Q. What about testing since then? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to tyre performance?
RB: Well, we made improvements. It is not night and day, you make small steps, but also you want to see how much you want to go faster in qualifying. If you go faster in qualifying and still have a reliable tyre like we have now, probably the best tyre in the race at the end of the race, how much do you want to lose? If you have the qualifying and you still have the tyre for the race that is fine, but if you don't then that is not so good. So we need to take a balance between them. Silverstone last week was a bit too cold to get an opinion on things, we were not testing things for Canada specifically. It was probably our last test in Silverstone and we were testing other things apart from tyres. So you just have to balance yourself. We had two cars, we had another one in Monza, which was more to do with here. Things are better and we most definitely think our car is a fast car, it is the tyres, so we just have to take a balance and see where we are.

Q. But it is a compromise, you can't have both?
RB: You know, at the start of the season Renault seemed to have both. They were qualifying ahead and racing ahead and that was good enough. Now the competition has upped the game a little bit, not just with us but I think McLaren, sometimes Williams, everyone really, just challenging for the win, and I don't think you can have both right now. You have to have a combination that allows you to be at the front but be ahead in the race, which is the most important.

Q. Looking back at the Nurburgring and the predicament that Kimi was in there with a flat-spotted front tyre, do you think that is too much of a predicament to be put in as a driver?
RB: I don't want to go too much into his problem, but it is just separating things and I think if it was me driving that car I would most certainly have stopped, not because it was dangerous and I am afraid to have a crash or die or something like this, but just because it was not going to work. It could have worked at the end, but you have to have a proof to change your tyre, you cannot do it when you are pitting for fuel, so you have to do it another time. Sometimes in life you have to go backwards to go ahead, so I think it was better to get eight points.

Questions From The Floor

Q. (Dan Knutson ­ National Speedsport News) Rubens, after so many years of winning and now the last seven months, can you describe the feeling in the team?
RB: To be very honest, the mood is quite good. When I first came to Ferrari the team was kind of let's try to do this and that, and obviously after three or four races things changed and there was a smile there, we were winning, we won the constructors' since 2000 and everything was really simple and the smile was there. Right now you see we went back a little bit to the trying mode, because we haven't won a race yet, but we know the potential is there. We know that if Alonso, for example, finishes all the races in the points then it will be very difficult to win the championship, but there is a lot to happen yet and it might change, you never know. On the constructors' side we just need to improve a little bit more and points will be there, so the mood is good. You get the first meeting on a Thursday is quite an encouraging one, looking at the testing we have done and the improvements we have brought to the racing track. The Sunday afternoon one, up to now, has been a little different, just because we didn't have the first trophy there, but it is still on the up, they definitely didn't give up.

Q. To all of you, after your crash, Kimi, Team McLaren has been accused of risking your life by keeping you out on the track so long with the damaged tyre. Do you guys think the tyre rules are leading you into a risky position?
RB: It is definitely not the team's call. It's your call, you are driving the car, you know how dangerous it is or not and that's pretty much it. The new rules allowed some overtaking, even though the overtaking we see is that somebody has a problem with a tyre and then they are going two or three seconds slower and then you are not overtaking. I think the year has gone with a little bit more… it seems that the public like it a little bit more in terms of as soon as we got away from the two qualifying sessions, it has been better in terms of a show but in terms of driving, I've been saying that since the beginning of the year, I used to drive on old tyres because I didn't have enough money to buy new ones when I was driving go-karts. That's pretty much it.

Q. (Adrian Rodriguez Huber - ) Rubens, how far or how close are you from the first and second you gained here last year?
RB: This year, you mean? It is very difficult to know. As Jacques said, the track has been resurfaced. There's going to be a difference. It's a little bit of a challenge for the tyre manufacturer just to get the right tyre because of that. I have heard so many stories about the weather, maybe a bit of rain during the weekend, so it's difficult really to know. I don't think we are that far… let's put it this way, I don't think we still have the quickest car out there but we are not that far from being first and second.

Q. (Jean-Sebastian Gagnant ­ La Presse, Montreal) Rubens, how is the relationship between you and Michael now? It was a little bit tense after Monaco. Now, a race later, how is it?
RB: It is not a problem. I got out of the car, told him what I thought I should have said. After that the team really calmed me down and there was not a problem. On Thursday at the Nurburgring the press was trying to hush things up and saying things that I didn't say and he didn't say, so it was a bit of a mess with the press at Nurburgring but it is not a problem. I am still entitled to have my opinion and that is pretty much it. But we don't have problems anyway.

Q. (Pino Allievi ­ Gazzetta dello Sport) For everyone, the TV audience has gone deeply down everywhere in Europe since two years and even here the press is not so full as in the past. Who is at fault?
RB: There is not much to add really. To be honest, I didn't know that for two years we have less… Right here, for me, it seems to be more people than last year to be very very honest. There were more people at Barcelona as well. Alonso is attracting a lot of people and it seems we can see more flags everywhere. Brazil, as far as I understand, is sold out already and the audience there is not bad at all.