2009 Telefonica Spanish Grand Prix

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Who will win the Spanish Grand Prix?

Poll ended at 10 May 2009, 13:15

Jenson Button
27
44%
Rubens Barrichello
3
5%
Sebastian Vettel
8
13%
Jarno Trulli
1
2%
Timo Glock
1
2%
Lewis Hamilton
1
2%
Heikki Kovalainen
0
No votes
Fernando Alonso
1
2%
Mark Webber
2
3%
Kimi Raikkonen
10
16%
Felipe Massa
7
11%
Nico Rosberg
0
No votes
Other
1
2%
 
Total votes: 62

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swca92
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by swca92 » 10 May 2009, 15:24

Jacobbs. On Ferrari, they are a shambles, they messed up qualifying, had a car break down and bungled up the pitstop, then messed up by leaving Massa out when they should have pitted him for more fuel, put the soft tyres on and raced Alonso for 5th.

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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Zack » 10 May 2009, 15:29

Q & A with Felipe Massa

By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde Sunday, May 10th 2009, 15:17 GMT

Q. You had nine more kilos of fuel than Brawn at the start, yet you came in very soon after them. Can you explain what happened there?

Felipe MassaFelipe Massa: No. I don't understand. Maybe the consumption. I don't know.

Q. So you had to come in?

FM: Yeah.

Q. You couldn't have gone any further?

FM: I don't think so.

Q. After about 60 laps, you were 20 seconds behind, three tenths of a second behind. Is that more or less where Ferrari is?

FM: In Q2 we were two tenths slower. In qualifying, in Q3 we were four tenths slower because of the fuel. Usually the picture is similar in the race. Two tenths in the race is quite a big difference. Most of the time they were going slowly away. So that's the real picture at the moment.

Maybe we are still a couple of tenths behind. Red Bull I don't know because I was always in front of Vettel, so I don't know if I was holding him a lot or he was really similar. We still need to improve, but I think if you compare the car we had in this race and the car we had before it's a big stop forward. That's really, really encouraging.

Q. It must have been very disappointing when the team told you about the fuel?

FM: We didn't have a problem with the calculations. We had a problem with the machine. But I don't know if the problem was human or the machine. We need to analyse what was the problem.

It was very frustrating. You fight the whole race and then you have to back off. I was already saving fuel in the last run, but it was not enough, so I had to really back off and let Vettel go. I lost a position to Fernando and almost to Nick, so it was quite frustrating.

Q. How has the car improved?

FM: It's much better to drive. It's more consistent, you can be more aggressive under braking. We just have more downforce. It's just much better. I felt it straight away on Friday.

Q. Was there a chance to stop for fuel? What was the discussion with the team?

FM: My engineer was asking me to save fuel, but I was trying to save while fighting for my position with Vettel. He said maybe we could carry on like that and be okay. Then he said it was impossible. I think by the time it was worse to stop, so I don't know.

Q. With the speed of the Brawns and the points' advantage Jenson has, do you realistically think you can catch him?

FM: In the championship? No, I don't think so. We need to be realistic. After five races they won four. Even if we improve massively and we are three or four tenths if front of them they will still score points. So forget it.
Poor guy really pissed off!

@Jacobbs : Don't care ... its like sh*t as always.
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by harrisv48 » 10 May 2009, 15:31

I think Ross Brawn isn't a good person because he have late Rubens take the win he diseur vet! He did all the hard work set up take the lied (and that Ross he did to Rubens in the past when they both work in Ferrari)! :<>: Same on you Ross :<>:
Same for Kimi he did a great job but the car he betray him, :( and in Ferrari they have to pout they brains to the heads and to do correct mathematics for strategy in fuel. :<>:

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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Zack » 10 May 2009, 15:45

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings PEACE -Buddha
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Totopupu » 10 May 2009, 15:59

I think Ross Brawn isn't a good person
It's normal that you say he isn't a good person because a good businessman like him don't act by thinking at Rubens or Jenson or Jenson's father but by thinking at his business (sponsors, engine, victory of the team, David Richards smiling or not, ...)
Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, Michael Schumacher = DREAM TEAM

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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by harrisv48 » 10 May 2009, 16:54

You dum right all about maney not for motorsport! :<>:

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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Jaguar » 10 May 2009, 16:57

:blink: wow guys ! i read almost 5-6 pages full of blames ...

