Belgian GP - Post-qualifying press conference - Pt.1.

Drivers:Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)

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Q:
Giancarlo, your best qualifying position this season up to this point was 13th. Only one question to ask you. How did you do it?

Giancarlo Fisichella:
I don't know. It is unbelievable. I did not expect to be on pole position, especially after yesterday. I was sixth and I was quite surprised because there was a lot of understeer and the measurements on the downforce were not good. This morning we went through the problems and the car was much better straight away and in the qualifying session the car was even better than I expected, so I was able to be the quickest in Q1, the fourth quickest in Q2 and pole position in Q3. It is amazing. It is fantastic. I am so happy about that and I need to thank the team as they did a fantastic job. I did not expect that result, so I am really, really happy and really confident for tomorrow.

Q:
Jarno, you were quick all through the day; tell us why you think that we've got the result that we've got this afternoon?

Jarno Trulli:
Well, it's a mystery honestly. We haven't done anything on the car compared to the last few races and suddenly here we are extremely competitive. We've been competitive all the way through while we've been setting up the car and it's great, it's great for the engineers, for the team and all my mechanics in the team because we're going through a difficult moment because we don't understand why sometimes we struggle so much and sometimes we are so quick like today. So it's a very good day, I'm very confident for tomorrow because as I say, I've been running most of the weekend on heavy fuel, so being second in qualifying with a good fuel load, I think I'm going to have a good race tomorrow.

Q:
Nick, a poignant result for you with BMW announcing that they are pulling out of F1. What will this mean to you and the whole team?

Nick Heidfeld:
It is obviously very important to everyone in the team. We said after BMW decided to pull out that BMW wants to leave on a high and not with what we have shown in the first couple of races. It is even more important for the squad in Hinwil. We are working at the moment on securing the team. It is difficult to say what is going to happen at this moment in time but it is great that we can show that we had a good performance.

Q:
Giancarlo, you have picked a great moment for all kinds of reasons to get this result. You have shown what you can do today.

GF:
Yes, absolutely. This is one of my favourite circuits. I did well in the past and I was sure to be competitive this year too. But I did not expect, as I told you, to be on pole. It is great. I feel so happy for myself, for the team, for the mechanics and engineers. Everybody did a fantastic job. We did a fantastic step forward, especially from the last race. Considering out budget I did not expect that.

Press conference

Q:
Giancarlo, tell us really what has made the difference.

GF:
Obviously the new aero package for this circuit and actually yesterday I was quite surprised to be sixth and the car balance was completely away. We understood the problem this morning. We went through the problem and straight away when we put the car on the ground it was much better. We were confident to be top 15. Like that to be top 10. But to be on pole we did not expect that. In Q1 I was first and in Q2 I was fourth quickest, so we played to do the pole and I am on pole. It is a fantastic result. I am really happy for that and for myself, for the team and for all the mechanics and for the engineers. They did a fantastic job, even in the factory the development has been really good. I could not believe that considering out budget. It is amazing, so thanks to all the team and we need to keep going like that.

Q:
There was a bit of an incident this morning when you hit something and damaged the nose. Can you tell us something about that?

GF:
It was on the out lap. It was a rabbit. You know what, my engineers told me that in England when you do something with a rabbit it brings you luck. That was true, so next time I will go round the circuit to find some other rabbit.

Q:
But it damaged the nose section, didn't it?

GF:
I damaged the nose and we were able to repair it at the end of free practice and for the qualifying session everything was perfect.

Q:
Would you say that you are quite aggressively fuelled for tomorrow?

GF:
Well, actually I think we are a little bit aggressive. We knew to be top three was important. But don't forget I was fourth quickest in Q2, so we are not so slow.

Q:
Jarno, why do you think this situation is as it is?

JT:
It is a good question which none of us can answer at the moment, especially when things go wrong. As when things go right we know that we have got a good car. We always had it from the beginning of the season but we understand that sometimes it just slips away and we are not competitive and we are very bad sometimes. Sometimes it happens through the weekend from one session to another. We came here and straight away we were looking really strong and in qualifying basically I was always topping the time. In Q1 I took it a little bit easy but in Q2 I was again top and I think I did also a very good Q3, so it is looking pretty good for the race and I have to thank the team. I dedicate this to all my mechanics and everybody there as we are going through a difficult moment and sometimes it is hard to not understand what is going on.

Q:
Obviously you had new wings here and a little bit of a problem with the back end. How much of a difference have the wings made and did you get the grip that you needed?

JT:
We did not really get any special update here, just the downforce and the wing level for this kind of circuit. We took a lot of wing off yesterday and spent most of the time basically balancing the car between the high-speed section and the mid-speed section which normally requires more downforce. The car has been more or less competitive. We made a little change on the car set-up this morning which went in the right direction for better handling and better traction and it is looking pretty good for tomorrow because I spent most of the weekend on race fuel and only qualified on low fuel. I am very happy.

Q:
Quite a few of you came in after one lap of Q3 to change tyres. Was there a difference in tyre wear?

JT:
It was just a question of limiting time. We couldn't do two runs. We were only able to do one proper run, so as everybody did, we went out with a set of used tyres just to check the balance and come in for new tyres and do two flying laps.

Q:
It was the same thing with you Nick?

NH:
Yes. The problem here is that the circuit is so long and you didn't have enough time.

Q:
Having finished six times in 11th, you must be very pleased with third?

NH:
Yes, definitely I am. Before I was joking with my number one mechanic. He did show me three and for me it was clear that we would make it into Q3 anyway. I thought that was what he meant. Then I asked him 'do you mean position three or Q3.' Then he laughed and said both and it was great that we managed to be there.

Q:
And some new bits on the car here as well?

NH:
Yeah, we have a couple of small updates but nothing major. A bigger one is planned for Singapore. I think one reason why it's a bit more mixed here is that it's a completely different track. It's the first time that we've used the medium downforce package. Up to this point we've usually stuck on the car what we've found but here that's probably why it looks completely different.

Q:
And yesterday you said you still had some set-up work to do; presumably that went well this morning?

NH:
Yes. Actually, I think from the end of P2 until now we made good progress. We made changes overnight all of which we kept, and then this morning we made another couple of changes and it went pretty smoothly. Of course, from time to time we have traffic, that's a problem especially in Q1, that's what happened. In Q2, I wasn't happy with the set of tyres. We all know that sometimes there are small differences, so I was convinced that Q3 could be quite good.