Q: It was a temporary circuit in Australia whereas in Malaysia it is a permanent circuit. We go to more permanent circuits than temporary circuits. Do you feel that you are at an advantage at a permanent circuit than on a temporary circuit?
SD: If you look retrospectively we are more competitive on a permanent circuit. But don’t forget that we won races in Australia. That shows as I said we will have a situation where everything varies from time to time. As you know the performance in qualifying is making the difference above all on these kinds of tracks.

Q: Stefano, looking at Kimi (Räikkönen) a year ago and a year later. Tell us about the differences in Kimi.
SD: I think that Kimi, of course, after a year’s experience understands how to relate better with the team. That’s a normal process which we were expecting last year. That’s the relationship on both sides – from Kimi to the team and from the team to Kimi. I think that for sure now this package is very good. Kimi fits very well in the team. He likes the way we are working. Everyone is very motivated because we always said that the family constant of our team is always there. I think he has understood that.

Q: What about Felipe. He has had a very tough start to the championship. A bit like last year when he came here and it all changed.
SD: Of course Felipe is the first who is not happy about his start. But once again as we always said we work as a team. We had a problem in the first race, it was something connected to reliability which gave us big problems. In the second race the car was there. We need to look forward. For sure, he has shown that he is very strong. He is very motivated and is willing to come here and to show that for sure the zero scoring is not an achievement that will continue.

Q: What about yourself? Things have changed for you, too. What other surprises? Have you had any surprises in being team principal?
SD: Surprises. You try to anticipate everything mentally beforehand, but it’s almost impossible to predict everything. You try to cope with this enormous responsibility and the pressure that you have to handle but that’s the way this job is. I’m like that, I try to do my best, because I can count on great people around me and the team is really strong.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Stefano, you’re now team principal. Is Jean Todt still helping you out in any way, giving advice or any help?
SD: Of course. He is still the best and we always said that our strength is to have dynamic changes in the structure and this is part of these changes in a dynamic way. He’s still with us, as you can see – he’s here – so of course this is a strength, it’s not a negative point.

Q: (MC) How many races do you expect him to come to?
SD: I don’t know. He will always be there, in any case, even if he’s not physically, for sure he will still be on the case.
Q: Could you also outline what sort of contact you have with Michael Schumacher during the race weekend?
SD: Telephone is the easiest thing to use, so we are in touch every day by telephone, just an exchange of opinions and of course his opinion is always very useful for our engineering side of the team.
Q: Does he have a data read-out at home, how does he follow the race?
SD: He has information that he can follow.
Q: The same as we have, the same monitors?
SD: He has our monitors, our information. Of course, he watches television, he has the television information but he also has our information because we want to keep this as, once again, a help in terms of his experience and trying to analyse what we can do to improve things.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Stefano, we saw Michael riding a KTM at Misano last weekend and yesterday he was at Mugello with MotoGP? What do you think about his situation on two wheels; do you think that in the end he will be starting a new adventure there? And the second question is about Kimi, because Kimi yesterday said he would like to test a MotoGP. Is he allowed to do that? Has he your permission? Are you thinking about it?
SD: With regards to Michael, I think it was two years ago that Michael came to Mugello for the first time to see MotoGP and he realised that the world on two wheels is also a fascinating world. He has racing, speed and new challenges in his DNA but we have to respect that and as far as we know, for sure he has a challenging view of his life but not with any kind of official or a secondary objective.
With regards to Kimi, I would say that for sure he’s using his motocross bike as we know, because he likes it, but I would say that he’s more concentrating on four wheels now up to November and then we will see.

Q: (Ottavio Daviddi – Tuttosport) Stefano, looking at practice today, do you think a one-two result is possible in the race?
SD: I’m going to keep my hands up. No, for sure, our objective is this kind of target but as we always see, as often seen on Friday, the times are misleading, so we need to be very careful. For sure, the performance seems quite competitive and I would say very good but it’s too early to say that.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Question for all three of you: we’re only three races into the season, with all the rule changes for next year, where are you guys at with the 2009 programme?
SD: Yeah, I can confirm what John said. We are working very hard because as you may know, next year the cars will be completely different and if you start with the wrong project then it will be a very difficult season. So I would say that the most difficult thing is, at least for us, is to keep a very high concentration and a very high performance, or try to achieve every time a better performance for this championship, to be very very competitive with the new car because it’s a completely new project, a completely new design, new shape plus we have the KERS. This year, for sure, is a very challenging year for us at least, but I’m pretty sure also for the other teams.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) It’s a question for Stefano and Christian: could you explain to us why you remain silent about the embarrassing story about Max?
SD: From our side, as we have said for the time being, we will not make any kind of declaration but I think it’s a matter of role and responsibility. My role here is to be focused on what we have to do, keep the feet on the ground because we are behind in the championships, so my role is that. Everyone has his role and beyond that there is responsibility connected to that and that’s it.