Q:
When you look at F1 and the championship this year was decided a lot by politics, fortunately it was won on the track but now there's an appeal by
McLaren, do you feel that that's a bad thing, that you're entering a World Series that is defined a lot by politics and what happens off the track?
SB:
Well, I think obviously 2007 has been extremely different from any other. There was a great on‑track effort with four very good drivers, but it kind of turned into a bit of a political game. In the meantime, I think the strongest guy won. He kept his nose clean and stayed out of trouble. You know, it's a shame for Lewis what happened, but fortunately he's made a couple of mistakes in the last couple of races, and that lost him the championship. I don't really think the political aspect of things really dictated what happened on the racetrack, and to be honest, I don't think it would, even if the two teams that McLaren appealed against necessarily meant it would change the order of the championship. I think the
FIA already said that. It might not get Lewis back up in the classification. I think a lot of things come into play in racing sports, and this year probably more than ever in F1, but at the end I think the strongest guy won the championship.
Q:
Kind of along the same lines, F1 related, what's your relationship as it stands with Sebastian Vettel? Have you met him?
SB:
No, he's obviously quite a bit younger than me, and we've never competed against each other or anything. But we haven't met yet because I've been pretty busy on my end and actually pretty focused on the Champ Car stuff because it's something I owed to my team. No, like I said, I will go on with the next challenge when it's time, and it's coming close now, but not yet.
Q:
Do you have to establish your name like Alonso when he entered in F1 with Renault and won the championship?
SB:
Well, I think it's obviously the goal. I never said I wanted to get into F1 just to get into
F1. I want to be competitive and do the best I can. Now is the beginning of a new adventure that's coming to me, and we'll see how it shakes out. But right now, I'm just going to give my very best like I did in 2003, and we'll see what happens really. I think you can only give your very best and it's not worth thinking about what's going to happen. You just need to do just that, and see.
Q:
What do you think the biggest obstacle will be?
SB:
Well, I guess I'm not a visionary. I can't really say what's going to be the toughest part of the next challenge. It's obviously different from Champ Car. In Champ Car, everybody has the same car, and it's up to you and your team to do the best you can to beat the other guys, by just by set-ups. In F1, it's a bigger scale. You need the best design, you need the best engineering team to use the car at its max when it's on the track, and it's more people involved, so it's a little more complicated. You know, it's still a car which has an engine and four wheels, and you've got to make it around that racetrack as quick as you can. So we'll see how good we can do.
MC:
I did have one other question I wanted to ask you, and that is over the last five years, how do you think you've changed as both a driver and as a person from when you first entered Champ Car?
SB:
Well, I think the first time I arrived in the series, I had never been a professional race car driver before. You know, I learned a lot from a lot of obviously very experienced people, from Craig [Hampson], my team leader, and all these guys, and I've learned from the best. Obviously, a lot of things have changed over the years. We've won the championship, but not only done that. I think I grew up as a man and as a driver, and now I obviously became a dad and I got married to Claire, and although we were already together when I arrived in the States, it was all different back then. Yeah, when you look back over five years, a whole lot of things happened.
