DIEK
29th July 2010, 18:52
Q: And a word about last weekend. What are your feelings after Hockenheim?
FM: Well, we know that sometimes you have a difficult time but anyway you always learn and we always need to think forward and always need to be stronger and stronger all the time in your career, in your life, and what I can say is I am very strong and looking forward to the victory.
...
Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Rubens, what did you think when you heard what Felipe had to do last week and do you regret you were forced to do the same thing in 2002 in Austria? To Felipe, do you think you should have done something last week because of the comments that came out in the Brazilian media?
RB: All I can say is that I was very sorry to see he had to go through such a bad thing. There is nothing else. Nobody should have to go through those feelings and Felipe is a friend and I wished he didn’t go through that.
FM: I did a great race last race and it was definitely a nice time one year after the accident but, anyway, we need to look forward and think about this weekend which is the most important thing.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, does this also change something in your perspective of your relationship with Ferrari? Was this something that was unexpected and might change your vision of the future?
FM: For sure it makes me even stronger.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Felipe, after the last race, I asked you if you were not worried about your image in Brazil, and you said ‘absolutely no.’ And after almost a week, we realise what happened there. What’s your comment? People say that you betrayed the country.
FM: For sure not. I will always do everything I can for my country. For me my country is the most important thing. For sure, I have already proved many times in my life many things I did in my life, in my career, what I’m able to do for my country, and as I said, definitely whoever is thinking like that is completely wrong. I’m doing everything I can, I will always do everything I can for my country, which is the most important thing for me, because it’s my home.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Felipe, welcome back here first of all. In the post-race press conference in Germany, obviously neither yourself nor Fernando (Alonso) would concede that team orders had taken place. Obviously what followed was that the FIA found Ferrari guilty and fined them, and the matter is now going before the World Motorsport Council. On that basis, can we get your reaction to the fact that the FIA found Ferrari guilty? And also you said that you were looking forward to fighting for victory here. If a similar situation to what happened in Germany was to arise here, would you be allowed to fight for victory?
FM: As I said, there’s no real point in going back to last weekend. We need to think about the present. I think we have spoken a lot about what’s happened in the last race. So yes, I will fight for victory here in whatever conditions.
Q: (Arianna Ravelli – Corriere della Sera) So if you are in the same situation this weekend, you will react in the same way or not?
FM: I will win.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Felipe, we understood that when you say that you are working for the team, at least when you said it last week, working for the team now risks to be working for your team-mate.
FM: For sure not. I’m working for the team and we know how important it is to work for the team.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) But if your team-mate has to fight to be World Champion, it’s mainly himself…
FM: Well, I think you remember very well what has happened in the past, no? In 2007. You remember very well what’s happened in 2008, no? So I don’t think you really have to go through all the points. For sure, if the team really has the chance to win the championship I want the best for the team.
Q: (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Felipe, have you had assurances from the team that you will be able to be allowed to continue fighting for victory? Have you spoken to them about that? It hasn’t affected your motivation?
FM: Sure, for sure I’ve spoken to everybody inside the team. As I said, I’m not here really just to race, I’m here to win. That’s really my point. As long as I am in the condition to win, we need to go to the end, to fight for victory. As long as the condition is different then I definitely want the best for the team. I work for the team, I’m professional and I think everybody needs to understand my point.
Q: (Holly Samos – BBC Radio Five Live) This is a question for Rubens, Felipe, whoever else might want to answer: should the team order rule be scrapped? What’s your view?
RB: It’s not up to us to decide. Whenever they said team orders should not take place, other ways of telling the driver to back off were introduced. So in that respect, you should think, ‘OK, so this should not take place’ and then the team should decide to do whatever. I just think that we should do something to stop this thing, because at the end of the day, it could get into a bit of drama here. When you are racing, you want to beat the other one, but I wouldn’t feel nice, I wouldn’t feel good if you tell me ‘I’ll give you this which makes you faster than the other one’ and then you win. I don’t like that, I never did and that’s why I had to make changes in my life and that’s why I changed teams and that’s why I moved on. So I think it’s in the hands of the top people to change that because you should be allowed to race. What’s the problem? If you don’t win the championship by one point, so be it. You had your chance, you had to go, and then you win the championship by one point because somebody let you win? What’s the point? That’s my view. If I have to be a bad guy and to be World Champion, I don’t care for that. I will teach my boys the same way my father taught me and I’m happy with that.
