QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q. (Frederic Ferret - L'Equipe) A question to Lewis and Felipe. What do you think of this particular track and how is it for your car?
LH: I love this track. It has always been one I've liked. I think I learnt it from a computer game years and years ago, me and my brother used to play it. Just watching it over the years it was always a spectacular race to watch whether it was raining or whether it was dry. When I came here last year and actually drove the circuit it feels like a real racing circuit. It is quite bumpy in some areas, it has got a nice combination of corners. It is not too long but it is not too short. It has a great long straight, so there are areas to overtake. It really has a lot of character. We don't really see too many circuits like this which have so much character, so I like it.
FM: Well, first of all this (circuit) is part of my story. I started here, I grew up in this area. I started when I was eight over the other side, at the go-kart track, and I started my career in open-wheelers here in '98. I love the circuit. It's a very special circuit for me. It's a circuit that, as Lewis said, gives you a lot of pleasure to drive. Always when you are at home and you have a nice circuit to drive, you always have extra motivation, extra good energy, so I think it's even nicer to race here at Interlagos, so let's try to do a great job.
I think our car can be quite strong here, because in the past we were very strong here. If you look at this season, on some tracks we were stronger, some tracks McLaren was stronger. We were struggling a lot at Hockenheim, for example, and they were very quick, but we were very quick at the next race, so I don't think that because China wasn't a great performance for us that here it will be the same. I think this is a track that suits our car quite well. We like to race with these tyres, so I think we can be very strong.
LH: I feel the same.
Q. (Andrea Cremonesi ? La Gazzetta dello Sport) This is a question for Nelson and Rubens: I would like to ask you your opinion about Felipe and what do you think about his mission impossible this weekend?
NP: I think anything's possible, as we saw last year with Kimi winning the championship. I think Felipe has done a very good job this year. As David said, he has been improving a lot and he showed this year that he's clearly also fighting for the title. He has one of the best cars and he has been driving very well. If I had to quote odds as to who will win the race, I think Felipe has more of a chance of winning the race ? being at home, knowing the track very well and being very confident here. He has already won a race here and he knows it would make everybody very happy here if he won the race.
But Lewis will also be very strong, probably as quick as Felipe. Basically Lewis will have to take it very calmly the whole weekend. He doesn't need to push for anything, he just needs to score a few points and that's it. At the end of the story, we don't know if it's going to rain or if it's going to be dry. It can be a hectic race on Sunday. I think both of them have done a very good job this year. They both deserve it, so I think it's just up to Sunday when we see what's going to happen.
RB: I think he's had a fantastic year because after three races, if we remember, especially from our Italian friends, you guys wanted to change him because he had zero points and we all knew that he could win races and be fighting for the championship and it was what he did. He won two consecutive races and he was back into the championship.
So I think for someone to do that, it means that you need to be mentally prepared to go through the bad phases and learn, so I think he's done superbly and he comes to this final race in the same position as Kimi last year. It is a mission impossible but, like I said before, he has to win the race to have any chance and that's what he has to aim for. I don't think he has to go thinking of championships or things like that. He has to race just like any other race.
Q. (Brazilian media) Lewis, David said you are one of the most attacking drivers in Formula One right now and this is really your style, but last year here, you made a little mistake in sector one on the first lap and it maybe slightly cost you your chance of winning the World Championship. My question: are you ready to change your mental and technical approach to just drive a conservative race, try to avoid mistakes, try to avoid any kind of trouble? Are you ready to race to be just fourth or fifth?
LH: Well, first of all, obviously last year the beginning of the race didn't go well but I don't think that had any bearing on how the championship ended. If my car hadn't stopped, then we would have won. This year, I don't think I need to change anything.
Q. (Rodrigo Franca ? VIP Magazine) Felipe, you've participated in a lot of events during this Brazilian Grand Prix week and you have had the chance to talk to some fans. How do you see their expectations? Does the Brazilian crowd know that your mission is very difficult here at Interlagos?
FM: Yeah, for sure they know but you know how fans are, they are very excited, they try to push you, trying to put you in the best position. For sure the position is quite difficult but I have a great time in my country. I have great motivation, great encouragement from my fans and that's fantastic. You go out to restaurants, in the road and everybody looks to you and congratulates you and gives a lot of good energy for the weekend. I think that's a great feeling, it's a great time to be here, first of all, fighting for the championship in my home country and secondly in a good position in my career. That's already a great feeling.
Q. (Bob McKenzie ? The Daily Express) Felipe, we in Britain see Lewis as a great story of someone who has come up from the bottom but you've had hard times as well. Does it seem strange now, when the whole country is expecting you, do you think back to those hard times and what sort of struggles you and your family had to make?
FM: I think everybody has their own story. The beginning of my career was not like the beginning of Lewis's career but I think we grew up a lot and we learn so many things with our mistakes, with our difficulties in the past, even in Formula One.
