Molson Indy Montreal Top Three Qualifying Transcript
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS
ORIOL SERVIA
PAUL TRACY
MERRILL CAIN:
Ladies and Gentlemen, let's go ahead and get started with
our top three post qualifying press conference following the opening
round of qualifying for the Molson Indy Montreal, Round 10 of the
Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.
We'll start out first with Paul Tracy, driver of the #3 Indeck
Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone for Forsythe Championship Racing. Paul
had a top lap of 1:22.400 seconds, a speed of 118.354 miles per hour. He
turned that on his seventh lap of the session. Paul Tracy's top
qualifying effort came here last year where he finished fifth in
qualifying.
Paul, talk to us about your session today. Very quick in the practice
sessions. How did things pan out in the abbreviated qualifying session?
PAUL TRACY:
I think it went well. Obviously, our plan was to go at the
beginning really to capitalize on the clear track. You know, the car was
good, but still lacking a little bit of grip that we need to do the kind
of time that obviously the Newman/Haas guys did. We need to do some work
overnight. Balance is pretty good. Just lacking a little bit of grip.
So, we'll keep working at it.
MERRILL CAIN:
Obviously the session was halted with the accident with
Andrew Ranger. What was left for you? What was your plan from that
point?
PAUL TRACY:
Well, obviously we had another set of tires. We went early,
so we had made a pretty big change to the car in the direction we feel we
needed to go. We didn't get a chance to try that. But, you know, we'll
work on it again tomorrow in practice and try to make it better.
Hopefully tomorrow we'll have two shots at it.
MERRILL CAIN:
Paul, as we talked about, this is a place where you
haven't had the results you've been hoping for. Qualified fifth last
year. What do you attribute that to? Why do you think you haven't been
able to produce as well as you'd like to here?
PAUL TRACY:
Obviously, a lot of it comes down to balance and car setup
and having the car right. I just haven't had the car the way I've wanted
it to feel here in the years that we've run. I mean, my best finish is a
fourth. We were on schedule for a fourth in '03 but ran out of fuel on
the start/finish straightaway.
You know, things could be a little bit better, but I feel I've got a
better car this year than I had in previous years. We need to close the
gap a little bit.
MERRILL CAIN:
Paul Tracy qualifying third in the opening round of
qualifying here for the Molson Indy Montreal. We talked about the
accident with Andrew Ranger. We will give you an update as soon as we
know anything on Andrew's condition. He was transported to the local
medical unit here, the Champ Car medical unit. As soon as we do have an
update, we will pass that along to you in the media.
Sebastien Bourdais is your top qualifier today on Friday, driver of the
#1 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone for Newman/Haas Racing.
Sebastien had a top time today of 1:21.924 seconds, a speed of 119.042
miles per hour. Turned that on his seventh lap, as well. Sebastien won
the pole here last year, led the first 26 laps of the race before contact
with AJ Allmendinger ended his day.
Sebastien, pretty quick day for you so far. Talk about how your
qualifying panned out.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
Well, we left the McDonald's car the way we left it
last year. The balance is really good. I'm happy. Oriol is very fast,
too. It was close during this run. I made a small mistake, but really
not very far from what I was going to do.
You know, just a very good feeling to be able to secure a front-row start
like that. It's obviously extremely important to secure a front start
position like that for us from now on, just to get the points we can. If
we can grab a win, great. If we can't, we just move on and just think
"championship." That's not part of the plan, but maybe.
MERRILL CAIN:
As Sebastien points out, he earned a championship point
for leading today's round of qualifying, also locks up a front-row
starting spot. Sebastien on quite a roll as of late. Three wins in a
row, going for four this weekend.
If we look ahead to starting on the front row on Sunday, what is it going
to take for you to bring home your fourth straight here?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
I don't know. I think just a bit of not luck but
maybe good fortune because we've really run out of luck during the last
two races here, had a differential failure in 2003, which really never
happened, except when Oriol joined the team in Portland or
something like that.
No, it's been quite frustrating for us. Last year we had a very good
car, dominated the weekend, and couldn't go home with anything with the
incident with AJ. Hopefully we can bring it home this time and score big
points. That's all we're asking for.
Tomorrow, I don't exactly know what qualifying is going to look like, but
I think the car is good. Just going to try to make it even better.
MERRILL CAIN:
Sebastien's teammate, Oriol Servia, driver of the #2
PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone for Newman/Haas Racing, posted
a top lap today of 1:22.010 seconds, a speed of 118.917 miles per hour.
Turned that on his seventh lap. Started second here in 2003, finished
second. His best finish here in Montreal.
Oriol, how did things pan out for you? Obviously very quick throughout
the day.
ORIOL SERVIA:
Yeah, very good. The car is obviously good. My car,
PacifiCare won here last year. Sebastien was leading easy. Obviously,
Newman/Haas has pretty good setup here. They tend to figure out things
quickly. Here is definitely good place. It's been good for me in the
past.
I don't want to be overconfident, but I have the feeling we're going to
be in good shape. We are obviously I think 4/10ths clear of everybody
else. It's very impressive for the team. Just happy. This morning,
every time I had a good lap I finished, and I had the red flag, so didn't
count. In qualifying, I had a good lap the last lap that I thought
looked like was going to beat Sebastien, but ran out of fuel in the last
corner, so I had to stop.
But it's okay. I'm happy that the car is good. I still have tomorrow and
Sunday. Things are going well. Very happy. Hopefully we're going to be
on the podium again.
MERRILL CAIN:
As Oriol pointed out, the PacifiCare car last year
obviously winning with Bruno Junqueira, ably filling in this season Oriol
Servia for the injured Bruno.
As you look at the results here today, obviously you didn't get as many
laps as you wanted with the abbreviated qualifying session. Did you feel
you had a car for pole today?
