Q: Do you think this year’s rule changes have worked? And what do you think of the future plans as being considered for 2011?
Jean TODT: Friday, I mean it is true to say it has made things easier for testing the car, the set up, to know the tyres and definitely for the reliability of the engine because normally we started the engine rules with one engine for 400 kilometres and now we are ending with one engine with about 1000 kilometres, so it makes it different. Definitely to have one engine for two races, it is a way to reduce costs and goes in the right direction not to reduce costs, but to stabilise costs. Over the last years it has been a huge inflation about costs and like that it does make Formula One much cheaper, but it stops the escalation of the costs. Tyres? As usual, in all new regulations there are some positive and some negative points. It is true that less testing is required and leaving it more to racing because everybody uses the same specification of tyres. But competition is a high technology competition and you lose part of it by having only a single tyre company. And about testing, the teams have agreed at 30,000 kilometres a year, which is acceptable, but I think we must not make a wrong judgement about that, because it seems from outside that it reduces costs, but in order to remain as competitive as possible you have to invest in simulation facilities. There is no limitation on simulation facilities – it is a high cost and you cannot test young drivers and you just focus on the development of the car and it is very expensive so on that I would be more cautious to make final conclusions. Q: The second question I was asking was – are we moving in the right direction with the paper that you received recently about the ‘green’ direction for the future?
JT: From now to 2011, we move in three steps: 08 when we will be using a standard ECU which will be supplied by McLaren Electronics and we will have one gearbox for Grands Prix, that is the first step; the second step is 09 with restriction of the KERS, for the engine, and with the new aero package; and then, 2011, we got first the proposal of the discussions held among the manufactures and the FIA and we must bear in mind that it has been said now for a certain time that when we move into a new rules for Formula One we have to consider four principles which are the cost reduction, the improvement of the show, the safety and the link to road car technology. So we have a first draft and I think it is a good draft for discussion. Mainly it is addressing the power train situation, so the aerodynamic and the chassis are not well covered and we are now at the end of May 07 and I hope things can move forward and we can write regulations that suit Formula One and which will correspond to the four parameters we agreed on.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Is it fair to say that with testing restrictions the team with most cars has an advantage and that a top team therefore needs a customer team running the same cars?
JT: Definitely, if you have eight cars, which are the same specification, it will help. Not so much for the chassis or for the aero, because very often, well, you take Barcelona, we do four days testing in Barcelona, then we arrive in Barcelona and we change all the set up of the car. And we start again on Saturday, we change again all the set up of the cars. So it depends on the temperature and many other components. Considering we are going to reliability components, like engine, gearbox and all that, if you are able to do testing on more cars it will allow you to test them better, things like engine, gearbox, electronics and definitely it will be an advantage.
Q: (Sal Zanca – Associated Press) Question to Ron and Jean: the future of Formula One is also night-time racing. Ron, what is your view on it and did Bernie or the FIA consult you beforehand? And Jean, do you think there is anything from Le Mans you could carry over for night-time racing?
JT: As long as it does correspond to some of the parameters, as I was talking before, we don’t have any problem with that. Considering the synergy that is possible between the Le Mans racing and Formula One racing, I see a big difference. At Le Mans, you have lights on the cars and in Formula One, you would have lights on the circuit, so I don’t think it’s something that can be comparable.
Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Question for all of you: could you comment on Lewis Hamilton in his first four races; what do you think of him?
JT: If I speak with some sense of humour, I see him as having a good school last year! Ron is enjoying that, which is part of the truth. He had a very good season last year, and he’s a very skilled, talented driver. I must say he has been fortunate enough to drive one of the best cars. We know that in racing you need to have the car, you need to have the team and you need to have the drivers. If you miss one of those components it cannot work. He has a good car, he has a good team and he’s a great driver, so I would say that I’m not really surprised but I’m full of respect for this young guy and I simply hope that Formula One won’t damage him too quickly.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Ron, bearing in mind what we’ve seen of Lewis this season and all the expectations that you’ve mentioned, are you glad that this is a mistake he’s now finally got out of the way? And then a question to Jean, you mentioned that you hope Formula One doesn’t damage Lewis too soon. Could you just expand on that a little as to what you mean by that?
JT: Formula One is among the sports that attracts a lot of media. If you want to stay at the highest level for a long time, whatever your position, I think you have to remain with your feet on the ground, focused on the important things rather than consider things which are not important but which could just distract you.
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) We were talking earlier on about the spectacle of Formula One, and the need to improve that. To what extent do you think the spectacle needs improving or the TV coverage needs improving, because some people think the spectacle is good enough if we can portray it properly? That’s for all of you.
JT: Each Grand Prix is different. It gives a lot of fascination. One of the reasons there has not been a very good movie about racing is that nobody can do better than (the reality of) a single Grand Prix, as a story. So each story is great. I would say that of course it depends on the director, because they change for each Grand Prix, so sometimes we have a better one, but again, it’s like a movie director that has delivered a fantastic job. I feel we miss overtaking, I think we all feel we miss overtaking. But you can explain that, because for two days you fight to put the quickest car ahead so can you expect a lot of overtaking. On top of that, in any category of car racing there is little overtaking except on some very specific circuits. If you watch a Moto Grand Prix race there’s a lot of overtaking because they’re on two wheels, but on four wheels, with one line, with very tight braking distances, it means it’s almost impossible. As I’ve said before, we try to find solutions, but I must say it’s very difficult to find solutions to improve overtaking. But otherwise, Formula One is an outstanding show.
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