Q:
Long distance question to Timo there. I guess a couple of questions about your season. You started off with running very impressively, taking sixth at Long Beach, and then the next few races were not quite as not quite as strong. Then, from the middle of the season on, you have been qualified in the top ten virtually every race weekend. Can you talk a little bit about what happened there early in the season, and then what was the difference that kind of helped you get a lot stronger as the season has gone on?
TG:
First of all, it's all about experience in Champ Car, and you need a lot of experience to be consistently in the top five or ten. Definitely, the question was there after Long Beach, when we had the test at Milwaukee and I crashed pretty heavily and broke my collar bone and had problems with my lower back. Then I crashed in the pit-stop and in the race, so I was a little bit out of sorts. That was a pretty difficult situation, and I couldn't shake it, but every other team took the chance after Long Beach, a couple of guys went testing and went to Portland and got a little bit of advantage and, for sure, after the first race, we had a couple of problems with the car. We had the chance to win the race in Monterey - nobody knows it, but we had the chance. We ended up one lap behind and found our way back in the top five. And then we had the chance to win the race in Montreal....
Q:
What would you say was, in terms of the race crash, the biggest adjustment for you? Was it in sort of just learning the tactics during the races of the pit-stops and occasionally going out of sequence, and all that stuff, or what would you say was the biggest adjustment race-wise?
TG:
One race where I learned a lot about life in Champ Car was in Mexico - nothing is finished until the final lap is done, that's pretty important. It was pretty important for me and that's definitely a completely different style to
F1. In F1, everything is pretty straight and you know exactly what to fit there and you have to do. In Champ Car, you can change the strategy like we did it in Montreal, and go out of sequence like Cristiano da Matta in Portland - he went out of sequence and he won the race. We did the same in Montreal. That's the key for the success there. Every time, everything is possible, that's what we have to learn and what we have to think about in the race.
Q:
I want to ask Timo, in retrospect, are you happy with your decision to come race in America in 2005 and do you think your future is in America?
TG:
Definitely that's the way it was at the end of 2003, my decision to go to Champ Car. From the first step with Walker, I was pretty interested on racing in the championship in the US. Then a couple of things changed, and we had the possibility to return to Europe. After the first year in F1, we changed plans and went back to Champ Car, and I think Champ Car is on the right way for the future; especially in 2007, when the new car comes up. I think Champ Car will be strong and will be again where they started, where they had the best championship around, in the '90s. I think that's the right way and that's the way to do it. I can see my future in Champ Car and in the US, but what I said from the beginning, when I get the opportunity with one of the top teams in F1, then I will take the chance in F1. But, at the moment, I am pretty happy and looking forward to be in Champ Car a second year or third year.
Q:
I'd like to ask Michael. I wasn't down in Surfers but, from what I can see on television, you did a pretty solid job down there. It had to have been a tough place to make your Champ Car debut and I am wondering if you are looking forward to Mexico City just because there are some corners with some run-off area?
MM:
Yeah, definitely. I'm looking forward to Mexico. For sure, just because I got the first race out of the way, you understand how the weekend works and what kind of pressure you are under, qualifying and the whole process. And Mexico is more of a typical road course - I haven't been on a street course before in any series, so that was definitely a new transition for me. But I think Mexico is going to suit my style a lot better.
Q:
Michael and Charles, tell me about your transition to Champ Car, the difference in the car, and what you think you have learned from the lower series that has helped you so far?
MM:
I think Star Mazda is an underrated platform that just gives the opportunity to drivers like myself, really gaining experience and to learn how to put the car on the edge and go fast and the Mazda Series is super strong the last two years; new car is great. The technology is there, the racetrack is there and there's 35-plus cars in every race now. I think the Mazda Series does a really good job of preparing you for the next step. Right now, I'd say that's the place to be if you want to try to get into Champ Car.
CZ:
I have heard that from the people going up from Atlantic to Champ Car that, basically, the cornering speeds are pretty much the same, so that will be useful. Also I've learned this year the tracks which I hope to race on next year in Champ Car, so that's also useful.
