Chinese GP - Qualifying press conference - Pt.2.

Questions from the floor

Q: (Marco Degl'Innocenti - La Gazzetta dello Sport)
Sebastian, can you be more precise about the problem with your car?

Sebastian Vettel:
Well, I think the word driveshaft says it all. I don't think there's much more to add. Obviously we are both in the same situation, both cars. To explain, we never faced this problem before coming here, basically this morning, so it was a bad surprise. We could fix it for qualifying, then, in my case, it happened again. We can fix it again but we have to find the reasons. There's always a reason for a problem, we have to find it, there's not too much time to be honest. Let's see tomorrow. My job is to drive the car, so I think it's better if I'm not too worried and thinking about those things too much. The boys have a hard enough time anyway, so let's see tomorrow.

Q: (Marco Degl'Innocenti - La Gazzetta dello Sport)
Fernando, have you got a new diffuser in your car?

Fernando Alonso:
I think you ask too much, always. You all want to know KERS/no KERS, diffuser/no diffuser. It's like if a cyclist tells the press when he will attack in the mountains. This is a little bit confidential.

Q: (Marco Degl'Innocenti - La Gazzetta dello Sport)
But I can ask, yeah?

FA:
And I can answer.

Q: (Jia Chen - Soccer News)
To all of you, after such a qualifying, do you think that the effect of the diffuser of those three teams who have it is weakening?

SV:
Well, I think first of all we have to wait until we know more about the weights of the cars, the fuel loads for tomorrow, and then we will see. I think nevertheless the race is 56 laps long, anything can happen and obviously I don't think we've seen much about qualifying yet, just the final positions. We haven't seen much regarding lap times and gaps. I think if you speak about those teams at the top of the list, basically Brawn GP, as in the last races, I think they will be strong tomorrow as well, so you can't say now we sit here, we are quicker, we have no trouble staying ahead of them. I think it will be a long and hard race, so we will see tomorrow.

Q: (Jerome Bourret - l'Equipe)
To all of you, you all have Renault engines, this engine has been updated over the winter, do you feel any big difference or not?

SV:
There's less power because we have 1000 rpm less.

Mark Webber:
I want to say something on the Renault side concerning my engine engineer from last year, Pierre-Emeric Benteyn, he's gone missing on Aconcagua Mountain, it looks like he's lost his life up there over the winter, but it's a very good day for Renault and I want today... Pierre lived his life to the full and was a really extreme guy and did some amazing things and he was very much part of our team and part of the Viry operation from Renault on the racing side, and it's a good day for Renault at Viry and I'm sure they are all thinking of Pierre.

FA:
Thanks to everybody for sure you feel the difference. Obviously, as Sebastian said, we have 1000 revs less than last year, so it's difficult to compare engines but they did a very good job. Over the winter we did a lot of tests, we really maximised the potential of the engine which last year was maybe not at the same level as the top ones. This result is a great result for Viry, for Renault and they deserve it.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Sport Auto)
Fernando, there is a car in front with a conventional diffuser. You have got a new one today, one of these double diffusers. Obviously you've made a step. Is the whole discussion about these diffusers exaggerated or is it valid?

FA:
I think it's a little bit exaggerated because as we said many times, I think the diffuser is one part but the whole aerodynamics of the car are a package, a complete package which you need to create, it's not a magic part on the car that transforms it. I think you need to really work in a new philosophy of designing the car. There are still many improvements to come, not just from us but from everybody: from Williams, Toyota, from Brawn. For sure in Barcelona they will have new packages. That's the interesting thing about this championship, that we've only done two races, this is the third one, we will go to Bahrain next weekend and then to Barcelona and maybe you think that the championship is going in one direction but suddenly it changes and we have a different fight in the last part of the championship. This is what we cannot forget. Even if we are not competitive, or not competitive in the next two or three Grands Prix, we need to keep working because the championship is long and you need the points at the end, not now.

Q: (Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News)
Mark, how big or how noticeable has been the performance gain on the car between the last race and here?

MW:
We haven't done a huge amount to the car. It's just circumspecific, the car seems to be working quite well here. Obviously it was pretty strong in Malaysia and Australia as well, so the car has not been very sensitive to the tracks it's gone to in terms of its pace. It seems to be pretty strong at all venues and to be honest, it's not a great deal different from the last track. Obviously what changes is your position. At the moment, we look a little bit more comfortable in relation to Toyota and Williams but we will see what happens in the race. We think we expect Brawn still to be strong in the race but you just never know. We will drive on the limit for the race and then see what's left.