What are your feelings after Monaco? We had a bad result on Sunday in Monaco; that was clear for anyone to see. It could have been even worse, but it could have been much better as well. We came out with one point so at least we got something back after losing the solid fifth place, but that’s not much consolation. The car felt good for qualifying and the race which is a positive as it was another circuit – and a difficult circuit – where we’ve been able to have the car pretty much as we wanted. We still lack just a little bit of speed in qualifying sometimes, but our race pace was good again; not that you can show that when you’re stuck behind slower cars like we saw in Monaco. We don’t know how the car will be in Montreal – we will have the answer to that question soon – but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be competitive again. It was quite some fightback you made at the end of the race... Well, that was a bit different as I had fresh tyres and we should never have been in that position in the first place, but it was good to at least get a point at the end. In a way, it almost makes it more frustrating as when we had the clean air after the pit stop it was probably the first time you saw how quick our car really was. You were pretty frustrated after the race? No-one wants to lose so many points thanks to the actions of another driver, but that race is over; Monaco is just a distant memory and I’m all ready for Canada. What’s your opinion of Canada? I have won there which was pretty good, but I have experienced some setbacks there as well. Many times the race has been quite a lottery as there seem to be different things which affect it. The weather can change a lot, sometimes the tyres or the track aren’t working very well, sometimes there are a lot of safety cars, or sometimes another driver runs into the back of you when you’re waiting at a red light. As for the place itself, I’ve always liked Montreal. It is one of the nicest cities we visit all year. What do you need for a good result in Canada? A good car. Like at every circuit you need to get the set-up exactly right. You need a well-balanced chassis in the medium downforce configuration and you don’t want to be too hard on brakes as there’s a lot of aggressive braking there. It’s something I quite enjoy, the stop and go style of the circuit. Is Montreal another circuit where qualifying is crucial? Qualifying is important at every circuit, but not as essential as it was in Monaco to get a good result. It’s not easy to get past, but there are one or two places to overtake. What are your thoughts on the Championship after losing ground to Sebastian Vettel? For sure we lost ground on the lead in Monaco, but it’s not over yet. It’s still early in the season and twenty-one points behind is not too much to catch up; especially if Sebastian has a bad weekend too at some point. The most important thing is that we return to our race level before Monaco to get things going our way as soon as possible.

It was an eventful weekend for you in Monaco... what are your thoughts now you’ve been able to reflect? It was certainly a rollercoaster, and one where we could have achieved a lot more with the pace of the car. No-one wants to make contact with the barriers at Monaco and it’s a fine balance between going fast and going too fast; there’s such a tiny margin for error as I found out. The positives are that we significantly improved the car again to make it more predictable over the weekend and that helped me a lot. I think we had the pace to be in the top three, but unfortunately we didn’t get the qualifying position we wanted and it’s almost impossible to move up the order in Monaco. I got caught out behind Daniel [Ricciardo] and will have to suffer quite a harsh penalty of ten places on the Montreal grid, but we’ll be working hard to devise the best strategy to work back up the order. You said you’d buy your crew some drinks for all the work they put in over the Monaco weekend; have you had a chance to do this yet? Not yet, but I’ll treat them to a special dinner later in the year; hopefully when we’ve got something good to celebrate. Last year you went from seventh to second in Montreal; can you repeat that kind of performance in 2013? Yes, last year we had a fantastic result at this race and we’ll certainly be trying for a fantastic result once more. For sure it will be a bit more difficult with the penalty, but we’ll take the challenge and do the very best we can. 2012 was your first time racing in Montreal, but you learnt the track pretty well? The track is interesting; not an easy one to learn, but as we say most of the time if you have a good result then you like the track! I’d certainly like to finish this year’s race on the podium again; that would be a good record to maintain. The city’s great too. People speak French, the place is lively, there are some great restaurants and everybody is really welcoming. Have you raced the circuit in any other form? It’s true that it’s my favourite circuit on the Xbox, though it’s certainly bumpier in real life than sat at home on your sofa! You like street circuits and were quick in Monaco; can we expect more of the same pace at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve? I enjoy the sensation of being close to the walls; although as I learnt this year in Monaco... I don’t enjoy the sensation of being too close to the walls! Montreal is different from Monaco as there are some long straights and big braking moments. The track surface can also present challenges as we’ve seen in past seasons, so it will be interesting to see what the grip level is like this year. Finally, the weather in Montreal can be quite changeable as we’ve seen many times. I’m sure it’ll be a challenging and exciting Grand Prix. Does the Canadian event present any particular challenges, being a long haul amidst the European season? I arrive a little earlier to help beat the jet lag. Sometimes the challenge of beating the jet lag and getting a decent sleep can be as hard to solve as finding the right setup for the car! I’ll be getting plenty of exercise and hopefully getting some good sleep at the right time too! It’s been a mixed season for you so far; how would you assess it? On paper it's not as good as we would have wanted it to be, but I'm happy with all my performances so far except for Monaco. I have been doing my best every time, the pace is there and every time we manage to improve the car. I just have to keep doing my best and see where we go from there.

