Q: Pat, I can remember in Barcelona you were very happy as you felt you’d taken a step forward. In Monaco you were going to spring a surprise. What’s been going on?

Pat Symonds: I never said we would spring a surprise in Monaco.

Q: What is the next step there is a test next week. Will you have some new bits there?

PS: It’s Barcelona next week. More bits there. Every week there are new bits on the car, new bits we are testing. Some aerodynamic updates for the French Grand Prix, some quite big ones, so keep on moving.

Q: Do you remember what you did with Heikki a year ago?

PS: Yes.

Q: Are you going to tell us?

PS: No.

Q: Fernando, tell us about the track conditions today.

Fernando Alonso: I think we had a little bit of everything. This morning a wet track to start with and it was dry just for the last 10 minutes but it was not completely dry, so we found a different track in the afternoon with more normal conditions. It was okay, a normal Friday in Canada with a slippery track and we tried to put some rubber down with the laps. I am sure during the weekend it will be better and better every lap we do on the track.

Q: There are a lot of words being written about what you might be doing in the future. What is your own personal comment on that?

FA: Nothing really. The same comment as always. It is too early to speak about the future and too early for me to think about the future. It is only the sixth or seventh grand prix of the championship this year and there is a long way to go to the end. First of all I want to improve the results and the performance we are having now. The aim for the next two or three months is to be closer and closer to the podium which is the real target. There is enough to do to reach this target that I don’t want to lose too much time on the future.

Q: David what are your feelings about this season so far?

David Coulthard :Well, I am clearly disappointed not to have scored any points. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I’ve obviously been involved in a few incidents which is unusual but again when you are in what I call the ugly part of the grid there seems to be a lot more contact. And clearly the goal is to keep out of that. In the first six races I have been in the top 10 three times in qualifying and clearly that is the key area to be to avoid a lot of the concertina effects especially somewhere like here in Montreal. We have seen that many years with cars getting out of position.

Q: And your feelings about today?

DC: As Fernando said it was a normal Canada Friday with the exception of some wet running thrown in. The track is pretty green but that is the usual gig especially when you come from Monaco as you have got a lot more speed on the car and a lot less downforce, so stopping it through the chicanes is a bit more of a challenge. Usually the cars that have good kerb ride tend to show their lap time here and the grid can be a bit more spaced out, so we just need to review our performance after qualifying tomorrow and hopefully we will have a strong one.

Q: Geoff, to what extent are you already working on the 2009 car?

Geoff Willis: Certainly we are already underway aerodynamically with the 2009 car, both wind tunnel programmes and the CFD programme. We are clearly looking at the tyres as there is a big regulation change there next year, one part of which is the slick tyres. We are still waiting until the last July team test when we will get the final specification of those tyres. Some of the main car lay-out will have to be delayed a little longer but we have done quite a lot of work. At the moment we are juggling that balance between the 2008 car development and 2009 and certainly where we are in the championship, and as David says, we are in that ugly area where a small performance improvement can give you help to get that one or two points. We do certainly have to divide out time as efficiently as we can between the 2008 championship, trying to turn an equal fourth place into a secure fourth place, but at the same time not penalizing ourselves for next year.

Q: As far as you are concerned are the regulations for 2009 perfectly clear?

GW: I think on a technicality the final things we have agreed in the last Technical Working Groups have to go before the World Motor Sport Council which I think is on 30 June but to all intents and purposes, as far as I understand, the regulations are fixed for 2009.

The conference was quite informative. Some questions were asked from the floor. F1 people were all in readiness. For detailed information check out the reference below.

Reference:

http://217.204.13.141/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2008/June/030608-04.html

http://www.formula1.com