Britain: Jenson in the 'Fastest Three'

By Phil Huff (10/07/2004)
July 10 2004

Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Jenson Button had to sit through the traditional 'Fastest Three' press conference today, following his third place slot on the grid. Here's what he had to say.

Jenson, a dramatic build-up to your qualifying run. First of us all talk us through those last few minutes while you were putting on your helmet, the storm clouds were building up, twenty minutes to go, five cars to run in that last batch.

Yeah, it was a bit of a close one to call really but I think strategy-wise we did very well with the weather and it is good to be in the top three here. Obviously we wanted to be on pole, but it’s a good position to start the race tomorrow and I am looking forward to it.

The team seemed to be saying yesterday they weren’t incredibly happy with the handling of the car at that point. Where are you at now with the chassis and how do you think things are going to go tomorrow?

Well the balance is a lot better than yesterday. We are still not exactly where we would like to be but it has improved over the last two test sessions today so that puts us in good shape for tomorrow.

Talk us through that qualifying lap - how did it go from your point of view?

It was okay. It is very windy; it is the same for all of us and in Becketts I had a very good run through and the car was very good. But when I got to some other high-speed parts of the circuit I found the car was very different there. I could only put it down to the wind really. But it wasn’t a bad lap so I am reasonably happy with it. There wasn’t much more left in the car.

Jenson, third on the grid, you are obviously happy with that but are you in some ways a bit disappointed as well?

Well, it is difficult to know where everyone is before qualifying and we still don’t. Because, in testing, McLaren seemed very quick but we weren’t sure if that was their real pace but obviously they have shown that whatever they are running it is still a very quick lap time. I am reasonably happy, we are still not 100 percent with the balance but the car is working pretty well.

I was going to say, sum up the weekend so far for you.

It has been very relaxed actually. It has been the most relaxed race this year for me, which is a little bit strange. But it has been good for us. We have had a lot of laps. We were a little bit disappointed that Anthony wasn’t able to complete his run yesterday and that made the tyre choice a little bit more difficult for us, but even so, third on the grid is good, you know, there is a lot of opportunities from third on the grid so I am very happy.

One little mystery that you can clear up – can you tell us about your helmet colours this weekend?

Erm, they forgot to paint the blue on!

You have all had new helmets, haven’t you?

That was at Magny-Cours, but I originally did this helmet for Magny-Cours to support the England football team but obviously it wasn’t…I didn’t use it there because it would have been a bit embarrassing. But it is a change. We are in England so I have the St George’s Cross. I am English.

Jenson, you clearly had a different attitude to the first qualifying to the rest of the teams – you went out and went for the lap. Were you confident, then, about the weather holding or were you just gambling on that?

We thought it was going to rain at the start of second qualifying initially and then we heard that it was going to go by us and not actually rain on the circuit, so we thought we would go for it and that was the safest bet really because as soon as you start messing around and go slower other people see it and you end up where you started anyway.

Were you happy at the end of the first session than you were you beginning of it? Were you beginning to worry at that stage that the weather might change?

No, I mean, there were clouds over but they had been over for about 15 or 20 minutes so if they held off for that long we thought they might do for the end. And it didn’t rain, so…

Nobody knows Silverstone better than you?

There’s probably a few. I am not that experienced.

It would appear that many of the cars were not driven at a fully competitive speed in the first qualifying session for tactical reasons. Do you think such tactics are consistent with the thought by most people that Formula One needs to entertain the paying spectator and might even such tactics contravene article 151c of the FIA sporting code which outrules, and I quote, ‘any act prejudicial to the interests of motorsport generally’

I didn’t know about that. Yeah, we did, of course we did, that is why we didn’t slow down. But it is difficult for the crowds. It is pre-qualifying, it isn’t actually qualifying, but when all the cars are slowing down it’s not too exciting for them. But then we are in Britain and a Briton did go quickest, so it is a difficult one.

With the possibility of rain tomorrow and therefore the possibility of lots of random pit stops how confident are you that the team has sorted out the anti-stall problem on your car which held you back…

Oh, it shouldn’t be an issue any more.

So you are confident?

Yes.

We all know that you have different strategies, but having seen the results of qualifying are you all confident your strategies were the right ones for the race?

I don’t think anyone is going to say they have got a bad strategy for tomorrow!