F1 Feature - The Massa Barrichello Interview
19/10/2007
On the eve of the Brazilian grand prix – the final race of the season and the race that will determine the championship, Bridgestone hooked up with local heros Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello for an in-depth look at the season and what the future holds...
Congratulations on your performance in the 2007 championship and that of the team, which has secured the World Constructors’ Championship. It has also just been announced today that your contract has been extended through to the end of 2010. How does it feel? You must see this as a very positive sign of confidence in your abilities and your performances this year?
Massa – These two years with Ferrari have been wonderful for me. It was a change in my career coming from a small team and entering such a big team like Ferrari was for me no doubt very important.
And after these two years, renewing the contract for three more years I think it is important to continue the work and it shows also the confidence the team has in me and also my confidence in working with this team.
I think this is very good and we have three more years of possibilities, in using everything we have learned until now in keeping on our fight for victory in the championship.
Tell us a little about the Bridgestone tyre performance in comparison to previous years, when the championship had two tyre suppliers. Has it added extra interest to the strategies having to use the two dry tyre specifications?
Massa – This was a radical change of course. We had tough competition in terms of tyres in previous years and now we have Bridgestone as the only supplier in Formula 1.
We have many interesting ideas such as using hard and soft tyres for the whole weekend, the mandatory use of both tyres in the championship and also having the band to differentiate one tyre from the other.
All the work that Bridgestone has carried out in Formula 1 has always been excellent and now Bridgestone is supplying tyres for everyone. Everyone using the same type of tyres with the same compounds is making the championship even more competitive than it was.
You won this race this time last year. How does it feel to be back and do you think you can do it again?
Massa – Of course I will do my best, my maximum, and fight for victory and this is what I want the most and to try to make a very good weekend. It would be a dream to repeat what happened a year ago which was a victory in Brazil.
Rubens Barrichello, it has no doubt been a tough year for you and the team but as someone who has driven before for so many years on Bridgestone tyres, do you think that helped you adapt to the new style 2007 tyres?
Barrichello – This year was and is still a big difficultly. It is a big team with two wind tunnels and they have invested a lot. But we didn’t achieve the improvement that everyone wanted, considering what everyone brought to the car. It was not due to the team not trying things but it was a year below expectations.
The tyres came at a good moment for me. I had difficulty adapting to the other company and this year as soon as I tested with Bridgestone again, I got back to my style of driving. Since Bridgestone came to Formula 1 in 1997, there has only been one year when I have not driven on Bridgestone tyres, which was last year, and so I enjoy very much driving in the Bridgestone tyre style.
Having the band also means that the audience can have a bigger motivation, those who know what each type of tyre means, the soft or the hard ones - I like this.
How many times have you driven at Interlagos?
Barrichello – This will be the 15th time.
Interlagos is an anti-clockwise circuit with gradient changes, how tough a challenge is that for you as a driver?
Barrichello – [Laughing] No, my car is not quick enough at the moment so it doesn’t make me tired! No, there is no problem with the anticlockwise circuit but Interlagos will always bring an emotion.
In the same way that Felipe looks for victory, for me victory would be to get a point here – not just for myself. If I don’t get points nothing happens, life goes on, my motivation as well, but I think the lack of points is an issue. But I think in Brazil I have the most positive audience for me to score a point.
Have you been to the track yet?
Barrichello – No, we went to the kart track!
During your career you had good performances at Interlagos with cars of below average performance. With the Honda car do you think it is possible to fight for a result like this?
Barrichello – Yes, for sure. People think that he’s making his money, people say that he doesn’t want to make his mark but this is not what happens. It is a favourable circuit in the sense that there are some small aspects which can help us in terms of the aerodynamics of the car, the weather conditions can help as well and we have to count on everything to make it work.
But recently we were knocking at the door, some conditions were good, others not, but I think that by being in Brazil conditions are already favourable.
What do you think of the choice of soft and super soft compound tyres for this race? How will it be to adapt the cars to the new asphalt?
Barrichello – What I most expect this weekend is that we can go the track and find flat and smooth asphalt and not hear people complaining that the track is bad. I hope that the work that was done there can be something that people can say good things about.