Monaco wasn’t a great weekend... Yes, we don’t want another sporting weekend like that. Despite the negatives of the result however, there are positives. Once more our car was competitive at a very different venue and we have now shown we can compete on all types of circuit. We have also maintained a good rate of development with the E21 relative to our opposition which bodes well for the rest of the season. As a weekend it was very frustrating, yes, but Monaco is often like that. How would you rate the driver’s performances in Monte Carlo? Kimi had a strong drive on Sunday and was in an easy fifth position until the incident with Sergio [Perez]. Although we were better in terms of race pace than those ahead, it’s almost impossible to overtake in Monaco and there were no mistakes or issues from the cars in front, so he became stuck in a train for most of the race. When forced to make a final pit stop towards the end, he was able to show some of the potential in the car; passing others at ease. I think this demonstrates just how talented he is – to have made up those places around Monaco without any drama – and perhaps also a little bit of how angry he was at losing fifth place and the points he would have otherwise scored. Romain had great pace all weekend, but got frustrated in the race as he wasn’t able to fight for the kind of positions he ought to have after getting caught out behind a slower driver in the drying qualifying session and ending up thirteenth on the grid. He drove strongly to finish on the podium in Bahrain and should – according to our simulations – have finished in third position before his suspension failed in Barcelona, but Monaco was a frustrating weekend for him. Despite this, we’re sure he’ll be able to press the reset button and go to Montreal ready to focus on getting another good result. Montreal was a good weekend for the team last year; does that help with the mindset? Yes we did well there last year and yes it’s good in terms of the memories, but that doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily do well there this year. What we do know is that this year’s car is strong and has performed well on all different types of track layout, so it’s reasonable to expect a good weekend in Canada. I don’t think it will be an easy weekend, but we’ll be disappointed if both cars aren’t close to – or on – the podium. Tyres are a hot topic once again; for many reasons? To have one team running this season’s car in a private test with the sport’s sole tyre supplier is unusual to say the least; especially if no-one is told about it in advance, or even afterwards. Had we been offered the same opportunity in a legitimate and transparent fashion – where all teams agreed – we would have welcomed it. Certainly what has happened appears to be against the Sporting Regulations and the teams’ testing agreement, so it will be interesting to hear the outcome of the on-going activity regarding this matter. The team has slipped a little in both Championships after Monaco; can we fight back? As long as Monaco was just a minor blip – and there’s nothing to suggest that it wasn’t – there’s no evidence to suggest we can’t return to consistently strong performances and be back in the reckoning for big points. One bad race in nineteen doesn’t define your Championship; we just need to ensure that we don’t have another weekend like Monaco.

Now we’ve had some time to digest, what’s the feeling after Monaco? Kimi qualified and raced where we expected him to at a circuit where it is virtually impossible to overtake, although some drivers were a little bit – shall we say – ambitious in their passing attempts. He would have finished fifth were it not for Sergio [Perez] being too aggressive. Romain had a weekend he’d rather forget, but now heads to a circuit where he performed excellently last year with his second place. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t put in another excellent performance this year, albeit with the added challenge of his ten place grid penalty. What are the considerations for Montreal? It’s the first circuit we run at with a medium downforce level. Monaco is super high and everywhere else we’ve visited so far is high, so it will be interesting to validate our performance with lower downforce levels on the car. There are similarities to Monaco; no real high speed corners, with most turns taken in first or second gear and the kerbs used for the majority of them. As most of the corners are chicanes, you have a set-up trade-off between sufficient roll stiffness to allow the driver to have a sharp car for change of direction, but with suspension soft enough to ride over the kerbs. The track used to be very bumpy – especially under braking – but recent resurfacing has improved this enormously. Talking of brakes, they’re used rather a lot around Montreal? It’s the highest brake energy circuit of the year, but this won’t pose any significant problems. In years gone by we would have spent a lot of the weekend focusing on brake wear and ensuring we weren’t running too hot. Brake disc development over the past five years means this isn’t an issue or concern anymore. Our focus will be ensuring the brake temperatures are in the optimal range for operation and ensuring the brakes are matched at both front and rear for stability. Let’s talk about tyres... Traditionally this circuit is fairly easy on tyres thanks to a smooth track surface. We’ll use Pirelli’s super soft and medium compounds to the original, non-revised 2013 constructions for the race. In the practice sessions we will have an opportunity to sample some development tyres; two sets per driver with a new rear construction. What about race strategy? Last year was a mixture of one and two stop strategies and it’s reasonable to expect a similar approach this year; depending on the conditions experienced in the race of course. For Romain we will be looking at all the options and seeing if there’s anything different we can do to help vault him up the order, as he will be starting out of position thanks to his penalty. We went well with both cars last year and there’s nothing to suggest we shouldn’t go well this year. It’s fair to say the weather can sometimes throw a curve ball in Canada? The weather can be pretty variable and it’s not unlike Melbourne in this regard; it can be really hot one day, then freezing cold the next day. Average temperatures would be in the mid 20s, but you can have 15C or 30C. What about the groundhogs? Fortunately we don’t see too much wildlife on track, but it is a circuit where we tend to pick up a lot of debris – whether from the long straights or the park location – and this is something we factor in when setting cooling levels, as car temperatures will increase during the race through radiator blockage from rubber, leaves and other assorted debris. Anything new to bolt on the car? We have a revised aero package, with track specific front and rear wings as well as an update to the floor. There aren’t too many changes for this race, but looking ahead to the subsequent Grand Prix we have a revised bodywork package for Silverstone.