First of all Well done for Brawn well done for Red Bull and Alonso no comments but he did a good job finishing in points with his Lego Car design ...

Talking about lots of things about this race especialy most teams getting aerodynamics upgrades/updates to the spanish gp some failed some worked and somes like Force India did nothing at all ...

I was surfing on some sites and i stopped on F1.com Technical Anylasis from Spanish gp , BMW was one of the most interresting info i read about their new designed rear wing will work well for Monaco :p as far as Ferrari and BMW both had lighter Chassis , Brawn had also a light chassis which is 7 KG lighter how'ever ...

Rumours as usualy are within every race weekend says that After Qualifying problem with Ferrari and Kimi , Ferrari is now considering Booting Kimi from the team (Remember Bahrain 2004 ? Kimi had an engine failure and he kept pushing on Gas ... it was a bad sign for the Mercedes Company :p )

now lets start with :

Brawn : Team Orders work well for them i think their next step is the same used to happen with Ferrari and especialy Austrian GP i guess it was 01 .

Red Bull : Thank You Adrian Newey

Renault : its time to kick Piquet out of the team remember ur good at kicking drivers ... get some1 that can challenge ... and Change this Epic-Fail design (Blame the Car not the Engine)

Ferrari : Another Quote from Another Race "Stop pushing ... You don't have much fuel for the end of the race u need to stop Pushing " Felipe replied " What can i do ! .. " a few laps later " Let him pass ... let him pass " << LOL

BMW : Not Bad .. Thank the Retirements ... Nick Well done for ur patient ...

Williams : Superb despite they only got 1 pt another team that should think about their car design

McLaren : Poor Lewis ...

Toyota : Blame the Williams :p i dunno they even didn't do well all weekend

Force India : blame the Williams again ... Sutil retired cause of crash , Fisico driving a damaged car

STR : No Comments but i think if they raced they would have been behind Lewis or in Top 10

Finaly this race was mega borring i only loved Fernando VS Massa :p

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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Totopupu » 10 May 2009, 17:32

BARRICHELLO :
"I had the race in my hands and I was quite surprised when they told me they were switching Jenson to two (stops)," Barrichello said. "I would like to understand why they changed that."
Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, Michael Schumacher = DREAM TEAM

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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Ali » 10 May 2009, 17:39

More on that:
James Allen wrote:And after the race Rubens came out with an extraordinary statement and said in a live interview on US Speed TV channel, “If I get a whiff that Ross favoured Jenson today I will hang up my helmet immediately. But I don’t think he would do that..”
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by AzraQ » 10 May 2009, 17:48

Jaguar wrote:
Finaly this race was mega borring i only loved Fernando VS Massa :p
I don't think it can be called Massa Vs Alonso, Massa couldn't fight back, Thanks to the brilliant team behind him, remember singapore last year, they cost him the championship with no doubt, atleast this season they are doing it early so he wouldn't have his hopes high then down

Kimi was doing great, he was pushing on and pressing on wth no KERS, carrying extra weight for nothing and still he did well.

Ferrari now I think are not near the brawns, but at the same level as the RedBulls ( - good desicion from the team)
Massa's times were alost identical to those of Vettel's, I guess we can hope for a third spot in championship IF the team wakes up and start correcting the fatal errors they have been doing since last season!

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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Ali » 10 May 2009, 18:05

Press Conference:
Spoiler:
Q: Jenson, another brilliant day for you and your team. A switch for your team-mate to a three
stop strategy relatively early in the race and then just a great day for you.
Jenson BUTTON: Well, it was the other way around. We were both going that direction but they
switched me to a two stop just to cover all our bases. Three stop was the quicker strategy we thought
and I wasn’t sure about going to a two stop. When we put the fuel on board it felt very, very heavy
and I didn’t think I would come out in front of (Felipe) Massa and (Sebastian) Vettel but I did. From
then on I could get my head down and concentrate on putting the laps in and being as consistent as
possible. So to come away with a win, they all mean a lot obviously but coming back to Europe and
winning in Barcelona, a circuit that I’ve always found a little bit tough, it’s a good feeling and gives me
a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.

