Q: Another subject that has come up in your Sunday afternoon press conferences has been possibly joining the testing agreement. Is Ferrari any closer to joining that?
JT: It is under discussion. Our team manager is doing that with his colleagues and if we can find a suitable proposal, then we may go with the others.

Q: What about today, Ferrari seemed competitive this morning, maybe less so this afternoon.
JT: On Friday I will not take any conclusion. Definitely, we have been working very hard with Bridgestone on this new kind of asphalt, so we are using tyres that are different from what we had in the past and this kind of asphalt, and so far it seems quite promising. We will see over the weekend.

Q: Especially as you won last year here.
JT: Last year the rules were different, the package is different, so I don’t think you can really make a sharp comparison compared to last year.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) Could each of you briefly sum up how you feel your team’s season has gone?
JT: Obviously it is a very disappointing season after a fantastic run of success: six Manufacturers Championships in a row, five Drivers’ wins for Michael. We have simply not been competitive enough. We’ve hardly managed to score 100 points after 18 Grands Prix. Normally we would have scored 100 points halfway through the season. But I would say it will help us to remain humble and to see that things can change. We knew that, and it was demonstrated to us. Now the challenge is to go back to where we used to be, in the last years, knowing that it will be difficult because our competitors are strong. Normally we have been strong and in the last years we have been stronger than them, and this year at least two teams were better than us.

Q: To all of you, may I know how are the discussions going on the new qualifying format and other rules?
JT: What I may say is that over the last few years a few changes were made: the distribution of the points, because the idea was to make the championship more open for the season and I must say that that is one point that I don’t think it achieved what it should have achieved because I think it’s unfair that when a driver is winning to make only two points to the one who is second, because you could face a situation where a driver is champion without winning a Grand Prix.
Then there was qualifying. I feel qualifying was very good a few years ago when we had 12 laps and a lot was happening. But again, the intention in changing was to make things more unpredictable and I must say it has been more unpredictable, because with the format of qualifying in the past, you would never have had the leader of the Grand Prix starting at the back of the grid in the last Grand Prix, for example. It all depends on what you want to achieve. If you simply want to achieve better qualifying, we definitely have to change something and we will speak about that at the Formula One Commission on October 24th and then we will see what will come out, but you definitely cannot find the optimum. You will always find someone who is in favour or against. It all depends on what you want to achieve. Once you know what you want to achieve, then it is probably easier to make the rules.

Q: (Christopher Bodeen – Associated Press) What about the possibility of 20 races? Would you think that to be too many?
JT: The calendar normally plans to have 17 Grands Prix with a possibility of 18. This year, in order to maintain the British and French Grands Prix we agreed to do 19 Grands Prix but we would ideally not like to go, at least for Ferrari, for 17, 18 Grands Prix. So that’s what we feel is the most acceptable number. I will not get very much into the comfort of the people we love and we respect, but I think we are privileged to do this business in Formula One, compared to different other business, so to do 18, 19 or 20 Grands Prix, even for our people, even knowing that it is demanding, I think would still remain acceptable.