Friday press conference - Canadian GP - Pt.2.

Team personnel: Willy Rampf (Sauber), Otmar Szafnauer (Honda), Mario Theissen (BMW), Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren)

Questions from the floor:

Q: (Alberto Antonini - Autosprint)
Martin, in your position with Ilmor Mercedes, can I ask you if and what sort of improvement will be introduced in the new 19B engine-wise. We understand that there is a new engine block in the pipeline so how much difference is it from the previous one, how much does this affect the weight distribution and the centre of gravity of the car and so on?

Martin Whitmarsh:
Okay, with 19B, there is a slightly different engine which does give us a small performance improvement and that is independent of the underlying developments we saw throughout the year. Clearly, after last weekend, we've had quite a lot of introspection and concentration on the issue of durability and reliability but we intend, in Magny-Cours, to have a small incremental improvement in performance and then, at Hockenheim, we anticipate another step forward in performance, so we have two steps of performance from the engine during the course of the year. There are several changes to the fundamental block of the engine, one of which is reliability-driven and the other is introduced with the 19B and gives us a small performance increment. But in terms of the chassis, they won't fundamentally change balance.

Q: (Alberto Antonini)
Will we not see the new version of the engine until the 19B actually rolls out onto the racing track?

MW:
That's correct. In fact, we would have had it in the test but we backed off to an older specification of engine in the light of our experience at the N?rburgring.

Q: (Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News)
Otmar, in the year and a half you have been working with Takuma Sato, tell us how he has matured and gotten better and faster because he seems to have come a long way here?

OS:
Well, Takuma did a very good job for us testing last year and, in that year, he got a lot of miles or kilometres under his belt. Even in this season, as we can all tell, he's improving and his attitude has always been very good. He works very hard and he's a racing car driver. He wants to win and he and [race engineer] Jock [Clear] are a good pairing and they are doing very well. I think, with time, just like anybody else Takuma will continue to improve.

Q: (Dan Knutson)
Martin, I'm sorry I'm going to put you on the spot here. How do we explain to the average fan how a team that almost won the world championship last year only has five points halfway through the season?

MW:
Because we got it wrong in many ways. You need to finish races to score points and we've not done a very good job in that regard. A Formula One car and the performance of a team is extremely complex. You are always striving to improve every aspect of the car. I think we made a number of wrong decisions in our programme and we're paying the cost of that.

Nowadays Formula One cars are ever more complex, aerodynamically and structurally. When you compare it to even ten years ago, when we wanted to make a fundamental change to the structure or the aerodynamics the component to change was often singular and quite rapid. If you wanted to change your suspension you could go down to the fabrication shop and, being a racing team, you would make that change in a few days. Now, if you go and look at any of the cars on the grid and look at the integration of very complex front wing systems, the way in which the front suspension attaches to the car and the same for the rear suspension, the whole package is so complex, the components are so complex that we're not able to change the package overnight any longer.

So we recognised, fairly early on in the year, that we needed to make some fundamental changes to the car, but to execute those has been quite a significant project so, as you may know, the 19B project was in fact initiated before the first race of this year, and we're now starting to see the fruits of that. So, in some ways, these complex cars are a disadvantage. Obviously, every engineer is pursuing every small fraction of percent of performance but if you get it wrong then to recover the situation is a penalty.

Q: (Dom Taylor - F1 Racing)
Mario, why are you so confident that Sam Michael's appointment to technical director will improve the performance of the team and was this Williams restructure something that BMW were keen to make happen?

MT:
The confidence really is not primarily based on the personnel change, on the handover from Patrick to Sam, but on the structural changes which go along with this and we were certainly involved in the original thoughts about that. In fact, early last year, when we started to re-negotiate our contract in order to come to a new partnership for the next five years, most of the time was spent on how to get the two teams together, in fact the two parties of the teams together, how to make best use of the resources available on both sides, and how to improve and increase efficiency, the way we work together and effectiveness of the issues we focus on. And we concluded the new partnership only after we had come to a common view on all this. And that laid the foundation for the reorganisation which was pursued since then at Williams and took effect some weeks ago and that is why I'm confident for the future.