Q: Rubens, a great team performance as well. Tell us about the race from your point of view.
Rubens BARRICHELLO: The race evolved quite well. I had a great start, went to the lead. I was
running a tiny bit quicker than Jenson to begin with and I had two more laps of fuel. It was running
quite well and then I heard they changed Jenson’s strategy and I had to keep on pushing. My third set
of tyres was not good. I don’t know if there was something broken on the car or anything. I could not
keep my pace up as well as the last set, so I guess it wasn’t the tyre, it must be something to do with
the car and from there on it was a struggle. I had a big struggle to keep the car on the track and a
relief to come second and a big thank you to the whole group as it is still first and second back in
Europe. Disappointed that I haven’t won the race as I thought I had it in the bag today but it is still a
good effort from the whole team.

Q: Mark, a strong result for you and the team. Your team-mate Sebastian Vettel obviously
spent most of the race behind Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. But a great ending to your second stint
to make up that time.
Mark WEBBER: Yeah, exactly. It was a tough first stint in terms of we knew that it was in qualifying
that it was going to be difficult to get track position on those guys, particularly Felipe round this place
as you can’t do much on the circuit. We did our best to hang in there in the first stint as best as we
could. I knew I was one lap shorter which is never ideal but that’s the way it was because of
qualifying. The car went incredibly neutral in the high speed in the last few laps of the first stint, so we
made a balance correction for the second stint and the second stint went very well for me. It was very
long, we knew we had to go extremely long to try and jump and give us very good field position if you
like with the people around us. That worked well for the majority of the stint, a good 25 laps or so, and
again at the end I came up to Rubens a little bit. I would have tried to stay close and the guys were
encouraging me to stay as close as possible as we thought Rubens might have been one lap shorter
but he stopped on the same lap. The primes worked okay at the end. I was stuck behind Rubens
again for most of the last stint. But it is a good day for the team. We would like a few more points but
I think, what is it 10 or 11 for Sebastian and I so that’s another good chunk for us. These guys are a
still going away but we are going away from the rest of the field, so a great day for us. And the team
have buried themselves this week to get the car ready, a lot of all-nighters and a fantastic thank you
to Renault as the engines have been great.

Q: Jenson, let’s have a look at the start. Your start with Rubens taking the lead and the first
corner accident and weaving through the debris afterwards behind the safety car.
JB: Yeah, the start I felt was okay but Rubens got a flier of a start. I moved to the inside to try and
hold the line but when he has got that much of an overlap at the start you can’t really do much about
it into turn one. Rubens did a great start and I wasn’t able to stay with him on that and as soon as he
was in front I knew it was going to be very difficult to beat him.

Q: And the mayhem behind you?
JB: We obviously didn’t see any of that. The only thing we saw was the debris. When we got to it the
debris was all over the circuit, so it’s a surprise that there were no tyre issues afterwards as there
were massive amounts of debris.

Q: When you come into that situation behind the safety car what are you looking for? What
can you do to try and avoid issues with the tyres, etc?
JB: Well, you are very limited. If there is carbon fibre all over the circuit you are limited to what you
can do. You have got your spotter, you have got your engineer who has been looking at the accident,
he knows where the worst bits are. But look at the pick up on the tyre, it’s massive. And a great thing
that there were no issues with the debris, so it is positive really.

Q: Rubens, as Jenson just said, a great start for you.
RB: I had a great reflex and I did have a little better start than Jenson and I used his slipstream and
was able to carry that momentum into the first corner.

Q: And then coming in for this earlier pit stop for your scheduled strategy?
RB: I was on a lap or two longer. Obviously I think Jenson caught me up a little bit on the strategy
because of the safety car. I was quite happy as having a lap longer and being in front I was delighted.
I had the race in my hands, so I was actually quite surprised when they told me they had switched
Jenson to two. From then on I had to go flat out. The only minor thing was that I came in a lap or two
earlier on my final pit stop as there were lots of cars and blue flags and I was losing time.

Q: Mark, your team-mate was in front of you. But the KERS certainly did well for Massa off the
line. But by your second pit stop you had made that ground back by running six laps longer.
MW: Yeah, we knew what we had to do. It wasn’t rocket science. Go long when I knew they would
have bolted the primes on.

Q: And Mark today is the 50th anniversary of Sir Jack Brabham’s first ever win in Formula
One, so a nice day for you to be on the podium.
MW: Yeah, exactly. I saw a great photo of Jack earlier today. He did a huge amount for Formula One.
He is a legend in our country, so it is great to get a podium on the same day as he had a great day as
well. So, a special day.

Q: Jenson, we won’t mention what lies ahead other than the immediate future which is the
Monaco Grand Prix and what a momentum you now have.
JB: Yeah, it is a dream come true so far this season. Even when times are tough we seem to be able
to get the wins. When it is going well, it goes well, doesn’t it. And it was the same last year. When it
was going bad, it went really bad. I do feel like I am on top of the world at the moment as I am sure
the whole team do also. They have done a magnificent job and with this new package you can see
we have got a bit of an advantage again. I am very proud of all the guys back at the factory. I don’t
think they get enough of a mention, the guys at Brackley, so thank you very much and also thanks to
Mercedes Benz as we can’t do it without you.

PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Jenson, I mentioned earlier on today about that statistic about starting from pole. The last
eight winners. Now it makes nine winners. But you were on the clean side of the circuit in
theory and yet you got a worse start than Rubens who was on the dirty side.
JB: No, Rubens started right behind me.

Q: Yes, that’s right. You had Sebastian right behind you.
JB: Yes, thanks for that statistic. I was thinking about that when I came out of turn one second. It
wasn’t the best start. It was a good start but this guy just got an amazing start and as soon as he was
in front I couldn’t do anything about him on the first stint. Basically I was hoping I could get a big
enough gap with Massa as I knew he was stopping a few laps longer. I thought if he gets in front of
me then that’s it, I’m screwed. I was pushing him as much as I could and we both pulled away.
Rubens pulled a little bit of a gap on me and I was able to get the gap to Massa. They realized I had
enough of a gap to pit and exit in front of Massa even though he was stopping later, so they tried to
cover both bases. We were both on a three stop initially and they put me to a two. The three was a
quicker race we thought but obviously the two worked. As soon as I came out of the pits in front of
Massa then it was just trying to put the laps in. It was difficult as I had a lot of fuel on board on that
second stint. I had to push so hard on a heavy fuel load and I damaged the tyres quite a bit but I
could get the lap time out of the car being aggressive with it. And that’s the good thing about this car.
You can be aggressive and it doesn’t seem to eat up the tyres. It is not normally my style but it is a
style I had to take for this race and it made the difference and Rubens had his problems with
understeer on his third set of tyres. When I got onto the prime I could get a reasonable lap time out of
them which most people couldn’t. There were lots of little factors which all came together and I
crossed the finish line first. This is a race which I didn’t really think I was going to, so yeah, I am very
happy and this means a lot going into the next couple of races.

Q: It sounds like you learned a little bit during this race as well?
JB: Yeah, I mean different circuits you have got to drive these cars with a different style. Bahrain is a
circuit where a smooth style sort of helps and here I have found over the last couple of days that you
can’t get the lap time by driving smoothly. You have to come out of the corner and plant the throttle.
As you see from the on-board cameras there is a lot of nervousness and if you don’t have that you
don’t have the lap time. It is something I have learnt and it definitely paid off learning from watching
people but also learning from watching Rubens. Rubens has been very fast this weekend. I have
obviously watched him out on the circuit and looked at his data, so he has helped me quite a bit.

