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Drivers: Timo
Glock (Toyota), Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber), Nico Rosberg (Williams),
Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso).
Q: A question to you all. What are your feelings about your home
grand prix and given you tested here last week?
Adrian Sutil: It was quite nice testing. I really like the circuit
here. Hopefully we are a bit more competitive here. The testing went
well and we found our set-up but again testing is testing and the race
is the race, so we will see how we are going to go. I have to stay
realistic and I think it is going to be hard to be in the second
qualifying. That should be our goal again but it will be difficult.
Q: And it’s your first German Grand Prix.
AS: It’s my first German Grand Prix. I am happy to be here really,
Hockenheim is one of my favourite circuits. I have had many races here
and nearly all with very good memories. The lay-out is very, very nice
and the special atmosphere in the Motodrom as always is a special thing
here.
Q: Sebastian, testing and your home grand prix. How do you feel?
Sebastian Vettel: I think for the team and me it is a real home
grand prix. We came here in just half-an-hour by car. I am looking
forward to it, definitely. It is going to be our first home grand prix
and I have lot of friends and family here, so it will be very pleasing
to race this weekend. Many people often speak about extra pressure on my
shoulders or on our shoulders and so on, but I think if anything, it
gives us extra motivation. It is very special. I have driven here for a
long time. I know the circuit very well, no matter which weather
conditions, so I should be prepared. Now we are just waiting for
tomorrow and to get started.
Timo Glock: I think Sebastian said everything about the home
grand prix. It is special to be back home. For me it is only about 45
minutes away. It is not extra pressure, just a really good feeling to
race in front of a couple of friends and in front of the family. It is
just good fun and testing went not too bad. We did our normal programme
at the test and that was good. So far it is quite similar to Canada.
Every time I am here I have had a couple of good results, so hopefully
we will have the same on Sunday again.
Nick Heidfeld: It is great coming back to Germany seeing all the
spectators and all the fans here. I think we will see a big crowd. I am
looking forward to the race very much although the conditions are a bit
unknown at the moment, but that’s exactly what we had in testing last
week. It was not dry all the time, so it was a bit difficult to get all
the new parts on the car as we wanted to, but we did manage to get them
on and have a couple of new modifications which did work and should
hopefully put us in a good position here.
Nico Rosberg: I am really happy to be driving here too. I was
born 40 minutes away from here and my grandma and uncles and friends
still live there in Wiesbaden, so I come here quite a few times and it
is nice to be racing here. I started my racing career in Germany and
have raced here many, many times and won many races here too, so it is a
track that I really enjoy and in terms of the car I think it is a track
that should be better for us, so I think we can really look forward to a
good result here.
Q: And testing went well?
NR: Testing went pretty well. I was second and third on the two
days. I am sure we ran less fuel than the top runners but compared to
other people we definitely did better here, so I am looking forward to a
good weekend.
Q: Adrian, there seems to have been a lot of development on the car
over the last two or three tests. How are you feeling about it and
particularly also how are you feeling about the fact that Dr Mallya has
now said that is the end of the development?
AS: I am always happy to get new parts on the car. We definitely
need it and at the moment we need to find some seconds actually. It is
not that easy, but we are doing small steps. There is another update for
this race now. It is getting better but at the moment I think a little
bit too slow, so we have to figure out where is the main thing we have
to make progress. But everybody tries really hard and also Mr Mallya is
really into it and is trying to get us up in the result sheets but it
needs some time. We just have to concentrate on the work, always stay
motivated and then for sure the success will come soon.
Q: Sebastian, how are you feeling about your move to Red Bull and how
are you feeling about the rest of the season and the way STR has come
on?
SV: First of all, as you can imagine, I am very happy and I am very
pleased that at this time of year I already know what I will be doing
next year. So far I have always done things step-by-step and obviously
now the most important thing is to focus on the remainder of this
season. Obviously we have only introduced our new car a couple of races
ago and we seem to have gone stronger and stronger, so it was a good
step forward and a good step in the right direction. Also last week we
had a good test, so I am looking forward to the next couple of races. It
is hard to give you a number but I have a good feeling and if things go
right we should be able to score points for the rest of the season.
That’s the target.
Q: Timo, an interesting article has come out about you saying you
want the title in 2010. Can you explain your thinking about this?
TG: I mean at the end you have to set some targets. If I say I
don’t know when I want to win the championship, that is not the
target, that doesn’t keep you under pressure. For sure 2010 will be
hard and will be difficult but next year the rules are changing and the
cars change completely. It will be difficult to see where the teams will
be next year but you have to set your target and that is my target. If I
don’t reach it, then I will set a new one and keep working as hard as
possible. I saw a lot of people who laughed about it, but I don’t care
about that as in the end you have to set some target. I set them to keep
myself under pressure.
