Interview: de la Rosa still smiling in '08
By Jonathan Noble Wednesday, January 9th 2008, 12:44 GMT
Having seen his hopes of a full-time return to racing action dashed at the final hurdle once again, you could forgive Pedro de la Rosa for feeling a bit glum about his lot at McLaren.
But despite Heikki Kovalainen getting the nod for the team's second race seat, just 12 months after Lewis Hamilton beat him in the battle to be Fernando Alonso's teammate in 2007, de la Rosa is anything but depressed.
Instead, the Spaniard says there is no reason for him not to keep 'smiling' in 2008. And, although confessing to feeling a bit of disappointment at the turn of events, he is nothing less than fully committed to his future at McLaren.
"Of course I was disappointed," he told autosport.com about losing out on the second seat at McLaren for the second year running. "I am a competitive guy that has a racing mentality.
"But having said that, I have to respect the team's decision and I will work as hard and with the same commitment that I have always done.
"I was disappointed but you have to move on in life. If I am here, I am going to do the whole season with a smile and I will be working hard."
In fact, de la Rosa wastes no time ruing over what might have been at McLaren. He is simply thankful for the opportunities he has already had in his five years as test driver.
"I think I have grown massively with the team, and I have a lot to thank them for," he said. "They have made me a better driver, more complete, and I have driven winning cars, which gives me the ability to know what a weak car needs. That is something unique. I have learned a lot and I am a much better driver.
"I don't know what my reputation is like or what people's perception of me is, as it is not for me to judge, but for sure I am much stronger.
"I just feel much more confident with the car, I know the car, and what you need to make it quicker. And despite all the telemetry we have, that is a feeling that a driver will only be able to give. And that is thanks to the experience I have gained with McLaren."
Looking back on 2007, it was a pretty remarkable year for de la Rosa. As well as fighting for the chance to make a racing return he found himself bang in the centre of McLaren's spy scandal.
It was his emails to Alonso that proved key to the second FIA hearing that resulted in McLaren losing their constructors' championship points and being fined $100 million.
Allied to that, de la Rosa must have also found himself with mixed loyalties too - as a friend and compatriot of Alonso amid all the trouble the double world champion was having with team boss Ron Dennis.
Mention what happened last year, however, and de la Rosa is obviously keen to play it down. His view is very much: what happened, happened. Now let's move on.
"It is F1," he explained. "At the end of the day you have to enjoy everything in this business, because you don't know how long you are going to be in it.
"You have to enjoy the good, the bad and the not. I think when you look back you enjoy it. It was a great season, and we were challenging until the very end, the result was a disappointing thing, but we developed the car in a very short time and I really enjoyed it."
He added: "We are now moving forward, and looking for next year. We don't talk about these things (the spy controversy). We haven't spent any time or lost any time talking about it.
"We move on, talk about how we can make the new car quicker and it is a fantastic feeling. The people are very pushy at the moment and they want to win this season very badly."
Of course not everything was bad for McLaren last year. The amazing debut campaign of Lewis Hamilton was a clear highlight ? and de la Rosa admitted that he enjoyed working alongside the Briton.
"It was great," he said. "Lewis is unbelievable. I have worked with many, many racing drivers and I must say that Lewis is outstanding in all aspects: the way that he learns circuits, and the way that he adapts his driving style to a difficult car is just unique.
"I am very happy to work for him. Last year he took my seat and I was not happy, I was disappointed then as well, but I realised during the year that if I had to lose a seat, he is the right guy to lose it for.
"I also hope to say the same about Heikki in 2009. That would mean that he is very competitive this year."
And while such a state of affairs would mean that de la Rosa would once again be without a race chance at McLaren, he still holds onto the ambition of making it back onto the starting grid at some point.
"I will always have that," he admitted. "The day that I feel I don't have any chance of racing, then there is no point in continuing.
"I always say the same: the fuel of any test driver is that there is a chance for you in the future. So just prepare yourself, your car and your way the same way as if you were racing. That feeling hasn't gone for me."
