Despite now being based in Italy, from where he is mounting an assault on the new Formula Three Euroseries, Australian Ryan Briscoe found time to talk to his native media about life in Europe, his step back to F3 and his hopes for the future...
Briscoe has been living in Italy for quite a long time, despite only being 21 years of age. Determined to make it in
Formula One, he came out of karting with very good international results and moved into Formula Renault, where he won the Italian Championship in 2001.
Last year, he did half a season in F3000 and a little bit less in Formula Three, after stepping down at the behest of the Toyota F1 team, for whom he is a contracted test driver.
The move appears to have been the right one for, this year, Briscoe is the very clear leader in the new Euroseries. Driving for the Italian team Prema Power, with which he secured the Italian FRenault crown, Briscoe is currently 27 points in front of his nearest rival, with ten races completed and ten to go.
Q:
Looking forward to next year, assuming the rest of this season goes well and you win this championship, what other categories, if F1 isn't necessarily on the agenda, would you hope Toyota would look to place you in? Is going back to F3000 an option?
Ryan Briscoe:
It could be an option, but I'm not really sure. F3000 over here isn't all that highly spoken of, so I'm not sure it would be the best thing to go back to. There are a few options, but it's difficult to say at the moment. Just to throw out a few names, there is Super Nissan, which is quite a good championship, or there is the CART series, which is also good. But, at the moment, I'm not really sure what is going to be on the agenda for next year and I've just got to wait and see at the moment.
Q:
You talked of F3000 not being of such high regard these days. Countries seem to become a flavour of the month a little bit too. With
Mark Webber going the way he is in F1, and you and James Courtney around and other people - Marcos Ambrose not so long ago went well but ran out of money - how is Australia regarded over there - and Australian drivers?
RB:
Pretty highly, I think. Australia is making a good name for itself, especially with Mark at the moment, who is doing an excellent job. There are quite a few of us over here, especially in F3 with me and James Manderson, and then in England you've got Will Davison and Will Power. There are quite a few of us over here at the moment doing a good job, and Australia is making a good name of itself. It already had a good name, but it was just lacking drivers, I think.
Q:
Just on that, we've seen the number of F1 teams come down from twelve a couple of years ago to ten now, which means obviously 20 drivers. It would seem to be an exceptional privilege for Australia if we were to end up having two drivers in there among 20. Do you reckon that's a realistic possibility within the next couple of years, with Mark Webber obviously reasonably well entrenched there now with a contract for another couple of years? But two out of 20 - ten per cent - would be a huge rap for Australia, wouldn't it?
RB:
Definitely. That would be fantastic for Australia, and I definitely hope that it's a possibility, because I don't see Mark leaving the F1 scene at the moment. My goal is definitely to try to move up in there. So, to have two Australian drivers in there, that would just be fantastic.
Q:
What about in the context that, obviously the people who run the teams want to recruit talented new drivers, but there is also a bigger picture of perhaps the people, such as Mr Ecclestone, maybe wanting to see, with new races coming in, perhaps an Asian driver or an Arab driver? Certainly we know that there have been moves to try to unearth an American driver. All of those things presumably would make it even more competitive.
RB:
I'm not really sure about that. I think with the Alex Yoong situation, it's because of money that he got in there and not because he was fast. But I think the general idea in F1 is just to get fast drivers in there. I'm not sure about whether they are going to be getting Asian drivers or whatever, but I think the concept of a lot of the bigger teams is just trying to find who is going to be quick enough to win races.
Q:
You've mentioned a couple of times about manufacturers wanting to find new drivers, young drivers, and obviously very fast drivers. Have you detected this year any sign that there is more emphasis on youth, perhaps because of
Fernando Alonso's success and Kimi Raikkonen not being much older? It seems people might be going away from the idea that drivers have a bit more experience under their belt and that they're prepared to take on someone, like an Alonso, who is fairly lightly raced but is obviously very, very quick. It kind of reminds us a bit of when
Michael Schumacher came on the scene, that there was suddenly a rush to find new young drivers?
RB:
Yes, probably. Probably a lot of people are seeing at the moment that the most important thing for an F1 driver is just that he is quick and that experience is important, but it's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that a driver can get out there and drive the car as quick as it can go. For sure, with Alonso's success and
Kimi Raikkonen's success, that has to be helping my situation as well.
RB:
Having raced against Alonso and Button in karts, is it frustrating seeing them there in F1 already?
RB:
It doesn't frustrate me at all. But it has to be a confidence-booster to see that who I was racing against in karts, and often beating, is doing such a fantastic job in
F1. It basically gives me more belief in myself.
