Jean Todt: "Our tyres were very good"
Jean Todt displayed new confidence after Michael Schumacher
secured Ferrari's second successive Grand Prix win at Magny-Cours
in France on Sunday. Asked whether he felt they could carry
over the form to the upcoming German Grand Prix at Hockenheim,
Todt said "I think we will not only be quick in Hockenheim,
I think we will be quick everywhere. And then maybe someone
we will make a completely wrong choice of tyres at one race...Otherwise
we will be strong, our competitors will be strong so it will
always be little different."
Some observers - even some at Ferrari - viewed the team's
previous Grand Prix win at Indianapolis in the USA as a one-off
success in terms of a level of dominance. Did Todt see success
at Magny-Cours, just down the road from rival tyre supplier
Michelin's home circuit as being more significant?
"No," replied the Ferrari team principal. "We
knew that there was no reason why we should not be competitive
here. It's the home country of the leader in the Manufacturers'
championship, of their tyre supplier but I would say it's
my home country too.
"We had very good tyres available - not only for Ferrari.
You could see that Toyota was very strong with Bridgestone
over the whole weekend. Unfortunately for them and for us,
they had some reliability problems and they could not score
as many points as we wished they would have scored, because
as you can imagine, it's very crucial for us in the championship
if we are ahead, that some cars are in between us and our
rivals. Our competitors are very strong as well, they do a
good job. It's up to us. If we want to win the championship
we have to deserve it and to do the best job we can."
But Todt rejected suggestions that their soft tyre choice
had been chancy. "It was no gamble. We know very well
that the evolution of the track always gives some advantage
and takes away the graining which is the weakest point when
you have soft tyres. Bridgestone made available to the teams
different types of tyres which were very good. Our tyres were
very good, Toyota's tyres were very good, even if they were
different so it was no gamble."
However, Todt did admit that problems for both cars during
the third practice session on Saturday morning had cut short
their preparations. "We were worried because there was
always a question mark as we didn't do so many laps in proper
race conditions. Consequently, we might have ended up with
degradation of a tyre which is different to what we were expecting.
Let's say that here it went the way we could expect."
Michael Schumacher had paid tribute to the team's rapid reaction
to those problems; how close had it been for the team? "Michael
is a great team player," said Todt, "so quite rightly
he never wants to take all the credit for success. He likes
the team, he likes to encourage the team, he likes to reward
the team and that's why the team loves him so much.
"We had a problem yesterday during the free practice
three, and it was tight to put the car back into the best
situation and we knew that we just had time to do it but we
had to do it and the guys did a fantastic job. It was tight,
but it was even tighter for Felipe. Felipe's car was finished
after Michael's car was finished."
Todt again praised Massa's performance, and explained how
he had been delayed which allowed championship leader Fernando
Alonso to finish second. "Felipe is doing a great job.
He just had a different strategy. He was less than a tenth
behind Michael on the starting grid and we had a different
strategy. We were on three pit stops, our main opposition
was on two and Felipe had traffic and our strategy for him
was not the best."
Finally, with regard to the lack of a unanimous decision
for agreement on future engine rules, Todt admitted that he
would agree to extend the deadline which passed during the
Grand Prix by 24 hours, but no more. "Normally if you
make a deal you have to respect it, which sometimes seems
a bit strange in Formula One, but let's say I still try to
focus on that," concluded Todt.
|