Q: (Jon Noble - Autosport)
Martin, David Coulthard, in one of these press conferences a few weeks ago, said it was a mistake by the team to portray through quick testing times and quote to the public that it was fighting for the world championship right the way up to Melbourne. Could you just give us an indication a) when the team realised it wasn't going to be in a position to fight for the championship, because David reckoned he knew at the second test for the 19, and b) whether there are any parallels between your optimism on the 19B and your optimism back then?

MW:
I think we started to understand some of the problems with 19A in Barcelona on about week three. I think, at that point, as a racing team, you have to have a degree of optimism and belief that you're going to power through problems. So, in terms of portraying our aspirations, our aspirations never changed, we're always out there to win races and win world championships. I think, if you're then going to lead a team of a thousand people who are involved in a programme, and for a team such as our own, saying in week three 'actually we've given up with the championship this year guys, let's regroup for next year' is an unacceptable position for us and, therefore, we've had to take a buoyant and aggressive stance with how we plan our season.

I think we knew, and the reality is, as I think you know, before the start of the year, we had announced 19B as a programme. We would have not entertained a 19B programme had we not realised that we needed to make some response, so I think David got there early, so he believes. Perhaps we were maybe in a similar position, but I think we wanted to work on 19A and, indeed, I think we have improved 19A during the course of this year. But we also recognise that there are some fundamental issues that we needed to address in 19B.

Now, with regard to 19B, I think we're being cautiously optimistic on this occasion, but if you're asked an opinion then you may as well give it. Do I believe 19B is a quicker car than 19A? Yes it is. If I sat here and believed differently then it would be extremely painful, I guess. Only one driver has driven and we've only driven on one circuit at the moment - maybe, when we get to Jerez, we'll think differently - but, based on the exposure we've had so far, and we had a relatively detuned engine following the N?rburgring issues, I think we look quite competitive at a circuit like Silverstone. We hope that we can follow that through into some other tracks and that's why we're not racing to take the car here. We're not ready at the moment, after a three day test, one of which was predominantly wet.

Q: (Tony Dodgins - Tony Dodgins Associates)
Martin, one or two people have been saying that brakes are at the limit now and with the 28mm disc here, it's a bit iffy. The FIA might argue you've just got to use bigger ducts or get more air to them. What's the truth?

MW:
No, I think the reality is that we can make discs last that are 28mm thick. The reality is, like all aspects of racing, you're going to take it to the limit, so inevitably here and Monza, which are very heavy braking circuits, they're the exception. You'll develop the fundamental architecture and your materials for most circuits and when you come to a heavy braking circuit you're always going to be on the limit so if you made the disc 32mm then we'd find ways to have better brakes for all the other circuits and when we got here we'd be in trouble again. So I think the truth is that you can make brakes work which are 28mm and you could probably make them work at 20mm - you'd find a material which had less oxidisation or less wear and would last the race distance.

Q: (Bob Constanduros - Bob Constanduros and Associates)
Willy, do you have anything to add to that?

Willy Rampf:
Yes, I think Martin is absolutely correct, because if we talk about increasing the thickness of the brake disc we would all go for smaller brake ducts, to have an aero dynamic advantage.

Q: (Steve Cooper - Motorsport News)
Martin, given your knowledge of the departments at Brixworth and Stuttgart, how many years or how many iterations of engine do you think we'll see before Mercedes is back with a front-running unit again?

MW:
We're already designing next year's engine and I think we've learned some lessons and I think that's a good step forward. Whether it's enough, remains to be seen and I guess, with time, experience and hindsight, I could answer the question accurately. It's not just about the individuals, it's about process, it's about teamwork and it's about how we operate and I believe already, and it's early days yet, but I believe we will have a stronger engine package next year. But these things will evolve and I hope we will take another step, so it's a question of year on year, taking bigger steps than your competitors. But we are improving this year's engine package, we're improving the performance during the course of the year and we'll make another step forward next year. But the reality is ultimately where we are in relation to the competition that counts. It's not a question of years. We are already, I believe, making some worthwhile steps of improvement with the engine and will continue to do so throughout this year, next year and the year after that.

