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Turkish GP: Friday Press Conference

NEWS STORY
05/06/2009

To start with could you talk about your own team's performance so far this year; whether and when you expect it to improve. How do you feel about it so far.
Flavio Briatore: We are not happy at all. We were expecting a different championship and we were expecting a much better performance from our car. From the beginning when we arrived in Australia we felt that we had a big difference between us and the Brawn. I think everybody felt that. I think you guys knew what was going on (becomes inaudible). Our team I believe approached the 2009 car from a completely different approach but we expect to improve race by race if it is possible. But now the question is if we see what happens. For me the championship is finished already. Brawn is very, very difficult to beat for anybody. Maybe Red Bull have a god possibility to finish second and I think everybody else is fighting for the third and fourth place. This is the honest situation, for sure. We never give up and we try to improve the car but everybody is improving the same and this is the situation where we are.

When we had the first diffuser for the Renault in China we thought that was going to be the answer. But it doesn't seem to have made a difference.
FB: I don't think it is only the diffuser. It is with the concept of the car. Everybody now has the diffuser. I believe as well Brawn at this moment have another one or two tenths in the pocket. We try very hard but this is the situation. The team is improving the car and we have a chance now we are in June and July we want to really push with this car and see what happens. But the situation is really, really difficult for us.

Stefano, same thing with you really. It looked better in Monaco but Monaco tends to be a little bit of a wild card really.
Stefano Domenicali: Well, I think that, first of all, of course, the start to the season was not really the start that we wanted or what we expected. We knew we had to pay the price as we fought to the end last year with our competitor McLaren. But then what you have to do is try to consider the reality and react and this is what we are doing with all the people at home. I think that the car has improved and our target is to make sure we do the maximum during the weekend in order to go back to our normal standard. This is the approach that we will have day by day. We did a step already in Spain and we had quite a good performance in Monte Carlo and we hope to have a good race here in Turkey and we will not give up until the moment when we really feel we cannot do it anymore. That is our approach.

What about the indications so far here as you have a big reputation to defend. Felipe (Massa) won the last three years from pole and Kimi (Räikkönen) won the year before that, admittedly not in a Ferrari.
SD: I think today it was pretty difficult to understand exactly what the picture is as the track was pretty strange. The track condition was very changeable. We saw that both the hard (tyre) and also the soft didn't perform as we expected in getting better and better. For sure the hard improved lap by lap but with no real grip on our car. But also with the soft we didn't improve exactly the time as we were thinking. But overall we need to consider the gaps today and we need to understand what the fuel load of all the cars is. It would be wrong to take any judgement before understanding the picture. I think that tomorrow morning with the track in a better condition we should have a better idea of what will be the race on Sunday.

John, for Toyota was Monaco just a one-off? Did you understand what happened there?
John Howett: Well, we had four strong races. Barcelona, some question mark although relatively we didn't seem quite so competitive, particularly in sector three. Monaco was more or less unacceptable and we have to see where we are this weekend. We expect to have a return to a competitive position.

What is the indication so far?
JH: Well, I think like Stefano says it is pretty difficult today. The track has been fairly green. The tyres have been difficult probably because of the track condition and we need to understand tomorrow. But relatively we have looked definitely stronger than Monaco.

A question on a slightly different subject. There have been rumours that the Japanese Grand Prix won't go back to Fuji. What is the official line from Toyota?
JH: Genuinely it is not Toyota Motorsport's position. I am not involved at all with Fuji Speedway. It is another company within the Toyota group. I have heard that they are reconsidering but I genuinely can't answer and I don't know the exact position.

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