©2001 SpeedCenter and CART |
|||
|
||||||
T.E. McHale: Good afternoon to everyone. Welcome to the CART media teleconference. We appreciate all of you taking the time to join us today. Our guest this afternoon is defending FedEx Championship Series champion Gil de Ferran of Marlboro Team Penske who drove to his first victory of the season in last Saturday's inaugural Rockingham 500 at Rockingham Motor Speedway. Good afternoon, Gil, congratulations on your first victory of the year and thanks for being with us today.
T.E. McHale: Gil, the driver of the No. 1 Marlboro Honda/Reynard became the 11th different race winner of the 2001 FedEx Championship Series season, tying a record established last year. The victory was the sixth of his career and his first since last year at Portland, as well as the second oval triumph of his career, joining a win at Nazareth last year. Gil has finished among the Top 5 drivers in five of his past six FedEx Championship Series starts, with four podium finishes, including second at Mid-Ohio and Vancouver, and third at Chicago, in addition to Saturday's victory. The run has propelled him into second place in the FedEx Championship Series championship with 141 points, behind Kenny Brack of Team Rahal who leads with 147 points heading into the Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston, round 18 of the FedEx Championship Series which will be televised live on ESPN on Sunday, October 7th, beginning at 2 p.m. eastern time. With that we will open it up to questions for Gil. Question: If you could talk a little bit about your consistency this season. I guess you got close to wins and everything, but had you figured that in the absence of victories that you wanted to try to at least finish in the Top 5 or so, gain enough points so when you finally got the win, it would really make a difference, instead of having to win?
The thing is so competitive that I think it's very, very difficult for you to win every weekend. So when you're not able to win, then you got to come up with whatever you can. Certainly that has been -- ever since last year, we've been trying to win every race. We haven't been in a position to win every race. When we don't win, you can't lose your head and throw it in the wall, you know, or in the gravel trap, for that matter. We've been very competitive. I think this year we've been in a position to win a number of times, but unfortunately hasn't really come our way. But many times, even when it hasn't come our way, I was able to bring home some points, which is extremely important in the end of the day. I'll just try to do the best I can, I guess. Question: What things have you been really pleased with in terms of how the car is running that's allowed you to really hang in there until you got that win?
Question: Three-part question for you. It's about attitudes. This is about Rockingham. I was wondering what you thought of some of the European press asking pointed questions about CART safety? Do you think they changed after the race? I'm wondering if you spoke to any British fans after the race and what they thought?
As far as aftermath of the race, impressions from fans and friends, even European, particularly English press, I have to say most of the -- well, all of the reports I have were extremely positive, you know. I had some friends on the stands that said it was probably one of the most fantastic things they ever seen. Certainly I seen some clippings from the English press which, despite the fact that we had the issue there by not running two days in a row, the race was so good that that nearly wiped out all the bad taste that that was leaving in everybody's mouth because the race was so spectacular. They mostly wrote about that. All the reports I have were very positive. Question: One guy said the dawn of a new era in racing in Great Britain.
Question: Do you feel that was your best drive of your career?
Question: What do you think of CART expanding out to the international scene? It sounds like you think Europe was good, Germany and England. Do you feel they were good?
I think CART took a leap of faith there and decided to try to take the races over there. I have to say this European Tour was largely successful. Certainly there were some issues there with weather and not being able to run as much as we would have liked. But the impressions I had from the fans, and certainly both races were quite exciting, I would classify as a success. Certainly if I was in an advisory position to CART, which I'm not, the only thing I would say was try to put the race on in a window between June and August where the likelihood of having better weather in Germany and England are higher. Question: As a driver, I'm assuming earlier on you had some aspirations of maybe driving in Formula 1. For whatever reason, that didn't happen, hasn't happened yet. Do you as a driver like the fact that CART is becoming almost like a World Championship like Formula 1 in that you compete around the world. Do you like that?
