Q: Is it going to delay tomorrow do you feel?
RB: It will make the tyre choice more difficult because Michael didn’t get a chance to try both tyres this afternoon, only Rubens did and, of course, it’s much better if you’ve got both drivers giving input on the tyres.

Q: So it’s just going to be guesswork…
RB: Educated guesswork.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Mark Hugues - Autosport) Ross, do you know any further what the problems with Rubens’ car were at Monaco?
RB: Not really, no. We’ve had a very good look at the car. We can see from the data that it was inconsistent and I think what was disturbing Rubens was that it was unpredictable. He would enter a corner and in one situation it was fine but on the next lap he would enter the corner and he would have a different car to deal with and, of course, around Monaco that’s the last thing you need. But these things are a pretty fine combination of settings and the set-up, the differential reacts to certain things like brake pressure and the way you enter a corner and he just couldn’t fine a consistent car. But there was no physical problem we could find with the car. I think it was just the way we arrived with the car; it was a bit too critical.

Q: (Mark Hugues) Is he using the same car here?
RB: Yeah, yeah.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Ross, at the start of the season Giancarlo Fisichella was looking at having a test with Ferrari at some point. It now seems there is a problem and I understand that it is maybe something to do with his overalls. Can it really be that a pair of overalls can stop him having a test with you?
RB: I am not aware of that. Peter might be able to shed some light on that. I am not actually aware of the background to that although I did hear the story. Technically there just has not been an opportunity for him to run so from the point of view of the programme we have so there has not been a convenient time for him to run, but I am not aware of any commercial issues.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sports News) For all four of you, there has been a lot of talk about improving the show, the spectacle. If you could change one thing for the fans, both at the track and on television, what would you do?
RB: I am a bit biased but I think the whole technical side could be interesting for people. I think the fuel quantities should be known to all the people watching the race so they know exactly where it is. I mean, I bet if I asked you lot how much fuel we had in the car in Monaco after the safety car I would be amazed if any of you knew, and that is wrong, because you should know what could develop in the race. We had 17 laps of fuel in the car at Monaco and that gave us quite a good opportunity to have a go at winning the race. But no-one actually seemed to know that. And there is a whole technical side of Formula One that is not presented to the interests of the public and I think the whole race strategy side could be a lot more interesting if we knew what fuel the cars had in qualifying, what fuel they had in the race, how much fuel went into the cars, you know. There are enough bright guys commentating to be able to display what is going on. In Barcelona we had Rubens on two stops and Michael on three and it was very close whether Rubens was going to win the race or not. That didn’t really get picked up on and I think that is a great shame. I think the whole format of racing is a much more difficult thing because there is so much mixed opinion but from my side I think all the technical information should be available to the public and I think the radio should be available to the public as well.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Mike Doodson Associates) Ross, at the beginning of last year a group of journalists had exactly the same idea as you did that we should know what the fuel levels were. We broached the subject with the FIA and were told that a number of teams, including yours, had actually refused permission for that information to be given because it is confidential information that is made available by the FIA. Can we have your undertaking now that if the question came up again that Ferrari would vote for us to be able to have the fuel figures?
RB: To my knowledge, that problem was tied up with the commercial issues, it was not a confidentiality or secrecy, because we were quite happy to try to improve the show. I can’t recall, to be honest, exactly what Ferrari’s position was, but I do know that when the topic has been raised of information from the teams going to the promoter to improve the show the stumbling block has been the commercial situation at the moment because there is really not a great deal of spirit of co-operation between the promoter and the teams at the present time. I am not sure what Ferrari’s position was then, but certainly I think this commercial situation is causing a lot of difficulty in a number of areas of potential co-operation between the teams and improving the show. I know it may seem like we are biting the hand that feeds us but it is a great problem at the moment, the whole commercial side, and it does cause a lot of difficulty in those sorts of areas. But to me it would be a great thing to add to Formula One to have the technical information available, the technical insight, the radio discussions that go on in the race. You would need a bleep-meter occasionally! But I think it would be fascinating. You look at a sport like cricket, which is a relatively tedious sport, apart for those real die-hard enthusiasts, and they have made it really entertaining in the last few years with some of the technology they have introduced. I think we are really backward on that side and I think we need to get the commercial side sorted and then get all the teams co-operating to put on a much better show, that aside from the basic format of the racing.

Q: (Mark Hugues) In light of Patrick’s announcement last week that he will be taking a bit more of a back seat, Sam and Ross, do you have any anecdotes?
RB: There are a few anecdotes, but I am not sure I can tell them here unfortunately! Patrick was my tutor because I started in Formula One with Patrick, my first job in Formula One was given to me by Patrick, in fact. Patrick offered the job to somebody else, who turned it down, then Patrick gave me the job. I have never been able to find that person who turned it down because if I could I would buy him a beer at least! Patrick has been a reference point for a huge number of people in Formula One – myself, Adrian (Newey), Sam now – and he has been a huge figure in Formula One.

Q: (Ted Kravitz – ITV) Ross, you said Michael had 17 laps of fuel left after the safety car. That was lap 45 or 46, which would mean he would have made it to lap 72. Isn’t that still five short of the race distance or would you have had to stop him again?
RB: 63, in my reckoning. He would have made it to 63.

Q: (Ted Kravitz) So you would have had to stop him again, whatever, and the other cars behind you didn’t have to stop again, who did stop under the safety car.
RB: Yes, the numbers are that he had about 15 laps less fuel than Jarno had, which, around there is worth six tenths of a second, so he would have been six tenths of a second faster because he had less fuel. He did a lap which was four tenths of a second faster than Jarno at the end of his first stint, so potentially the car was four tenths of a second faster, which is a total of one second per lap. That makes 17 seconds over 17 laps, the Monaco pitlane is 13 seconds long and we had a very short fuel stop which, in fact, would have been controlled by the tyres, which makes 17 seconds, which means we had a chance of winning the race. And that is why the information should be available to the media to help you guys enjoy the potential of something like that. That is why I was so frustrated because I thought we had a chance. It was a slim chance, because everything had to go right, but if I was putting my money on someone Michael would be the guy. And those were the numbers we had in front of us.