Q: Does that apply to the team as well?
TG: Yeah, definitely. We have to keep the pressure everywhere. The
team is focussed on it as well. They want to win the championship as
well and we will work together as hard as possible to reach it.
Q: Nick, after Silverstone you said you thought you had your
qualifying problems solved. Is that the case and can you tell us how you
solved it?
NH: Already in Magny-Cours I made some good progress although I was
not quite making it into Q3, I was just a few-hundredths off Robert
(Kubica) who obviously gets on with this year’s car very well. It has
been a process over a couple of months looking at the problem and
finding the problems I had, working out with the engineers and doing
some changes on the set-up, mainly on the mechanical side actually.
Doing some changes on tyre preparation and changing my driving style a
bit. All that has helped me to improve my qualifying performance over
one lap. My race performance already worked quite well. The last races
have shown that it is probably going in the right direction, having two
second places in the last three races. I hope it continues like that.
Q: It was a fairly exhaustive process with lots of different things
having to come together?
NH: Exactly. In the beginning I did hope there would be one big
thing I would change and suddenly ‘Boom’ it would work.
Unfortunately that was not the case. It was hard with a lot of small
things coming together but I think I have not discovered all of them, so
I think there is even more potential to make more progress.
Q: Was it fairly depressing during that time?
NH: It was not depressing, that’s the wrong word. But it was very
hard knowing that we have a very strong car, even better than last year,
probably the strongest car I have ever been in and then struggling the
most I ever have in F1. I think normally I’ve most of the time been
able to maximise the potential of the car, but then this year
unfortunately not. It was quite difficult but it was great seeing the
team behind me and it was good finding a couple of solutions and seeing
that all the work I’ve done and we have done as a team started to pay
off.
Q: Nico, you were in Moscow last weekend demonstrating the Williams.
Can you tell us a little bit about it? What did you have to do?
NR: In general it was a really nice event, especially as I think
Russia has great potential for a future F1 race. It would be great if F1
goes there, it is an amazing country. As Frank said it is a very
intriguing country. It was nice to go there and really introduce F1 to
them and give them an insight to it. Maybe F1 will grow a little bit in
the minds of the Russians and also to attract more Russian companies and
things. I think that is an important direction to take. It was a great
event and a lot of people turned up. I was literally driving around the
Kremlin, so it was literally in the absolute heart of Russia. I am not
sure but there were a lot of spectators, really big numbers. It was
great fun and I enjoyed it. I also took a few friends along and we had a
bit of a night out as well which was fun, so I just had a really good
time and I think the event went very well.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heinz Pruller - ORF) Gentlemen, can you tell us when you first raced
here in Hockenheim, and your best and worst memories here?
NH: My first race here must have been in ’94 with Formula Ford
1600, and I think I won that race. It was on the long track, which I
enjoyed a lot more than the new one. I think the new one is good but the
long one was spectacular. It was great fun, especially in Formula Ford
because we didn’t have much horsepower, so slipstreaming took ages but
there were a couple of overtakings happening on each straight, so it was
great fun. And probably one of my worst memories was in Formula 3000 in
’99, I think. I think I already had the chance to clinch the title
here – I was lying second, trying to overtake the first placed guy and
I think it was on the Ost-Schikane and I was too close in the slipstream
and went off. That was my worst memory.
NR: My first race here was actually on the small track, just the
stadium and round again, and it was Formula BMW. I actually won both
races that weekend as a rookie, which was really a great experience and
great fun at the time. Worst experience? I’m not sure, probably two
years ago in F1 when I went off the track on the first lap.
AS: My first race was in Formula Ford in 2002. It was quite funny
because on the Saturday I did the Formula Ford race and won it, and on
the Sunday I got into a Formula BMW car and I won this race as well, so
I have good memories of this weekend. The worst one, I think, was in
2004. It was a good opportunity to get into a Formula Three car in a
winning team at the end of the season. I was able to put the car on pole
position and I was leading the race for the first time and then I had a
technical failure and had to stop, so it was a really disappointing end
to the season but one of my main steps in the direction of Formula One.