Q:
Is there still a buzz? Is F1 still really exciting for you now you've been within Toyota for the last couple of years and been around the F1 programme?
RB:
It's unbelievable. Last month, I sat in the car for the first time in nine months and had forgotten what it's like. It's amazing. It's just an amazing piece of machinery.
Q:
Do you still get excited actually going to the races and seeing the cars?
RB:
I haven't been to any F1 races this year. I'm hopefully going to go to Monza, but I would love to get out there and see the races, that's for sure.
Q:
Toyota changed both its F1 drivers last year and that seemed to be a fairly brave move. The team really isn't going as well this year as everyone predicted they would. Do you foresee any other major staff changes in Toyota later in the year?
RB:
Nothing is planned at the moment, as far as I know. At the moment, I have got no idea of any changes that have been made within the team or the drivers or whatever.
Q:
Before the last five rounds of the Euro championships, there is the F3 Masters to be run in Holland, which brings together obviously not only the drivers from the European championship but from Britain, and perhaps other places. How do you see that stacking up? Obviously there are a couple of guys showing some good form in Britain - Alan van der Merwe, a South African, and perhaps Brazilian triple F1 world champion Nelson Piquet's son, Nelsinho?
RB:
That's right; our next race is going to be the Marlboro Masters in Zandvoort and I think that's going to be a huge meeting. I'm expecting over 50 entrants for F3. And I think we are going to get all the top guys from the British championship and most of the guys from the Euro Series. It's going to be a huge event and I'm really looking forward to it. I will definitely be trying to make a good impression.
Q:
What is the date of the Masters?
RB:
The weekend of 10 August.
Q:
Will Will Davison, the young F3 driver from Melbourne who is racing in the British championship, be competing in the Masters? Is he not a former karting rival?
RB:
I'm not sure [whether he will be there]. Alan Docking normally does that race, so I would be expecting him to be there.
Q:
Did you race against him in karts?
RB:
No, I've never raced against him.
Q:
Just to recap on your F3000 experience - which we presume was not particularly happy because, from our distance, it looked as though you went into a team that had been a championship-winning team but perhaps had gone off the boil - Mark Webber has often talked about getting stronger through the adversity on the way through to F1. How much better or stronger do you think you came out of that experience?
RB:
I've certainly learnt a lot through that experience mentally, I guess. It made me stronger. They were very difficult times and I think, for sure, I've come out of it a stronger person mentally, and that's a very important thing to have gotten out of it for motor racing.
Q:
Obviously, you feel very confident in your ability with the results that you are getting. Do you ever feel any sense of intimidation when you are racing against guys like young [Nico] Rosberg? He's younger than you, but guys who obviously come with a very famous name in the F1 history books, and obviously you are coming up against Piquet's son fairly soon too. Their fathers won world championships and remain great figures in the sport. Do you feel any sense that they might get an easier crack at F1 or anything?
RB:
I think they've definitely got very good connections to making it into F1, but it doesn't really cause me any intimidation. Especially with Rosberg. We are very good friends and we have been good friends for the last four or five years. And I think it's good to see him doing well up here in the F3. The most important thing is for me to just concentrate on my own job and not worry too much about what anyone else is doing. It's pointless to worry about what those guys are doing and what easier paths they might have up to F1. The most important thing for me is just to concentrate on trying to win the championship and keep doing a good job.
Q:
What level of interest do you detect, that you can see at the F3 races by the F1 teams? You mentioned Norbert Haug attending, the Mercedes motorsport manager. Ange Pasquali, the Toyota team manager, attends a lot of races. But what about
Ferrari people, maybe
Williams or
BMW people, even Renault people? Do you see lots of F1 power brokers at your races?
RB:
Yes, for sure. Apart from Toyota and Mercedes, that you have already mentioned, Renault keep a close eye because they've got [Fabio] Carbone as their young driver in the championship. He's running second at the moment, so for sure they're keeping a very close eye on the championship. Also BMW are keeping a close eye on the championship, especially when we are racing in Germany, because of the BMW championship that they have got, the ADAC series. You often see Gerhard Berger at the circuit and often walking up the F3 grid keeping an eye on it all.
MC:
Thanks Ryan, for joining us. It's been great to follow your progress through the first half of the new F3 Championship in Europe, to see the success you've had, and to have you join us today for an update on how it's all going. Obviously, we wish you very well for the rest of the year and we hope to catch up with you again at some point.
RB:
It's been great and I would like to thank all of you as well. It's been excellent.