To me, that's where I place the most importance really, is the level of the people that compete in the championship. That is to me what make the championship more or less important. That's why, in my mind, I always welcome new talent coming in, both from a team standpoint and from a driver standpoint. Question: That was a fantastic finish to the race. Could you maybe describe for us what was going through your mind the last couple of laps when Kenny passed you?
Basically I felt like I had the situation there under control. As the race was winding to a close, I was very comfortable with the way the car was running. I wasn't feeling particularly threatened by Kenny. Certainly I knew he was there. You know, I had traffic to deal with. Sure enough, two laps to go, you know, I thought I stick my nose there underneath Max, maybe hope that he would let me by. I guess, you know, he didn't, which he has the right to do so. But the end result of that is I came out of that turn in a real bad shape, very slow. Kenny was able to just slingshot past me. At that point I was just thinking, "Well, you know, we got two laps to go here. Let's see what we can do." I knew the car was running strong. I knew that Kenny would have to contend with the same problems that I had, which was traffic. You know, I just didn't let off. I thought to myself, "I got two laps to try to undo this." Coming into the last lap, I think he felt he couldn't make by the traffic safely, so he decided to try to leave enough of a gap so he could make the last few turns quite fast. By doing that, I was able to get a good run at him through turn two and three, you know, be slightly ahead of him going into turn four. At that point I had a good line going into turn four. I thought to myself, "Right, here we go. Here or never again." I had a good line into the turn, just made it by him. I was thrilled. It was very exciting. Question: With CART's success now in Germany, England, Mexico, Japan, do you feel the lack of American drivers, slowly becoming fewer and fewer drivers in CART, do you think that hurts them in the United States?
I guess if you had a guy racing like him as well, that would be true inside this country. Question: What are you planning on doing this weekend? Are you going to try to bring some luck to David or are you staying home?
Question: You're not going to stay for Sunday?
Question: But you never know?
Question: It sounds like you still pretty much are walking on the clouds after this race. How do you get back to central and prepare for the next one?
Question: I'm sure Angela and the kids were happy to see you when you got home?
Question: You drove on two new tracks in the past two weeks. Can you talk about what you thought about the particular shape and character of Germany and Rockingham following that?
England was extremely fast (laughter). I mean, it was kind of a trapezoidal shaped track with four turns. Turn one and two in England remind me a little bit of Indianapolis actually. Turn four, it was more like a Homestead turn. It was an interesting mix. I found Rockingham quite a challenging racetrack from that standpoint, because you have very different turns everywhere. It was good. I mean, it's interesting really because when you think about oval tracks, you think in limited terms. I guess when you go to tracks like that, you can see there are many interpretations of what an oval track can be. Question: Homestead, which is more of a traditional oval, then with Rockingham still 1.5 miles, but it seemed like the passing opportunities were greater at Rockingham.
Question: We're talking in the US about the short ovals or medium ovals, how to make them more competitive. Would you suggest they look at some configurations like Rockingham, say?
You know, I think it depends on the car configuration and the type of weekend you have. Some years you have very exciting races, and other years you have less exciting races. I think that comes with the territory. I think it's impossible for you to have every year a race that is decided on the last lap over every racetrack. I think that's unrealistic to expect that. Question: Now that you've had a chance to run the wing configuration that was used in Europe, would you recommend that for other tracks in the US? Do you feel it improved the racing? Seemed that it did.
I think for those tracks, I think that's a better option of the current options that we use. That's looking further towards the future. If there is something a little better, that's something that I haven't stopped to think about it. But it was better than the configuration we used in the three ovals that I just mentioned. Question: Will you be making your feelings known to CART about this?
Question: I know you're a close family man. So many things happened while you were in Europe, separated from your family. It was a time when I could imagine you wanted to be close to your family. Can you talk about the impact of being away?
