Monaco: Barrichello in the press conference

By Phil Huff
May 25 2006

Rubens Barrichello took his place in yesterday's press conference, talking about his struggles with Honda, and how the team have had to learn how to build a car for him.

Rubens, another year older, 34 yesterday, it's always Monaco Grand Prix time...

Yeah, it's become a habit! You know when you get older, you don't have to party any more. It's just one more year. But I enjoyed my birthday very much, yesterday. I wasn't working actually so it was nice to be with the family. For the first time, we made a cake. It was OK.

Qualifying seems to be going a lot better now; what about the racing?

Well, in all honesty, I think Barcelona would have been a lot better. Although I saw a lot of people talking about Jenson being held up by me, I don't think there was much truth in that. We had our pace there. He might have gone a little bit faster but it wouldn't have changed his race. I lost five to six seconds on the way to the pits because of the (fuel) pressure, the fuel wasn't picking up and so when I came into the pits, I still had some fuel left and I stopped, and because they didn't know what the problem was, they kept on putting a lot of fuel in the car, and so I finished with a little bit more than what we thought and the car became heavier. The pace wasn't there because of that. Otherwise, I think the two cars would have been close to Raikkonen's but there was no way to finish in front of him and that's the story. But I think Barcelona was a step forward in terms of overall pace.

What about here, with a good qualifying position?

Well, qualifying is definitely good and I think the car could actually work quite well here. The problem is going to be just being on the track at the right time. Honestly, I think we should have a different qualifying (system) for here because probably five percent of us won't say anything about qualifying, that we had a free lap, and the rest will all be (talking about) traffic, even in the last session. Probably not as much in qualifying three, but first qualifying is going to be like hell, really. You really need to give a lot of space to people on Thursday and see if they remember that on Saturday and let it go, because if somebody goes out of the pits, just thinking about life, it's going to be quite dangerous in a way. If you're going to go flat out up through Casino Square, from there on you can give some space.

Because it is such a very special Grand Prix and a special circuit, I would like to ask for your personal opinion - which is the most critical, the most dangerous and most difficult spot on the track here and what is your favourite overtaking spot, if any?

Well, I think it is a very difficult circuit and it is dangerous everywhere probably and it is very special and all because of that... At the beginning of the year, I asked a friend, who races IRL, where he would like to race in Formula One and he told me Monaco. That is because it makes it special. So, actually this weekend, I am racing his colours in this grand prix and I am racing in Indianapolis this weekend – there will be a car there with my colours – and this is just because Monaco is so special and I think Indianapolis is special, as well, that we swapped colours for the weekend. I don't think there is any place for overtaking and it is dangerous everywhere, but it is funny. Casino Square is probably the best place.

When you say colours, do you mean helmet colours?

Yeah.

You can always learn more about the team and the car and the tyres, but where do you feel you are now in that learning process?

I think the team has been working very hard. If people think the results have been sad for me, and I have not been up to it, I could prove that I have been working hard. I was not happy with the brakes to start with and it was only very unlucky that we qualified badly in Australia because of the traffic. Having said that, since then there has been an improvement and it is getting better all the time, but I am still not completely happy with the car in the way that it performs in a race especially with the traction control. Honda is working very hard and we have been testing new items every time we go to the track and we know the car is fast everywhere we go and we know we have to keep the pace for the race, but I am feeling very good and this is one of the places where I think we can perform very well and in the team everything is running very smoothly.

I remember you saying, in Australia, that you found it difficult coming into the team with a car that was predominantly set up for Jenson's style of driving. With your improvements in the last few races, have you had to change your driving style?

There is a time when you have to get used to things. It is not just jumping from one car to another. The car had, predominantly, the brakes and the traction control working the same – and you have difference in balance, in the way that you drive the car and the position and everything - but it was completely different on the brake system. I attack the brakes harder than Jenson and I wasn't feeling the bite of the brakes. To be honest, it was a bit of a lack of experience within the team. In testing, I kept on saying 'the brakes, the brakes, the brakes' and they said 'ok, for the race, we are going to have new items and everything is going to be good' and, when the race came, everything was the same; and that is why I took so long and, after two or three races, when we tested new components, we actually found something; and then I improved that. I got used to the car up to a point, but I told them that if the car didn't come my way I was only going to be driving behind Jenson because I had to learn how he was driving the car. So, I am sure that, with the things I have been developing, it will help him eventually win a race as well. So, it is a mountain that we are both climbing.