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Williams racer Rubens Barrichello took part in the official Thursday press conference here at the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest where he was quizzed on his 300th race, one round early, and about Ferrari’s team orders to his friend Felipe Massa a week ago, something Rubens was a victim of during his days as Michael Schumacher’s teammate.
Rubens, a former winner here. If you can remember those days. Is it a favourite circuit?
Why do you say that?
It was a year or two ago.
It was probably more than that. I do enjoy it here. I enjoy the weekend as a whole as you don’t turn up here and everything is set. Every time you come in there are some differences in the way the car behaves and the weekends evolve a lot in the way that you have to set up the car. You know that Saturday is going to be different, so if some rain comes it is a different thing again, how are you going to use the tyres. Qualifying is where the big bang is as you need to be towards the front for you to have a good race.
With the rain expected, particularly tomorrow, will it take longer for the circuit to evolve and pick up grip?
I think when it happens it makes it more exciting as with the Friday and Saturday you have chances to perform in a way that you want the car to be close to perfect. It is very difficult for you to get close to perfect, but when it rains it makes it even more difficult as sometimes you have to follow between set-up and things like this and the track changes as well as you clean all the rubber and it makes it more exciting. The chances are you don’t have all faster cars in front and you have some slower cars that are supposedly at the back and they are in front, so that’s what’s the challenge, especially now driving a car that is capable of getting to Q3 but is not as fast as we wished. It is a good time to put the car on a better show and the hope is to finish on a higher pointer.
Is this a circuit that is suited to the Williams or vice versa?
That’s a difficult one. I have never actually driven the Williams here, but I have seen on the papers they qualified well here last year. I think this circuit goes in a way that Monaco goes, so maximum downforce and so on. I think that we can do well. We are going to keep it very fair and simple and just work as hard as we can.
Rubens, what did you think when you heard what Felipe had to do last week and do you regret you were forced to do the same thing in 2002 in Austria?
All I can say is that I was very sorry to see he had to go through such a bad thing. There is nothing else. Nobody should have to go through those feelings and Felipe is a friend and I wished he didn’t go through that.
This is a question for Rubens, Felipe, whoever else might want to answer: should the team order rule be scrapped? What’s your view?
It’s not up to us to decide. Whenever they said team orders should not take place, other ways of telling the driver to back off were introduced. So in that respect, you should think, ‘OK, so this should not take place’ and then the team should decide to do whatever. I just think that we should do something to stop this thing, because at the end of the day, it could get into a bit of drama here. When you are racing, you want to beat the other one, but I wouldn’t feel nice, I wouldn’t feel good if you tell me ‘I’ll give you this which makes you faster than the other one’ and then you win. I don’t like that, I never did and that’s why I had to make changes in my life and that’s why I changed teams and that’s why I moved on. So I think it’s in the hands of the top people to change that because you should be allowed to race. What’s the problem? If you don’t win the championship by one point, so be it. You had your chance, you had to go, and then you win the championship by one point because somebody let you win? What’s the point? That’s my view. If I have to be a bad guy and to be World Champion, I don’t care for that. I will teach my boys the same way my father taught me and I’m happy with that.
Rubens, this situation at Ferrari, you’ve been through all this before. What kind of advice can you give Felipe for the rest of the season? How should he respond now, in the team?
I called him and I’ve already told him, so it’s going to be between me and him. I told him what I think, but there’s not a lot to tell. He feels the same thing I felt some time ago, and that should be it.
Rubens, we will now leave the previous topic. Rubens, 300 Grand Prix starts. When you reached 257, your car had a special designation as I remember. Do you plan anything big on that front? Number 300 is really a big one.
Yeah, I don’t know when you guys are counting 300 but I’m counting (number) 300 as Spa. Spa is going to be the 300th for me as the 257th was in Turkey. First of all, thank you very much for changing the subject, it’s very kind of you! Secondly, it is a fantastic moment, to be reaching 300 grands prix and to be as competitive as I am, to be able to enjoy the time in the car as I enjoy it, and to be racing for a team that has great spirit and going for it, it’s fantastic. I’m going to Spa with a new livery on the helmet, just to commemorate that. I don’t know if the team is actually going to have something different, but to be fairly honest, I’m so proud to reach this point, because I haven’t ever thought of that, but it’s something that the numbers will serve me in a way that maybe one day I will be sitting down and looking at those numbers and they will feel very special. Right now, I’m having the pleasure to drive the car and be some competitive at 300. For me that’s the most important thing.
Well, congratulations, but I have to remind you that you said, when you reached 257, that your goal was to reach 300. What the next goal? 350?
Four hundred? Ha ha.
Felipe, coming back here a year after your terrible accident, do you think that you’re going to feel a bit uneasy on the first couple of laps?
FM: For sure not. It’s really nothing to do with my way of working. To be honest, I don’t remember a single thing from the accident. I don’t remember the corner. I saw it many times, but I don’t remember anything, so when you close the visor, you don’t think about these things, you just think about doing your best and working and achieving the maximum you can. So for sure, nothing of this thing has happened and I’m pretty sure that Rubens has a very, very strong spring on his car now.
RB: I promise you that he’s really like that. I don’t think he will fear anything. Three or four months ago we were playing poker back in Brazil and he just said ‘I have a surprise for you’ and he put the helmet in which he had the accident on the table and it destroyed my night, completely destroyed my night and I started losing money with the poker and he had fun with it, so I think he’s going to drive flat out without a… I’m driving for a different team, so you’re safe now, it’s OK.
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