-up even though that might sacrifice his race set-up and today we saw a rather aggressive approach from Massa's strategy, as in he went slightly lighter than normal. Was Kimi given the choice to go for that kind of strategy today?
SD: Yeah, of course. We have normal discussion throughout the season in qualifying. I think that today shows that if you are able to race in free air we can show our pace completely, and if you are behind and if you have a difficult start it's more difficult. For sure it's a point of team improvement in qualifying.
I hope you are right, but I'm afraid of the opposite...:lol:
