Q and A with Rubens Barrichello
Q. How was that race for you?Rubens Barrichello: It was boring, to be honest. I try everything I could to have some overtaking at the start, but the track is just too narrow. So you go into defensive mode, and if you try too hard then someone might have a go on you if you don't fix the overtaking move.On the first few laps I thought we had a good pace because Kimi Raikkonen was not quick. We lost time. But then all of a sudden everyone started to push and my car did not improve a lot. On the same tyres as Kimi, I was doing okay, but then as soon as he put on the other tyres he disappeared right in front of me.We had a different strategy, which eventually did not work fantastically well because I had to pit in before the real time as people were doing better on the other tyres. That is the story of my race. Fighting a set-up that wasn't brilliant, and I wasn't happy with the set-up of the car but still took a point from Jenson, so it is positive.Q. You are close to winning the constructors' championship in Brazil. What will that mean to you as a Brawn GP driver?RB: Like I said, it has been a very positive year whatever happens. At the beginning of the year, I had no drive and we had no engine. So the Brawn Mercedes is a fantastic altogether car and team, and we have to be very happy with that. Hopefully we will win the constructors'. And, although Vettel is closer to us, I hope to be fighting for the championship until the end, and hopefully I will win - if I deserve to win by Abu Dhabi.Q. How would you rate your chances now of winning the title?RB: There is no number. I am not there calculating what I can do or what I can't do. It is the fact of going there, winning the race, and seeing later. The chances are smaller but they are not as small as the 26-points deficit I had at one point in the championship. So they are very much alive.Q. Did you think about putting the option tyre on for the second stint?RB: We never got on well with it. We struggled very much and the fact that Jenson stopped a lap earlier we did not know. If he had stopped two laps earlier and had done good times then I am sure we would have gone to the tyre earlier. But we did not know. We struggled a bit on Saturday with that tyre and the Ferraris, when they start the race, they normally are very much on the softer tyre and they started on the harder tyre. So, it did not look like the softer tyre would be the option, but it was too late when we put it in.Q. The next race is your home race, but you have to score five points more than Jenson to stay in the championship. That is a pretty big ask...RB: I have got to go there and win the race. That is the aim. The rest for me is really the rest. I don't care. Like I said, if I deserve to win the championship I will. I am not going to be in the middle of the race thinking about if five plus five is 10. Here, five plus five was six wasn't it! I had a five place penalty and all of a sudden I was sixth. I have no intention to look at points, or this and that. My intention is to enjoy it and win the race.
Date published : 05 Oct 200911:43:00