If I had to go back, I wouldn't change my career because I think I learned so much and when you get here, especially at the beginning of the career, when you have a bad result and nobody expects anything from you and then you suddenly improve and you get into the position to fight for the championship, you're driving the best dream car which every driver would love to drive, I think that's a fantastic feeling, especially when you look back and you're here now and you're having great expectations from your country, you have great energy.
I have a great feeling with the Brazilian people and that's great. I think it's a dream come true. But we always want more, that's our life. When you win one race, you want to win a second time. I never won the championship but I think it's the same: when you win the first time, you push even harder to win the second time. I think that's part of the mentality of sports people.
Q. (Ian Parkes ? The Press Association) Lewis, I was just wondering how different your mindset is coming into this race compared to last year, on the back of the respective races in China ? obviously when you came off the track and this year when you've won the race. Are you calmer, more confident?
LH: I think it's quite a bit different to last year, simply because last year we came here and I'd had one bad race, so it was all a bit hectic and the pressure of being at the last race etc. was upon me and perhaps it got to me. But this year I feel it's just another race and we've come from a great race in China and I know here that we will be just as strong, if not a little bit stronger.
It looks positive and again, my approach is the same as in the last race. We are just here to do the best job we can and we're not looking at it and saying that we have to do anything again. We don't really have much pressure on us, we just have to do a good job and regardless of whether we win, it's not so important but as a team we would love to win, so we will do the best job, that's what racing's about.
Q. (Livio Oricchio ? O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, some days ago, Eddie Jordan said you must be very careful here. He said that Massa touched you on purpose in Japan. Do you think it's possible, are you prepared for it, will you try to avoid some strange situations on the track?
LH: I don't really read much what people say, so I don't pay too much attention to it. We're here to race, I believe every driver that's here is a great sportsman and we're all very competitive, so I just have to trust and believe in everybody and hope that we can have a fair, straight race. That's what motor racing is all about and that's why I race, that's what makes it so exciting.
Q. (Miran Alesic ? Pop TV) Felipe, it's 17 years since the last Brazilian won the Formula One World Championship. You were around ten at that time. Do you still remember that, can you remember how your feelings were then and did you believe at that time that you would ever continue the same story?
FM: Yeah, for sure I remember Senna winning the championships, fighting for some others in which he was very competitive as well. As a Brazilian, Senna was like a kind of god here in Brazil, and before that was Nelson's father. I think we have a great country in terms of building drivers and I would hope that we can carry on with that story. I would love to win the championship, that's why I'm here, that's what I'm working for, doing my best to achieve my dreams but also trying to keep up the nice story that Brazil has in Formula One. It will be fantastic.
Q. (Vanessa Riuz ? Radio Globo) For Nelsinho and Rubens: I know you've been asked about this loads and loads of times during this week but now since you're all together and you're just behind the contenders, I would like to know whether you're willing to do something to help Felipe Massa in this race, or if this is not an issue for you?
RB: I think he can help me with some power in my car or something. I don't think I can help him much, unfortunately. I would be willing to get some help from him, amazingly. Or the blue flag maybe. I don't think it's an issue at all, I think the Brazilians are very well prepared in the way that all I would ask of the guys who come here to cheer Felipe on is to respect Lewis. I think Brazil can do that quite well and I don't think it's an issue. Imagine me doing something against Lewis; would Felipe be happy with that? Would he be a worthy champion? I don't think so. I think the guys have fought the whole championship by themselves and that's the way it has to be. I would not get in the way.
NP: Obviously there's not much we can do really. This is all racing, we have to treat this race as if it was the first race of the season. Probably both of them are going to be in a different league to us, their cars are a bit quicker than ours. Obviously I don't want to get in the way of the championship, I'm not going to take sides. I think both of them have been fighting for it for the whole year and I think they should take the championship as everybody else has done it over the past fifty years. There's nothing I can do, it's them and their cars and we have to race as if it was a normal race.
Q. (Will Buxton ? Australasian Motorsport News) Nelson, two years ago you were in a very similar situation to Felipe today, in that you were going to the last round of a season and you needed to catch up to Lewis to win the title. Can you just talk us through your mindset then and maybe give us a window into what Felipe must be going through now, as to how you tried to beat Lewis in the last round of a season, knowing that you've got to do all you can and hope that he messes up.
NP: I don't remember much of it, because you tend to remember only the good times and obviously I entered that weekend trying to win the championship. Obviously I knew I had to do well in both races at Monza and unfortunately it wasn't very good. In the first race, I think I finished second and Lewis third, I don't remember very well, and Giorgio (Pantano) won and the only chance I had... I think Lewis won the race? was it the first race already?
The only thing I could do in the last race was tie with him in the championship or something like that, so I just pushed. There's nothing much you can do really. You have to enter the weekend as a normal weekend. If you start entering the weekend with different thoughts or different methods or a different way of thinking, it should not be. It's like every weekend. Every weekend you enter a race to win, to try to do your best, to try to perform, to try to be at your top level and it's not because it's a championship-deciding weekend, that you're going to enter it differently. Obviously you have a bit more pressure but I think the driver that manages to keep it the calmest and keep it the most natural possible, they're going to do the best job.