At the end, we thought that probably for her to stay put here at home in Florida was the best thing, and for me to join her as soon as possible. I was able to be with them Sunday right after Rockingham, after a very long 16-day trip for me. Trust me, it was very emotional to reencounter everybody. Nice to see everything was in good shape over here. Question: In the race for points, there's some talk that I've had with other drivers that the incentive to race from fifth to fourth or sixth to fifth is not always there because the purses aren't large enough. Can you talk about that? Is there an incentive for the driver to go back in the pack to race, especially late in the event?
I don't agree with that statement. I think every point counts. You know, whether you're racing between first and second or between eighth and ninth, the considerations are the same. Whether you going to make a pass or not is the percentage of chance that you have of making it stick, not ending up in the wall. The same way that I wouldn't try to make a pass, which I think only has a two percent chance of working, if I'm going from second to first, I wouldn't attempt the same pass if I was going from ninth to eighth because I think the percentages of success are far too small. I think I don't agree with that. My mindset was always the same throughout the races, whether I'm racing for lower or higher positions. Question: Four races left to go. The common wisdom says that you and the Honda/Reynards have the advantage on the road courses. Kenny won four ovals. Mindful you have the world record at Fontana. What have I left out there?
Question: Is that too much of a simplification of the points battle?
Question: Not exactly. Do you feel with three road races coming up versus one oval, you have an advantage? I'll make it simple.
Question: I didn't ask a good question.
Looking forward to Houston and Laguna and Australia, I will be disappointed if I was off the pace. But then again, I don't think it would be -- I think Kenny will be strong, too. He was strong in Vancouver. I think they improved tremendously on that front. I'm not so sure we hold that much of an upper hand going to the next three races here. Fontana, I don't really know what to expect at this point. Question: Has there been a point this season where even though you've been running well where you wondered, "What is it going to take for us to win a race?"
Take, for example, Cleveland, where I had high hopes of actually dominating the race, since we were extremely quick in practice. Come qualifying, we had one of those one session in the dry, one session in the wet. We ended up starting the race way in the back. I really tried to keep perspective and keep going, if you know what I mean. I try to be very practical about this sort of analysis. Question: Now that you have a win, how much of a breakthrough was this? Was there relief on your part? You've been doing everything right, but finally it's showing some results.
I think particularly in light of Vancouver, I was quite happy to cross the line first there. Question: How hard is it to defend a title like you had to do this year? Has this required a lot more work? Do you feel nothing has changed in terms of the overall picture?
You know, I'm trying to defend my title. The other one, which was day to day you felt that anyway, "Okay, everybody is starting from zero points, and I got as much of a chance as anybody else to win another championship." When you start running, already before the first race, you can see that. Everybody is fighting for the best times, see who is top dog, who is going to start the season best, all that. When you get in the car, even though you got the number one in the car, you faced with the same troubles. If you have a bad day, despite the fact you number one written on the car, you end up outside of the Top 10. That really drills it home. It's like, "Okay, really you got to get your stuff together and try to win another one." I don't know if I was clear. Question: I guess it's where you look at trying -- you're focused more on winning another title rather than keeping somebody else from getting it?
Question: The answer to the past question was one of the best I heard, about going to get another title instead of defending one. In football sometimes you concentrate so much on winning a championship that it might delay your preparation for the next season. Last year you went deep into the season before it was definite that you had won. Did you find it tough getting up to speed this year because so much of your effort was spent last year in winning the championship?
Actually, in my preparations for this year, one of my biggest problems, probably one of the most difficult years that I had to prepare for a season, was because I had two quite substantial accidents within a period of a week that put me out of the car for a good month. That really was quite a big concern, quite a big problem to deal with as I prepare for this year. Question: So the push now towards the championship probably adds a little more excitement towards the end of the season?
T.E. McHale: We'll wrap it up for the afternoon. We want to thank defending FedEx Championship Series series champion Gil de Ferran for joining us this afternoon. Thanks for being with us. Best of luck in the Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston and through the rest of the FedEx Championship Series season.
T.E. McHale: Thanks to all of you who joined us this afternoon. We'll talk to you next week. | ||||||
|