SV: OK, my first race here was in 2003, so not too long ago, in
Formula BMW and it lasted only four laps and then I had a retirement, so
very much like this season. I started off with a retirement. The best
memory was probably when I won here in F3, so that was quite a good
memory. It was already very special at that time with friends and family
around, so it was a very unique feeling. The worst memory was probably
when I did a qualifying session in F3, I don’t remember which year,
and it was raining like hell. We were aquaplaning everywhere. You were
accelerating down the straight going to the hairpin and even then you
started to slow down, even though you were full throttle, because there
was so much water. I think everybody got wet during that qualifying, but
I don’t think it was only water at the end of qualifying which made me
wet! It was quite a unique qualifying session.
Q: Too much detail!
SV: You asked for it!
TG: My first race here was in 2000, Formula BMW as well and the
best memory, I think, was over two years: 2003 when we had a difficult
year in Formula Three and I won the race when I started from 17th. I
think there were three guys on slicks, everybody else was on wet tyres
and I was the only guy who survived and I won the race on the last lap
at the last corner, overtook five guys on the last lap I think and the
last guy, Alexander Margeritis, in the last corner. That was a really
good race. Also in GP2 in 2006, the Sunday race, which I won on the last
lap against Lopez. I think that was the best memory. The worst memory in
a race - not really, because I had really good results here – but a
really bad moment was in 2000 when I had to do the Sunday race in
Formula BMW and I was a bit late and I woke up when the engines were
already started, so that was quite a tough moment. I think I only woke
up when I jumped in the car.
Q: (Jurgen Kemmner - Stuttgarter Nachrichten) Nico, it is said that
you could join McLaren-Mercedes next year. What about it?
NR: I’m sorry, I don’t want to comment on things like that at
all.
Q: (Robert Dunker - Die Welt) Sebastian, you said that your move to
Red Bull is a step forward, but would it not have been a bigger
challenge if you had chosen to move completely to a new team?
SV: You know many people always tend to forget that these two teams
work completely independently of each other. We may have the same
parents but… each team is trying its best and in the end, when we are
racing, it doesn’t matter if it’s Toro Rosso or Red Bull Racing,
they are independent from each other and every team tries to do its
best. So in the end, it’s like changing to another team. I’m very
happy to stay in the Red Bull family which I’ve been part of for a
very, very long time. They have supported me since karting, so I’m
very, very happy to stay with them. I like the atmosphere, I like the
people, so it’s a very nice working atmosphere and that’s why I’m
very happy to stay. On the other hand, for me the most important thing,
my target, is to improve, to progress and I think that if you look at
the results from the last couple of years achieved by Red Bull Racing
you can see a clear tendency that it’s going upwards, that it’s
going in the right direction, so there was no doubt about this change.
Q: (Andrea Schneider - Autosport es Formula) A question to all of
you: what do you think about the new circuits like Singapore and
Valencia?
TG: I think it will be a really good experience for everybody.
Street circuits and a night race will be a good experience. I still
remember it from ChampCar and Monaco as well. That it’s a good show
every time and good for the fans and good for the drivers as well, a
really good experience and a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it,
definitely.
SV: Obviously no one here in this room and no driver in the whole
field has had the experience to drive on these circuits. We’ve seen a
couple of pictures, some ideas, so we are all pretty keen to go there
and race there. Personally I like to race on street circuits. It’s a
different kind of challenge, there is not a lot of room for mistakes but
you still have to push a hundred percent. One of the races, in
Singapore, will be a night race. That will be the first time for all of
us, so it will be quite interesting and a completely new challenge.
I’m looking forward to it but I think we can answer this question
better after the races in Valencia and Singapore.
AS: I think it’s a good idea really. I’m a fan of street
circuits anyway, so I think it’s a good move because the atmosphere is
special, the people like street circuits very much, you can see that at
many races, and as I said, the atmosphere is always very different to a
normal circuit. The night race in Singapore should be a great party for
all the quests and all the fans. I think it will be a good step for this
sport, a little bit into another world. In recent years we’ve always
had normal races. Now we are going in a different area; we’re doing a
night race, we do more street circuits. I think it’s very positive for
the sport.
NR: Yeah, I’m looking forward to them a lot, especially because
I know that our car is going to be very good there, so it’s going to
give us a great chance to do well, so I think that’s the main reason
why I’m really looking forward to it. It’s always a great challenge,
obviously, to start on a street circuit which nobody knows. That should
be very interesting.
NH: Two great cities, so it’s going to be fantastic to be
there, to enjoy the show. We have street circuits on the calendar now
and they are all special, so it will be similar there. As we all said,
it’s always special and spectacular for everybody to drive on a street
circuit, especially those two coming new onto the calendar. I hope that
we can combine the two things: the thrill of a street circuit, together
with the safety standards we have in Formula One nowadays.
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