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British GP: Thursday Press Conference

NEWS STORY
05/07/2012

Vitaly, your thoughts on the updates that the team brought to Valencia, where you ran very competitively, and I think you have more here as well.
Vitaly Petrov: Actually we bring not so many updates to Valencia, just front wing and, slightly, bodywork. But here, yes, we bring new back bodywork, new exhaust, some front wings and probably the rear wing, so we have quite a big update here.

Where do you think that can bring you? Do you have any idea? Can you be in the points? That, obviously, has to be the major aim.
VP: First of all we need to see how these upgrades will work. This weekend we know the weather will be not fantastic it. It's a disappointment. Also our straight-line test, we didn't do much work because of heavy rain. But you know all the 24 cars are quite close to each other and quite competitive, so if we gain something definitely we will be, maybe, more competitive than in the last race. So I hope these upgrades will give us some good feedback and we can fight with the cars in front.

Romain, first of all, congratulations on you marriage, week before last I think. In Valencia, you led the grand prix. People forget sometimes that you haven't been a front runner for long, that you haven't done that many grands prix. How exciting was that? And what did you learn from leading the race?
Romain Grosjean: Well, same position as Valencia, behind Fernando. It was a very good weekend, a very good grand prix. It's nice to be able to fight for the front with Lewis, Fernando with Sebastian Vettel, all the big guys. We have a car, which is very competitive, and the factory is doing a fantastic job. It's good to be here, good to be able to get a lot of experience by fighting with the big teams and the top drivers and hopefully at the next one we get a little bit more luck and I can got to first place.

Do you feel you have made a lot of progress this year? Do you feel you have matured almost?
RG: I think you progress every time you're in the car. It's difficult with no testing to improve yourself so every race weekend you learn something new, in terms of set-up, in terms of driving, in terms of tyre management or whatever, and for sure when you fight at the front you learn even more than when you are at the back.

Bruno, in a couple of weeks' time you're going to be picking up the Trofeo Bandini. What does it mean to you to have won that trophy?
Bruno Senna: It's very special. You know that Lewis has taken it before, Seb and Nico. So there are quite a few drivers that are successful now have won this in the past, so it's very encouraging for me that they see potential in me - especially from last year as that was such a tough situation to be in. It's going to be a special event and I'm looking forward to being there.

We can see that the Williams car this year has performance. But are you happy with it? Are there any issues you have with the car?
BS: Of course we're happy with it. It's difficult for a team to make such a leap from a difficult season [last year] as Williams has done. So it's very encouraging for us to have a car that is consistently in the points. On the other hand we always want more. We always want the car to be faster and faster, so we keep pushing the team and the team keeps pushing us to improve. We are always trying to find the magic button to make the car go faster than the other ones.

Lewis, we saw in Valencia that Red Bull seem to be really quick, I don't think there's any disputing that, but have McLaren got an answer to that, because we see that they're bringing update to this race?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, we definitely have some upgrades, so I'm really, really excited to see how they behave on the car and if they actually deliver what we think they're going to deliver. But whether or not... I don't know if it's as big as what they brought at the last race, but who knows. I think our car generally goes a little bit better on high-speed circuits than it does at low-speed circuits, so fingers crossed it will be a little bit stronger this weekend.

You've had so many instances where you've been so close to scoring big points this season and Valencia to some extent was the same again. Are you still changing your attitude and working towards maximising on those sorts of race?
LH: I haven't changed anything from the beginning of the season - everything's still the same. Things don't always go according to plan, but that's life. I'm excited now that we have another race and that we have so many races ahead of us and that we still have plenty of opportunities to continue fighting for this championship and that's what racing is all about.

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