Q: (Tony Dodgins)
It looks like the qualifying rules are going to change back again for Silverstone and one of the major factors people were talking about was improving the show. What's your opinions on that?

MW:
My view is that what we have at the moment is not very satisfactory. The qualifying show, however, does throw up some unusual results and it can help the race show. I think we're concentrating on the qualifying show. I'm not entirely convinced by the aggregate time issue, personally, but I think there will be a lot of cars out there fighting for room on the track, there will be cars tripping over themselves in those two sessions, so I think it will be quite an intensive and exhausting hour for the drivers and the teams.

I think that show will be better. The issue of putting the cars on the grid in their natural performance order and thereafter not having enough overtaking I think is true. It's a question of whether, when you put one of the top cars towards the back, is it that exciting as they rush through the backmarkers? I'm not sure that it is. I think Formula One needs to have closer racing and the reality is we have to do a better job, be closer to the Ferraris and BARs at the moment and then we'll get a decent show.

What I think detracts from the show is if people know who's going to win the race before they get here. Then, in fairness to Michael and Ferrari, that's not their fault, that's our fault. We have to get our act together. I think last year the races were more interesting because we had a closer championship. We've now flicked in and out of a very Ferrari-dominant season, a closer season, and we're in a Ferrari-dominant season. I think the hour-long qualifying session could be interesting, it will be intensive. I personally don't like the aggregate decision but nonetheless that's what's been decided. As far as the race is concerned, if all the top teams do a good job and we've got closely competitive cars, then we'll have a good season.

MT:
Not much to add. I'm of the same view, basically. Any change, looking at the race format, I think any change will be a change for the better. What I personally would like to see that if we go out on one quick lap in qualifying, the spectator should be able to evaluate the performance of the car on one quick lap and not something covered by or overshadowed by race tactics as we have it now.

WR:
I would prefer to keep the current procedure, firstly from a commercial point of view - two single lap qualifying runs is guaranteed television time for us. If everybody is out in a normal qualifying session, I think everybody is concentrating more on the quickest cars, and to run second qualifying with fuel for the race gives us a bit more possibility of qualifying with low fuel, for instance, and starting in front more and playing a bit more with the strategy. I think this has gone if we go back to the format which is planned for Silverstone.

OS:
Well, we at Honda have really enjoyed the low fuel all-out performance runs in the past. We look forward to having that back. I'm not sure how the aggregate's going to work but we shall see.

Q: (Steve Cooper)
To everyone, given that McLaren and Toyota are producing a B-spec car this year, and Williams are producing an aero upgrade, and Honda has brought a big engine improvement here, do you think it is a growing trend that we are seeing teams developing almost two specs of car in a season or do you think it is just a one-off this year because the cars that were brought out were under-performing at the start of the year?

MW:
I hope it is not a trend. We don't intend to do it again, no!

MT:
What we have seen last year already is that some teams make bigger progress during the race season than over the winter with the new car. It only reflects the strong developing base the big teams have. I think what we would not like to do is introduce a new car or new engine halfway down the season, but the optimisation steps during a season can be quite significant and will be quite significant in the future.

WR:
I can assure you it is not an option for us, to develop a second car during the season, just for manpower and budget reasons.

OS:
And with us it is not an all-new engine, it is just a significant step this time and we will continue to make those steps when we have the technology to put in the engine and bring out engines with more power. We aren't winning and we will continue to push until we realise our want and our wishes and that is to win the world championship.

Q: (Thierry Tassin - RTBF TV)
Just a question regarding the safety car procedure. In the N?rburgring we heard at lunchtime there was a new procedure then 40 minutes before the race they said we back off, we go to the previous one. What is happening for this grand prix?

MW:
We have no more information.

MT:
I can't [say] either.