Just how disappointing was that moment in Fuji when Mark got taken out? Like you said, he looked like he may even have been able to challenge for the win – how frustrating was that for the team?

CH:
It was obviously immensely frustrating. Mark had been ill due to food poisoning earlier in the day, and was really struggling quite badly in the car in the early part of the race behind the pace car. He didn't even know whether he'd be able to continue, but he just got his head down and got on with the job. He was performing incredibly well, and having got into second position he was closing at about three tenths of a second a lap on Lewis (Hamilton) prior to the final safety car period. With Lewis defending and competing for the championship, he probably wouldn't have fought too hard to keep the lead. Obviously it was immensely frustrating to retire from the race in the manner that we did, but at the same time it was encouraging to see that we were up there and had made progress with the car. David further endorsed that by coming home a very competitive fourth, but I think everybody in the team left Japan feeling that was the one that got away.

Q:
Towards the end of the season – certainly in the last three or four races – it began to look like Red Bull might be able to challenge Williams for fourth place in the constructors' championship. How much of a realistic possibility did you think that was, and how disappointing was it not to manage to do so in the end?

CH:
I think we gave away too many cheap points to Williams earlier in the year, so we always had our backs to the wall a little bit, but we clearly demonstrated in the last quarter of the season that the car's performance had moved ahead of Williams and also Renault. I think we ended the season with probably the fourth-fastest car, but unfortunately that wasn't reflected in the amount of points we scored because to finish first, first you've got to finish. That's one area we need to focus very hard on, and one the whole team has been working very hard on to rectify for next year's car.

Q:
In Mark and David you've got two of the most experienced drivers on the grid – how pleased were you with their overall performance this year?

CH:
They're both highly intelligent, professional drivers, and still extremely motivated and very quick. Their strengths and weaknesses are in different parts of the grand prix weekend, but as a driver pairing it's a very strong line-up for us. Therefore it was a relatively straightforward decision to extend that partnership into 2008, and I think for what is still a relatively young team to have two drivers with that much experience has been extremely beneficial.

Q:
You say in the end it was a fairly straightforward decision to keep the same two drivers on for next year. Since November there was obviously a lot of speculation swirling round about the future of Fernando Alonso, and Red Bull was one of the teams he was most prominently linked to. Was there ever anything in that or not?

CH:
We were flattered to be linked to the discussions about Fernando. I think he could quite clearly see the progress the team has made over the last 18 months and see that the team is one that's emerging for the future, but Renault is the logical place for him to be. We announced our drivers some way back in the summer and have never had any intention of changing that, so whilst it was as I say flattering to be associated with the Alonso speculation, there in reality was never a space with ourselves being committed to our existing drivers.

Q:
Another driver, who has been testing with the team recently, is Karun Chandhok from GP2. What are the chances of him working further with Red Bull in the future?

CH:
Karun is a driver who has been involved with Red Bull for a few years now, as we've supported his career in some of the lower formulae. He's a very talented Indian driver who's fully focussed on another year of GP2. He had a good test with us in Barcelona last month, and we retain a close involvement and a keen interest in following how his career develops. As with so many young drivers, though, there's still an awful lot they have to prove before getting themselves full-time into a Formula 1 cockpit.

Q:
You've tested at Barcelona and Jerez so far over the winter months – how has progress been as you look ahead to 2008?

CH: