Q & A with Jean Todt on the Monaco GP
The Monaco Grand Prix weekend was not easy for the Ferrari team: the controversy of Michael Schumacher on Saturday, their worst qualifying result in the history of the sport, and a bigger gap to Renault and Fernando Alonso at the end of the race ensured the Italian squad will want to put the Monte Carlo race behind them as quickly as possible.
Team boss Jean Todt gives his take on the weekend's events.
Q. Can you summarise this weekend for us?
JT: It's definitely been a disappointing and frustrating weekend, mainly when you have a winning potential and when you finish fifth and ninth with cars. If there is a Grand Prix where you have to be in a good position at the start it is Monte Carlo, so of course it is not very pleasing to have one car starting from the pit lane and the other car starting from the last position on the grid.
Saying that, there are explanations for all that. Felipe made a mistake in Q1, and if you make a mistake in this context, that's the price you have to pay. That was different for Michael.
Michael was on pole until he lost the car in the last corner and then the stewards decided that, after eight hours of discussions, they decided that he was due to leave from the back of the grid.
I know, as I said to your colleagues before, it was a big strong wind outside of the team, amongst the Formula One world, about Michael, stating that he did that on purpose so we have tried to demonstrate the evidence that it was a racing incident and it was not considered.
So we did not have any other option considering that we did not have the possibility to appeal, either, so we did not have any other option but to accept it and to try to get the best out of the situation. I would say that the more encouraging thing, the more rewarding thing that we confirmed that the car was very competitive.
It was confirmed that the tyres supplied by Bridgestone were very competitive and we could see that on other teams using Bridgestone tyres. So it remains the possibility of doing very well for the end of the championship and it's what we will try to do.
Q. Where will go from here with regard to the penalty that imposed on Michael. Is there anything more you can do or do you just draw a line under this and move on?
JT: There's nothing we can do. The weekend is over, no right of appeal, so we just have to move forwards.
Q. Do you think this is going to have a lasting impression on Michael, with regard to his future?
JT: Fortunately we are seeing things without having to take that into consideration... we know where we are. Every two weeks we have the opportunity to comment on the good, the bad, so it's no surprise.
We know where we are and the last very important thing is to know where you are and to know with whom you work, inside and outside, so we don't have any surprises. Sometimes some more disappointments, sometimes some good reaction, good surprises but generally speaking we know where we are.
Q. Michael's reputation before, we've seen him do things like this before, the FIA have found he did it deliberately, and he cheated yesterday didn't he?
JT: That's your opinion, that's the stewards' opinion, I agree. You know, when you're in front of a judge, or in front of a tribunal but it doesn't mean that the opinion is always right, so it could be a lengthy discussion and it will not change your opinion, it will not change our opinion, it will not change his opinion, it will not be the first time either.
At the end of the day, if you want to get deeper into what is Michael, who is Michael, what he does in Formula One, for Formula One, outside Formula One, it's up to the people to judge.
When you have some people, maybe like you, who will think that he's nobody, and some others may think that he's somebody. Myself, I am privileged to know him very well and I respect him, I admire him, and I think he's one of the best persons I've ever met. But you know, fortunately, that's a pre-judgement but again, we cannot avoid people thinking what they want.
Q. Have you been surprised by the reactions?
JT: Yes, I must say I was surprised. I was surprised but we are in a world where people very easily over-react. On my side, I try not to over-react and try to understand exactly what is happening. Saying that, Michael has, in the past, done some mistakes. He has admitted that he's made some mistakes but I don't know any driver, having been World Champion, being in a position to say he never made a mistake.
Yesterday, Michael simply made a mistake as a driver, but it was not something twisty or unfair towards his competitors, but, as I said, it would be a lengthy discussion. Everybody can give his opinion.
I know that the majority of the people around were saying that Michael did it on purpose. I feel… you know, when you are facing judges or tribunal, it's what is called the benefit of the doubt and nobody could really demonstrate.