Q: What about Monaco? Will that be a bit of a wild card as a race?
JB: It is very different and it is ‘chuck all the downforce on’ and don’t worry about the drag and see
what happens. It is a circuit which I think is very similar to this. I think I have always been a little bit
too cautious around circuits like this, so I have to change my style a bit to make it work on different
circuits and Monaco is a circuit where I need to get the best out of the car and maybe change my
style a bit from the first four races as it’s a bit more like here, so I am looking forward to it and this guy
is going to be a big challenge there and that is what we look forward to, the challenge.

Q: It is going to be his birthday in Monaco. He is going to be expecting a birthday present.
RB: Absolutely.
JB: We will see about that. I don’t think I can help out. I think that is down to you, fella?

Q: Rubens, your thoughts on today? How much was Massa a threat with his KERS?
RB: He was always a threat before the race but I was very confident that we could have a good start.
I was very determined to be very precise with everything and my race was like that. My race was very
precise. From the first corner I thought leading the race and having a lap more than Jenson I would
have won the race. I pushed from the very beginning as much as I could. There was never any time
that I dropped any time as I just had to go flat out as soon as they told me that Jenson had switched
to a two I thought there was some danger in there because when you have three and the guys are
behind, he will be much faster but you can control the visibility and see where he is fast and where he
is not and control the pace. But when I saw that he changed I was on my own and had to go flat out
and I did. I couldn’t have done any better. On my third set I didn’t have the pace that I had on the first
and second set. I don’t know why. It was just not there. I was locking wheels all over the place and
the same thing happened to the final set, so I hope that the guys come back to me and say there was
a small problem somewhere. But again, I go home happy with myself. I gave everything I could but
unfortunately I missed by a little bit the victory.

Q: It is a big disappointment with the difference in strategies?
RB: Well, it was a disappointment yesterday to have lost the pole position. But, you know you find
energy, you put yourself up to the cage. I love the challenge as well and after I had the start I told
myself everything is coming up again, so use your best knowledge and experience and speed.
Everything was coming alive, so it is a disappointment not to have won the race today of course.

Q: And what was the tyre strategy and was there a big difference between the tyres?
RB: No, I left the hards to the very end, so I think everyone must have struggled a touch more with
that. The first three sets they had a common, maybe my third set had three or four laps more if they
did but not that it would have meant a problem. Otherwise we would not have gone for three stops.
As Jenson said we were both on three stops and they changed the strategy for him. Good for him,
good for the team as we both covered one and two but I would like to understand why we changed
that.

Q: Mark, as you said, a long 31 lap second stint.
MW: Yeah, we knew it was going to be massive. We spoke about it this morning, if I was - not out of
position, but we knew that I was one lap shorter than most of the people we were trying to race, i.e.
Felipe was the main person we were trying to jump, it was going to be difficult to race these guys
today in terms of track position and also stopping on a similar lap, so Felipe was our main target.
Obviously that became true with Sebastian being stuck in his diffuser for most of the race. So
switching to the mega, mega long middle stint was a crucial part of the race for us, to be able to get a
little bit closer to Rubens and also jump a few guys, so it was a challenge. The car felt like it had a
caravan on the back to start with but we got through that and then you’ve just got to keep knocking
the laps in, even though it doesn’t feel that quick. But I had Lewis and one of the BMWs were
obviously light finishing their stints in front. I felt ‘I can’t even stay with these guys’ but you know how
heavy you are, you’re just trying to do your best and it worked out well for us. The pit stops were
clean and all those little things that you obviously need to get results like this, so it worked out well for
us.

Q: And then you were behind Rubens at the end but no chance of getting any closer.
MW: It’s still quite tricky to follow cars in the quick stuff here. I was pretty keen to get as close as I
could but on the other hand I just knew that the closer you get the risk just gets higher and higher and
I wasn’t that keen to drop it either, so we had a good result there and I just knew that you can get
within 1.5s and then forget it, really. Around here it’s so tough.