We have different conditions: the asphalt can be smooth or more abrasive and the tyres can adapt to the track with some difficulties. Of course, simulations have been done before coming here and this is a track where theoretically people have always used soft tyres. But we have to see how the new asphalt will be.
Massa – I think that for the moment that we must know exactly how the new asphalt will be. As Rubens said, the asphalt can more smooth or abrasive but it will depend a lot on the condition of the asphalt first before we know which tyre will be best.
The soft one is the same we used in Monaco and Montreal. But we must see what the asphalt will be like first before we can say how the tyres will adapt and how the car will perform on this new asphalt.
Felipe Massa, can you comment on the renewal of your contract and the prospect of taking a world title in the coming years?
Massa – The renewal happened a week ago. It was in fact one week ago that the contract was signed. This came from a long term conversation about renewal. Regarding future expectations, of course they are good and we saw that in the last two years we have had a competitive car and independent of results we fought a lot and we had victories and we fought to the end of the championships.
The expectation is to use what we have learnt from these two seasons to allow for an even better evolution for next year and for the following three years.
You said you used the soft tyres in Monaco and Montreal. McLaren had the best results with these. Was this by chance or luck or were they doing a better job with the tyres?
Massa – I don’t think it is due to the asphalt, but due to the track that we suffered in Monaco and Montreal, where McLaren were a little better than we were on these tracks.
But I think that Interlagos is a bit different to those two tracks where we didn’t have such a good result. And when we start driving then we will see how competitive we are and how competitive McLaren is and for sure McLaren will be competitive and we will be as well. It will be again a fight between Ferrari and McLaren.
Rubens Barricello, you said that the car is slow and you don’t even get tired. It is your 15th Grand Prix: did it cross your mind to quit?
Barrichello – No, it didn’t. I think there was a lot of speculation during the year about whether I would quit or whether Felipe would go to Toyota or not. This is just speculation and nonsense and no, in my mind I never thought about it.
I have one more year of my contract and next year I will have the pleasure of being able to participate with hopefully a much more competitive car. This year was not up to standard but then I have the time to decide whether to change team, to stay with this team or to quit, these are the three possibilities that I have ahead of me.
We hear about traction control making a difference and next year there will be no traction control. So how do you see this affecting you next year?
Barrichello – With so many years of participation, I have already run with, without it, with again, without, so you adapt very quickly to the car style. The setup of the car has to be different but the way of driving doesn’t change much.
Of course, in Fuji conditions [very wet] it could be dangerous, because the cars are sliding on the track. The issue that the pilot prevails is a fact. Formula 1 is as much about aerodynamics, not just the electronics of the cars, so I think there will be proof next year that the times will be quicker than this year. The lack of traction control at some tracks like Monaco, the slower tracks, will be an issue.
Massa – I never drove an F1 car without traction control. When I started in 2002 it already existed in the cars. But in other categories with cars without traction control I always adapted to them very easily. Next year without traction control there will be an adaptation phase in testing and by the beginning of the championship things will be just as natural for us as they were with traction control.
As Rubens said, in a situation when it rains strongly it will be different and more complicated but with the level of drivers in Formula 1, it won’t be traction control that makes a difference to the final result. These are very talented drivers who went through several different categories and several different types of cars and always did well.
Next year there will be two new circuits at Valencia and Singapore. Do you have any concerns?
Barichello – [Jokingly] I am concerned because Felipe is short sighted so at night or in the evening in Singapore, I think it might be a problem!
Massa – No, the problem is if there is not enough light, if there is enough light it will be OK!
Last year safety was an issue and you were talking about the asphalt, new projects, about building a new track. What do you know or think about it?
Massa – I think it is very difficult to comment on this. We have the Interlagos track which we have used for several years and which I love. I think in the future, if we leave we have to go to a track which offers much more than Interlagos does and this is not an easy task but for now I am satisfied to race at home, at Interlagos. But let’s see the projects to see what the future offers.
These are not short term projects and any new circuit, if built, would need to be better than Interlagos.
What were the major lessons you learnt regarding strategy and choice of tyres? What were the main lessons you learnt during this season which you want to avoid next season?
Massa – I think that all the negative results which we had this year are really results for us to learn from and try not to repeat next year. This is a general problem, any problems we had need to be avoided in future and next year.