And we tried to demonstrate with the information that we had with telemetry data we had that it was a driver's mistake, it was not taken into consideration. My opinion is that it was a benefit of the doubt. It's what happens. It's over.
Q. If it had been the other way around and Alonso was on pole and the same thing happened, would you have thought that was a strange manoeuvre he did. What would your opinion be?
JT: It has happened so many times, you have a driver who is on a quick lap, he has a yellow flag and simply the lap is *FUBAR'd*. Saying that, I admit that Alonso was on the quicker lap when it happened. There's no doubt about that, but you know, I feel that the severity of the penalty was exaggerated - my opinion but again, that's over.
Q. People say maybe he made a mistake and he locked up, but people don't understand what he did with the steering wheel, how he ended up in the barrier and why he didn't try and get out of that situation.
JT: He explained all that at length and we had the telemetry evidence which allowed us to understand. We have, in detail, all the evidence of this special episode.
Q. People don't understand how, every lap around here, especially in the race today, Michael was probably in a situation like that two or three times a lap, and we never saw him stopping or hitting the barrier today. How did he lose it….
JT: And what happened in Australia. Simply, I don't think you can have a driver who can say I never lost my car.
Q. It's very bad sportsmanship, once the stewards had made this decision, for you to then criticise the FIA and call the stewards incompetent.
JT: I said that I don't share their opinion.
Q. I think you were critical last night in your statement.
JT: If it's your opinion, it's your opinion but I don't change a word of what I said.
Q. Have you lost faith in the FIA's stewards?
JT: You know, if there's a team which is respecting the FIA and, I would say, following the FIA's decisions, it's Ferrari. Saying that, we cannot always be of the same opinion. Yesterday we have to accept their decision, but we don't share their decision.
Q. But in future, can you trust them to make the right decision, in your opinion, after this?
JT: Of course, of course. Each thing is different. When you discuss with people, you can agree with some people sometimes and you can disagree some other times. We did not agree about the heavy consequences they imposed on Michael.
Q. But one thing I cannot understand, the data you call evidence and you gave them this evidence. If you call the data evidence, how can it be that there are two opinions about the data? Is it not clear?
JT: It's very easy to have a microphone… on your side, or my side, to criticise, to make some judgements. I have been sitting in a car for 15 years. I was on the other side of the barrier and probably that has given me an experience to understand a bit better and to see what can happen in the mind of a driver and probably it's something which is interesting.
Saying that, as I often said, I cannot control the mind of people if they want to have their thoughts, their opinions, their ideas. It's up to them, but saying that, they cannot push us to have their opinion.
Q. As a show window for the sport, and Ferrari and Michael have been hugely damaged this weekend, image-wise.
JT: We have the drivers. Michael has been very much criticised. The team has supported Michael and I don't see where Ferrari should be damaged in what has happened over the weekend, but again, that's our opinion.
Q. How do you explain that there was nobody out there saying 'I don't think Michael did it deliberately.'
JT: I was told today, I did not watch TV, I was told today that it was a kind of question raised to a German TV about the decision and 75 percent were against the decision of the audience and 25 percent was in favour, so….
Q. But I'm talking about the paddock, it's a little bit surprising that there was nobody saying that here.
JT: But again, you know, the paddock, we already spoke about the paddock. I cannot make the paddock change its mind. I wonder if all the people who were judging in the paddock are in the position to judge and should not think about themselves first. You know, very often I am asked about some events which are happening and I think it's not in my position that I have to judge it.
Q. There are a lot of people in the paddock who have driven Formula One cars and won World Championships who are very critical of what happened and they understand a lot more about what happens in a car than any of us do, and they all share the same opinion.
JT: I mean, some of them probably. But as I said, we could speculate for three hours.
Q. You know Michael very well, how do you see this all affecting him?
JT: You know, he's a human being, he was not happy, he was very disappointed about this whole issue, but now he has to put it behind him and to think about it. Today he did a great race in difficult situation and now he's looking for the next race.
