Site logo

Australian GP: Thursday Press Conference

NEWS STORY
15/03/2012

Charles, it's looking like a pretty tough initiation for you into Formula One with no testing of the new car, brand new car tomorrow. Tell us what your thoughts are.
Charles Pic: Yes, we have had not so much driving but we made an ad day in Silverstone for the shakedown and everything went fine. So looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully it will be dry to have some kilometres.

Charles, how important has it been to have the mileage in the old car?
CP: Yeah, very important. I made two days in Barcelona. We were able to make many laps so it was just great for me. It was very, very helpful.

Was it a big step up from GP2 to Formula One?
CP: Yes, of course, you have much more things to do and you have to understand in a very short space of time.

Kimi, welcome back. How much has Kimi changed in the two years that you've been doing WRC? And how much has your driving changed during that time?
Kimi Raikkonen: Oh, I don't know really. I don't think a lot, a little bit older, that's all. It's the same really.

Has it been good to be back in a Formula One car again?
KR: Yeah, it was nice. It really hasn't changed a lot, the car feels pretty similar, the tyres are slightly different but I was expecting to have more difficulties with them but they seem pretty good, especially when they are new - but of course they will wear out a bit faster but it's been nice to drive.

We've seen pretty good pace from you and Romain Grosjean your team-mate, how real is that pace?
KR: We could probably have gone a bit faster if we wanted but I don't know what the others are doing. The car feels good, the lap time at least in testing was OK - whether it's enough we will see over the weekend and over the next races but so far it has been OK.

Daniel, obviously your home race, how big is this race? Was your first Formula One race bigger or is this it?
Daniel Ricciardo: I think the first one last year in Silverstone was still pretty hectic. I think not having the preparation as I have at the start of this year probably made it a bit more intense. I've had a lot of media attention the last couple of days but I think the on-track stuff was, or will be, more intense in Silverstone. But yeah, I understand what Mark means about the attention here. It's pretty full-on but it's been nice, really supportive. And hopefully I'll just get out on track and do a good job over the weekend.

You're obviously with a new team with Scuderia Toro Rosso and in testing it looked as if it's pretty good, certainly the first test looked pretty good, perhaps less so since then. What are your feelings about the team?
DR: It's a good opportunity for me this year, it's progress from last year and we'll be fighting further up the grid. I think it's hard to know where we are. From what I see the top teams are still going to be more or less the top teams or at least the top two or three but the midfield does seem a bit more tight. So yeah, I think everyone showed signs of potential but until Saturday qualifying and Sunday racing we probably won't know where we all really stand. But I think realistically we're still in the group we were in last year but it does seem like it's closed up. So there's probably more opportunity to leapfrog a few.

Mark, your 11th Australian Grand Prix - just to remind you if you didn't know - and also of course you were the winner of the last grand prix as well, though it was some time ago, how are you feeling coming into this one?
Mark Webber: Good, yeah! We had a pretty good winter, the team worked incredibly hard so we need to see how it's going to unveil this weekend obviously, and then Malaysia is just around the corner, so we have two big races, we're going to get a really good snapshot of the performances of the cars, and we feel like we've done pretty well but we have McLaren and Ferrari and Lotus and Mercedes, lots of good guys doing well so it's going to be very exciting and difficult to see who's going to do the business until we get going.

As an honest opinion, is it nervousness or excitement or apprehension - how do you start a new season like this?
MW: Probably a little bit of all of that. I think there's a little bit of rust in all the teams, obviously we haven't raced for a while so you're looking at pit stops and strategy and drivers because we haven't competed for a while. So, that's always interesting to get on top of that at the first grand prix. I think we're all just looking forward to getting our helmets on and getting on with it now. Obviously we've been talking about it for nine weeks now, about who's doing what and we're just sick of talking about it and want to get out there and get on with it.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images

POST A COMMENT

or Register for a Pitpass ID to have your say

Please note that all posts are reactively moderated and must adhere to the site's posting rules and etiquette.

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

 

No comments posted as yet, would you like to be the first to have your say?

Share this page

X

Copyright © Pitpass 2002 - 2024. All rights reserved.

about us  |  advertise  |  contact  |  privacy & security  |  rss  |  terms