HK: I don’t really want to get into this debate too much. I’m just here to race.
RK: It’s not so simple, I think. We are all working for our teams. I think the most important… unless you like it or you don’t like it is the team. If there’s a chance or an opportunity to help the team to score better results or whatever in the final standings, it’s normal that you are asked to do it. It’s normal that you will do it, and that’s very simple. I know it’s not always easy to let your team-mate by but sometimes it’s important for the team, and that’s how it was working, that’s how it will work for many years, so unless we say it’s not allowed to overtake your team-mate, because I think this is the only rule to stop it, but you cannot put it. It was like this ten years ago, it will be like this in the next ten years.
Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Rubens, this situation at Ferrari, you’ve been through all this before. What kind of advice can you give Felipe for the rest of the season? How should he respond now, in the team?
RB: I called him and I’ve already told him, so it’s going to be between me and him. I told him what I think, but there’s not a lot to tell. He feels the same thing I felt some time ago, and that should be it.
Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Felipe, could we just establish the facts? Are you the number two driver now? And if not, what was the point in giving away the seven points to Fernando? I know you’re a great driver and a great competitor and a lot of us are very confused why you did what you did last weekend.
FM: The time when I say I am number two driver I will not race any more. So I am not.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) During the Silverstone weekend, Webber said ‘that if I thought I was in this condition maybe I wouldn’t re-sign… I wouldn’t renew the contract.’ Did you feel the same during these last few days, Felipe?
FM: No. To be honest, all of you are trying to put words in my mouth. I have my thinking and will not really go through all these points, because it’s not the case.
...
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) I have a question for Heikki: this has been a week where everybody’s been criticising Ferrari for not being very sporting with team orders, but if I’m not wrong, in 2008, in Hockenheim, you received the same message on the radio from Ron Dennis: ‘Lewis is much faster than you’ and Lewis passed you in the same turn as Felipe and he won the championship by one point. Is that true?
HK: I don’t remember that. For me, there’s no point in going into the past, actually. I’m just here to race with Lotus and that’s all I can say.
:Hmm
FM: Well, we know that sometimes you have a difficult time but anyway you always learn and we always need to think forward and always need to be stronger and stronger all the time in your career, in your life, and what I can say is I am very strong and looking forward to the victory.
...
Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Rubens, what did you think when you heard what Felipe had to do last week and do you regret you were forced to do the same thing in 2002 in Austria? To Felipe, do you think you should have done something last week because of the comments that came out in the Brazilian media?
RB: All I can say is that I was very sorry to see he had to go through such a bad thing. There is nothing else. Nobody should have to go through those feelings and Felipe is a friend and I wished he didn’t go through that.
FM: I did a great race last race and it was definitely a nice time one year after the accident but, anyway, we need to look forward and think about this weekend which is the most important thing.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, does this also change something in your perspective of your relationship with Ferrari? Was this something that was unexpected and might change your vision of the future?
FM: For sure it makes me even stronger.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Felipe, after the last race, I asked you if you were not worried about your image in Brazil, and you said ‘absolutely no.’ And after almost a week, we realise what happened there. What’s your comment? People say that you betrayed the country.
FM: For sure not. I will always do everything I can for my country. For me my country is the most important thing. For sure, I have already proved many times in my life many things I did in my life, in my career, what I’m able to do for my country, and as I said, definitely whoever is thinking like that is completely wrong. I’m doing everything I can, I will always do everything I can for my country, which is the most important thing for me, because it’s my home.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Felipe, welcome back here first of all. In the post-race press conference in Germany, obviously neither yourself nor Fernando (Alonso) would concede that team orders had taken place. Obviously what followed was that the FIA found Ferrari guilty and fined them, and the matter is now going before the World Motorsport Council. On that basis, can we get your reaction to the fact that the FIA found Ferrari guilty? And also you said that you were looking forward to fighting for victory here. If a similar situation to what happened in Germany was to arise here, would you be allowed to fight for victory?
FM: As I said, there’s no real point in going back to last weekend. We need to think about the present. I think we have spoken a lot about what’s happened in the last race. So yes, I will fight for victory here in whatever conditions.
