Jean Todt: "Michael and Felipe did a fantastic race"
Maranello, 3rd July 2006 - "You always feel stronger
for at least ten days, until the next Grand Prix, if you finish
first and second," said Jean Todt after Sunday's dominating
one-two by Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa in the US Grand
Prix at Indianapolis.
"And then, if you look at the World Championship classifications,
you wish you felt stronger, because we are still far behind
in the manufacturers' and drivers' championship. At the moment,
we are not the ones to feel stronger but we will do everything
we can to improve the situation."
Later, however, Todt admitted that the euphoria probably
lasts even less than ten days. "Honestly, it makes it
easier for the flight home. It's good, you have a good feeling,
but tomorrow we will start again."
Sunday's victory marked a successful conclusion to the North
American pair of races, two races that they hoped they could
win. Asked why it had gone well in Indianapolis, but not in
Montreal the previous weekend, and whether it had been down
to the tyres provided by Bridgestone to Ferrari and Michelins
to their rivals, Todt replied "a combination, combination.
In Montreal maybe we did not take the best strategy and we
did not make the best job. That's all."
Had Michelin brought tyres that were too conservative, following
last year's debacle when their teams had to withdraw over
safety concerns? "Honestly, I don't know if they came
conservative or not," said Todt. "But I have always
commented that if you want to win a race, you need to have
everything put together and we managed to have everything
put together which gave the final result. If we manage to
put everything together as well in some of the next races
we can pretend to do the same result. If we don't do it, as
has happened unfortunately too often this season, we cannot
pretend to make a strong result. It's up to us."
But overall, Todt was delighted. "We are very pleased
with the result. We haven't found ourselves in such a strong
situation from the beginning of the weekend for a long time
and we saw immediately that we were strong compared to the
others.
"Yesterday, once we saw that we had the two Ferraris
on the front row, we still had a few question marks, mainly
over reliability and degradation of the tyres. We were reliable,
which was important because it was the second race with the
engine and the Bridgestone tyres were fantastic. You can see
the overall result and if you see the quickest lap time during
the race, you can see how strong the Bridgestones were this
weekend."
It marked a reversal of fortune for Michael Schumacher, said
Todt. "So often this year he lost those points against
him so this time it turned out right for us. Now it all depends
on what we do and what the others do. Today, we got six points
back. If we could just do the same, if he's able to drive
like he did today in the next races but I don't think it will
be so easy."
Todt was particularly complimentary of Felipe Massa, who
led the early stages. "Felipe is a great guy. He has
a good spirit, he's a team player, he's humble, he's shy -
probably too humble and too shy in this business, because
he's not rated as he should be. But the most important thing
is that he's rated by Ferrari. He's never advertising himself.
"But very often I'm amazed to see that Felipe is not
rated as he should be. Sometimes it makes me smile when I
see the (press) marks which are published on Monday. Very
often, in my opinion, trying to be really fair, he's given
two or three or four marks less than he should be. That shows
that the people who are judging are probably not the best
judges, that's all.
"He has the strongest teammate to compete with. I must
say they get on very well, because Michael respects Felipe
a lot, and of course Felipe respects and admires Michael so
on that subject we have fantastic harmony in the team."
Finally, asked if Felipe and Michael were free to race one
another in the US Grand Prix, given the championship standings,
Todt said "they work for Ferrari. We are paid by Ferrari.
Felipe did a fantastic race, Michael did a fantastic race.
It's our job. Our job is try to deliver the best for the company,
so we try our best."
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