Q: So third’s not too much of a boring afternoon for you!
MW: I have to say that of course I did say it was going to be a boring race when it’s dry but it looks
like you had a bit of a spectacle in turn one with a few people having some problems down there but it
turned out that with some different strategies and things like that, it looks like the race wasn’t too bad.
It’s always a worry here, sometimes a Barcelona race can be incredibly boring but it looks like it was
quite a good race, so it’s good for the people watching it. And it looks like a lot of journos enjoyed it
today as well, lots of guys are here!

Q: They’ll all be listening to you next door.
MW: Ah, OK, well they can get their ar** in here. It’s only a two minute walk, isn’t it? Hi guys out
there, wherever you are…

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Jenson, well done again. At what stage in the race did you get the call
that you were switching to two stops? Who do you have to thank for that call and what were
your thoughts initially?
JB: Well, it was about a lap before I stopped. It was very, very late and I think they were judging the
distance between me and Massa. And initially I didn’t think it was a great idea because I wasn’t sure
who I was racing at that point. Rubens was obviously in front and I had Massa and Vettel behind and
initially I thought maybe they were worried that I was not going to get out in front of Massa and Vettel,
so they were going to send me long, so I could get them at the next stop but obviously that isn’t what
they were thinking and it was a very different situation to that. But when I first drove the car with a lot
of fuel on board it was moving around quite a bit at the back and it took a while to find my feet but
when I did – well, I had to, as soon as possible. Shov (Andrew Shovlin, race engineer) was on the
radio, my engineer, shouting at me ‘you’ve got to put the laps in now, you’ve got to put the laps in
now.’ And then closer and closer to Rubens’s second stop they were telling me ‘Rubens has got a
three second advantage over you, you’ve got to keep pushing.’ Every lap was flat out, I’ve never
driven in that style before and I’m sure when you watch it back on replay it looks pretty messy but it
was the best way to get the lap time out of the car. I got every tenth and everything out of that car that
I could do today.

Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Who made that decision?
JB: I didn’t ask.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) It was basically the same question to you also; who
does the strategy in the team? Is it Ross or is it your race engineer?
RB: It’s a group. Ross is involved. A group, we are together and this morning we decided that three
stops was the way to go. We came straight here (after the race) but after this evening we are going to
have a meeting again and then we have some answers.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Mark, what happened at the restart? (Fernando)
Alonso almost jumped you.
MW: Yeah, I had a big moment out of the chicane at the restart and I lost the rear under power, so
the momentum wasn’t great onto the start/finish straight and Fernando got a good run on me. I waited
for him to arrive and then I tried to send him to the outside but the pit lane arrived at the same time,
so he went in there and then I gave him just enough room to get down the inside. Then I thought that
I still need to get back past him, so immediately I tacked again down the inside and got the move
done. If that didn’t happen my race was destroyed, so I needed to risk quite a bit to do it and it
happened.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Mark, you’ve always been fast around Monaco
and this year you go there with a very quick car. What are your thoughts on that race?
MW: I think Monte Carlo is a very special track for all the drivers. It’s obviously definitely on its own
now. We have some other street circuits on the calendar like Valencia but they’re not exactly in the
same boat in terms of the precision that’s required. It’s bumpy, there’s obviously barriers everywhere,
the track changes a lot over the course of the weekend, so it’s a real challenge for the drivers in the
cockpit to nail and tame that circuit if you like, so that’s one… We have to enjoy all circuits. It’s like a
golfer, you can’t like some courses and not others. We have to do our best at every track. Monaco
has been reasonable to me in the past. I’m looking forward to going there again in a few weeks.
These guys got a few more points out of us again today, so we need to very, very quickly in the next
three or four races, try to swing the momentum, otherwise the constructors will start to eke away from
us.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Congratulations Jenson. You’ve now won four out of five races.
How hard is it for you to not start thinking about the championship because it looks to many
of us that this could be a runaway season?
JB: I think it would be good if I believed that, in a way, but also I think that at this point of the season,
as I’ve said, you need to be aggressive and you need to fight for every single point. There’s no point
hanging back and expecting it to happen. We need to be very aggressive and we need to get
everything out of this car at every race we go to, as I keep saying. It might be getting boring for you
guys but it’s just the way it is. This was an important victory for me, for sure, first victory back in
Europe, five races in and a reasonably good lead now. It’s a good feeling but I’m not getting
comfortable. Rubens is very quick and he’s proved that this weekend, and also the Red Bulls, when
they get it together they’ve got good pace and obviously Mark and Sebastian are doing a great job.
Sebastian’s been ahead of us twice now in the last two races, so if he gets a free shot, like Mark, he’ll
be close to Mark. It’s not easy and we’ve got to take every race as it comes and we are obviously
going to look for a victory in every race that comes, so we need to be aggressive and have that style
of racing, I think.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Jenson, you mentioned in the earlier press conference that you
felt that the car is still ahead after this round of upgrades. Is that the case?
JB: If you look at the result you would say so but obviously Mark and Sebastian were both held up
behind Massa and if they had free runs we don’t know what would have happened. I’m very surprised
that Mark was able to sit on the back of Rubens. I think we’ve had very good weekends and this
weekend you can say that our strategy was good, which it was – probably Rubens will say more on
one car than the other – but I think when Red Bull have a clear shot at it and they do everything right,
they are going to be competitive and we can’t forget that and they are going to be on us in Monaco for
sure.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Rubens, I remember the Austrian race a few years
with Michael (Schumacher), early in the season, and you were stopped to allow him to win.
Are you afraid that this could happen again, seeing that Jenson is winning so much and you
are trying to score points and probably looking for a championship, that this might happen
again with the team pushing more for Jenson and you covering his shoulders?
RB: Well, I’m very experienced with that, and if that happens, I won’t follow any team orders any
more. I’m making it clear now, so everybody knows.
JB: I’m going to answer this a bit as well because this affects me. Our strategy said that a three stop
was quicker, full stop.
RB: It’s true, it’s much more different than it used to be at Ferrari. We have a much more friendly
situation, so I’m not sitting down on the side blaming this or that. The race was finished half an hour
ago and that’s the way it went. There’s no way I’m going to be crying here and saying I should have
done this or that. It’s in the best interests of myself to learn what went wrong today because I had the
ability to win the race but I didn’t and this is a full stop. Jenson is on a flyer and he’s doing very well. I
think this weekend was really good for me because I worked quite hard on all the set-up and
everything. We both learned to get better, we’re pushing each other very well. There’s a bit more
pressure on my side, obviously, because he’s won four races and I’ve won nothing but I’m there, I’m
working and I won’t stop working. I’m definitely raising my hands to the sky to give thanks because
this is a great car. It was not long ago that people were putting flowers on my grave and saying ‘thank
you very much for your job’ and so on. So I’m here, very much alive and happy and I’m going to make
it work. It’s as it was some years ago but with a much more friendly atmosphere.

Q: (Druv Behl – Auto Exchange, India) Jenson, you mentioned that you need to be aggressive
and it looks messy with this year’s car to be quick. Ordinarily, messy, aggressive and Monaco
wouldn’t go very well together, so how will you approach the next race relative to years past?
JB: Well, I think you do need to be a bit more aggressive in Monaco. Obviously you’ve got the
barriers as your limiting factor. As long as you stay off them you’re fine but you can’t pussyfoot round
Monaco and that’s why I think Rubens has always been pretty spectacular around Monaco, Mark
also, so it’s going to be a tough weekend in Monaco, for sure, for myself, but I go there full of
confidence that I can have a good weekend, but for sure it’s not going to be a boring Monaco Grand
Prix. I think there’s going to be a lot of very competitive people and I think you will see a very exciting
qualifying, for sure, and I think the race could be interesting also.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Do you still see a challenge from Ferrari,
McLaren and BMW – the big teams – or is it too late for a turnaround in terms of the
championship?
JB: Well, it’s quite strange because BMW at the first race were competitive. You can say some of it is
down to the strategy with the tyres but they did a good job. McLaren at the last race were surprisingly
quick, the same with Ferrari here, in qualifying. They’ve had good races but they just haven’t had the
consistency and I think that when you’ve started so far back compared to the competition, you’re
throwing things at the car and I’m sure they’re putting lots of new parts on the car to improve it. Some
might not work, some probably do work. It’s a much easier position for us, obviously, at the front. We
can really test the parts and make sure they really are an improvement before we put them on
whereas Ferrari and McLaren need to put as much performance on the car as possible. But they’re
both great teams and they’ve both achieved so much in the past, as we all know. They’ve had tough
years before, maybe not quite as tough but they will definitely bounce back. They’re very strong
teams. We’ll see them being competitive throughout the year, I think.

Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Does that question from the front there, that you’re
winning races because you’re somehow being given better machinery or some advantage
frustrate you? Does Rubens believe that?
JB: We both work very closely together within the team and it’s a very good atmosphere within the
team. We’re all here to win; it went my way today and it might go Rubens’s way in Monaco and that’s
just the way it is. He had a problem in his stint and I didn’t. I made it work and I won the race today
but you know that can swing around at the next race and that’s the way we go racing and that’s the
way racing should be and I think it has been, within most teams in Formula One. I don’t ever want to
go down that avenue of talking about that because it’s so far from the situation within our team.
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying" -Woody Allen

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shailf1
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by shailf1 » 10 May 2009, 18:11

massas times were identical to vettel becase vettel was behind him almost all the way through..
So we cannot compare the laptimes.
But i think vettel was much faster than massa, when ever he dropped back he was able to get up to massa quite quickly.

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harrisv48
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by harrisv48 » 10 May 2009, 18:13

Felipe says:
"We didn't have a problem with the calculations, we had a problem with the machine - but I don't know if the problem was human or the machine. We need to analyse what the problem was, it was very frustrating. You fight the whole race and then you have to back off; I was already saving fuel in the last run, but it was not enough, so I had to really back off and let Vettel go. I lost a position to Fernando and almost to Nick, so it was quite frustrating."

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Ali
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by Ali » 10 May 2009, 18:20

Interesting talk:
Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Rubens, I remember the Austrian race a few years
with Michael (Schumacher), early in the season, and you were stopped to allow him to win.
Are you afraid that this could happen again, seeing that Jenson is winning so much and you
are trying to score points and probably looking for a championship, that this might happen
again with the team pushing more for Jenson and you covering his shoulders?

RB: Well, I’m very experienced with that, and if that happens, I won’t follow any team orders any
more. I’m making it clear now, so everybody knows
.
JB: I’m going to answer this a bit as well because this affects me. Our strategy said that a three stop
was quicker, full stop.

RB: It’s true, it’s much more different than it used to be at Ferrari. We have a much more friendly
situation, so I’m not sitting down on the side blaming this or that. The race was finished half an hour
ago and that’s the way it went. There’s no way I’m going to be crying here and saying I should have
done this or that. It’s in the best interests of myself to learn what went wrong today because I had the
ability to win the race but I didn’t and this is a full stop.
Jenson is on a flyer and he’s doing very well. I
think this weekend was really good for me because I worked quite hard on all the set-up and
everything. We both learned to get better, we’re pushing each other very well. There’s a bit more
pressure on my side, obviously, because he’s won four races and I’ve won nothing but I’m there, I’m
working and I won’t stop working. I’m definitely raising my hands to the sky to give thanks because
this is a great car. It was not long ago that people were putting flowers on my grave and saying ‘thank
you very much for your job’ and so on. So I’m here, very much alive and happy and I’m going to make
it work. It’s as it was some years ago but with a much more friendly atmosphere.
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying" -Woody Allen

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JoostLamers
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Re: 2009 Gran Premio de España Telefonica

Post by JoostLamers » 10 May 2009, 18:21

Ross hasn't got any respect for Rubens, it's a disgrace he didn't allow Rubens to win. Very weak to do it like this, Rubens has already been in that position (Aus, 2001).
<<<The flag Lew1s waved at
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