Q: (Arianna Ravelli – Corriere della Sera) So if you are in the same situation this weekend, you will react in the same way or not?
FM: I will win.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Felipe, we understood that when you say that you are working for the team, at least when you said it last week, working for the team now risks to be working for your team-mate.
FM: For sure not. I’m working for the team and we know how important it is to work for the team.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) But if your team-mate has to fight to be World Champion, it’s mainly himself…
FM: Well, I think you remember very well what has happened in the past, no? In 2007. You remember very well what’s happened in 2008, no? So I don’t think you really have to go through all the points. For sure, if the team really has the chance to win the championship I want the best for the team.
Q: (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Felipe, have you had assurances from the team that you will be able to be allowed to continue fighting for victory? Have you spoken to them about that? It hasn’t affected your motivation?
FM: Sure, for sure I’ve spoken to everybody inside the team. As I said, I’m not here really just to race, I’m here to win. That’s really my point. As long as I am in the condition to win, we need to go to the end, to fight for victory. As long as the condition is different then I definitely want the best for the team. I work for the team, I’m professional and I think everybody needs to understand my point.
Q: (Holly Samos – BBC Radio Five Live) This is a question for Rubens, Felipe, whoever else might want to answer: should the team order rule be scrapped? What’s your view?
RB: It’s not up to us to decide. Whenever they said team orders should not take place, other ways of telling the driver to back off were introduced. So in that respect, you should think, ‘OK, so this should not take place’ and then the team should decide to do whatever. I just think that we should do something to stop this thing, because at the end of the day, it could get into a bit of drama here. When you are racing, you want to beat the other one, but I wouldn’t feel nice, I wouldn’t feel good if you tell me ‘I’ll give you this which makes you faster than the other one’ and then you win. I don’t like that, I never did and that’s why I had to make changes in my life and that’s why I changed teams and that’s why I moved on. So I think it’s in the hands of the top people to change that because you should be allowed to race. What’s the problem? If you don’t win the championship by one point, so be it. You had your chance, you had to go, and then you win the championship by one point because somebody let you win? What’s the point? That’s my view. If I have to be a bad guy and to be World Champion, I don’t care for that. I will teach my boys the same way my father taught me and I’m happy with that.
HK: I don’t really want to get into this debate too much. I’m just here to race.
RK: It’s not so simple, I think. We are all working for our teams. I think the most important… unless you like it or you don’t like it is the team. If there’s a chance or an opportunity to help the team to score better results or whatever in the final standings, it’s normal that you are asked to do it. It’s normal that you will do it, and that’s very simple. I know it’s not always easy to let your team-mate by but sometimes it’s important for the team, and that’s how it was working, that’s how it will work for many years, so unless we say it’s not allowed to overtake your team-mate, because I think this is the only rule to stop it, but you cannot put it. It was like this ten years ago, it will be like this in the next ten years.
Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Rubens, this situation at Ferrari, you’ve been through all this before. What kind of advice can you give Felipe for the rest of the season? How should he respond now, in the team?
RB: I called him and I’ve already told him, so it’s going to be between me and him. I told him what I think, but there’s not a lot to tell. He feels the same thing I felt some time ago, and that should be it.
Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Felipe, could we just establish the facts? Are you the number two driver now? And if not, what was the point in giving away the seven points to Fernando? I know you’re a great driver and a great competitor and a lot of us are very confused why you did what you did last weekend.
FM: The time when I say I am number two driver I will not race any more. So I am not.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) During the Silverstone weekend, Webber said ‘that if I thought I was in this condition maybe I wouldn’t re-sign… I wouldn’t renew the contract.’ Did you feel the same during these last few days, Felipe?
FM: No. To be honest, all of you are trying to put words in my mouth. I have my thinking and will not really go through all these points, because it’s not the case.
...
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) I have a question for Heikki: this has been a week where everybody’s been criticising Ferrari for not being very sporting with team orders, but if I’m not wrong, in 2008, in Hockenheim, you received the same message on the radio from Ron Dennis: ‘Lewis is much faster than you’ and Lewis passed you in the same turn as Felipe and he won the championship by one point. Is that true?
HK: I don’t remember that. For me, there’s no point in going into the past, actually. I’m just here to race with Lotus and that’s all I can say.
:Hmm