ORIOL SERVIA:
Oh, for sure. I mean, I'm only 9/100ths behind, so for
sure was. As I said, the last lap was going to be faster than that. Car
was good. From here we just need to keep working for qualifying, but
also for the race because it is quite a tough race on the tires. The new
concrete areas makes it a little more funny out there.
But, you know, obviously doing a good job. Sebastien is up there
comfortable in the championship. I'm catching PT. It's making it
interesting for the fans. We'll see what happens on Sunday.
MERRILL CAIN:
Very good. Congratulations. Good job all three of you
guys.
Let's open it up for questions.
Q:
Paul, I think you answered this for some of the local media
yesterday, but could you talk, what would it take for you to get back
into contention for the championship at this point with five races to
go?
PAUL TRACY:
Well, I mean, it's just simple mathematics: we have to win
and Sebastien has to have some trouble. It didn't go that way today, but
we have to keep pushing. You know, the bottom line is we have to score
as maximum amount of points as we can, out-score Sebastien by quite a
lot.
It's going to be -- it's not going to be easy. It's going to be hard
work. But that's what we're here to do, to try to do that.
Q:
Sebastien, how much performance do you feel has been left in the car
with the abbreviated session? Where would you have been able to get?
We're still far away from last year...
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
We're going to be far away this year just because of
these concrete patches and also because of the new design of the fast
chicane. You just have to go around these big curves something like 15,
20 miles slower than it used to be. There's going to be some definite
big gap between the performance of last year and this year.
But I don't know what was left in it. It's just extremely difficult to
evaluate how much the track is going to pick up between one run and
another. I just don't know.
I know I made a small mistake, probably 2/10ths of a second. You know,
we'll see tomorrow what the performance is like.
PAUL TRACY:
I think if you look at the qualifying from F1 from previous
years, I think the lap record is 11 or 12. They were 15s this year.
Q:
Big change in the car.
PAUL TRACY:
Big change in the track, too. Obviously, they've been
pretty close in terms of speed everywhere else where they go. Yesterday
Montoya broke the lap record at Monza. The car is not much slower than
it used to be. The performance of our car is down to the track surface,
the concrete, the chicanes are slightly slower.
Q:
So the speeds we're seeing today should be around ballpark figure for
the pole tomorrow?
ORIOL SERVIA:
We're going to see improvement like any other car, 4 or
5/10ths, maybe a little bit more, but not huge.
Q:
Oriol, if things stay that way, you're in between Seb and PT, what
would you be willing to do to protect your teammate?
ORIOL SERVIA:
Protect?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
Are you kidding me? He's trying to kick my ass
(laughter).
ORIOL SERVIA:
My sponsor wants to win here (laughter).
I want to do the best I can. I think in the past, between teammates, you
don't try to screw each other, obviously. You help each other. If he
wants to have a bigger lead on Paul or me or whoever, and I want to be up
front... But, you know, I think we have to use common sense. You know,
first I have to beat PT in the points. I'm joking, but PT's always up
there, and he's going to be up there every race. It's going to be a
tough, tough race just to do that.
I have to have everything in mind. There's still five races to go.
We're all feeling it's close to the end, but there's still a lot. It's
third in the championship still.
MERRILL CAIN:
Quick update on Andrew Ranger. Good news. He has been
checked out and release d from the Champ Car medical unit. According to
Dr. Chris Pinderski, Champ Car's director of medical affairs. He is
clear to drive tomorrow, for the rest find weekend. Very good news.
Andrew checked out okay and has been released from the medical unit.
Q:
I'll get in trouble for asking this, but a 60% chance of rain on
Sunday. Do we even think about what this race is going to be like, what
you're going to have to think about?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
A big mess (laughter).
Q:
Can you expand on that, Sebastien?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
Well, obviously I think it's been a long while.
Yeah, what was it last time, like Australia 2003 I think is the last race
we had in the rain conditions. That was kind an event.
ORIOL SERVIA:
I don't remember (laughter).
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
It's extremely difficult here. You have walls on
both sides of the track. It's quite a tight asphalt. It's probably
going to stay on top of it. The speed is high, so the water is going to
go extremely high, too. Just past second place, probably nowhere to see
anything. So you can expect quite a few incidents to happen if it does
rain.
MERRILL CAIN:
Paul, Oriol, you care to comment on that?
ORIOL SERVIA:
I'm just sorry for the fans. The fans here are always
great. They come, especially Sunday, have big crowds. If it rains,
people get wet, nobody likes that. But hope it stays dry.
PAUL TRACY:
Yeah, I think the same for me. Obviously, we want it dry.
But I think the rain tire this year is a better tire than we've had in
years past. It's much softer. We'll wait and see what happens for
Sunday.
MERRILL CAIN:
Weatherman can always be wrong, as well.
Q:
You were saying Ranger has been cleared. Do you know what his
injuries were?
MERRILL CAIN:
I don't have that information. We can get that for you.
I mean, I don't know at this point. All I know is he's been checked out
and cleared to drive.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
I guess if he's been cleared, there's probably no
injury.
MERRILL CAIN:
Yes. Whatever he was complaining of, he was released.
Q:
Paul, does today represent a major setback in terms of what your
strategy was coming into the weekend? How disappointed are you? Do you
feel you can make up the ground?
PAUL TRACY:
I'm not disappointed. Obviously, it's a long race and
anything can happen. Proof of that is last week. We have to go out and
just push all the time and hope for the best. If it happens, it
happens.
But we're not going to give up and coast through the rest of the season.
We want to try to win some more races. At the end of the day, if it
happens for us, then that's great.
Q:
Seb, you two being first and second after day one, how does that set
up the weekend? How much does it tell you your cars are going to be
pretty dominant this weekend?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS:
I don't know. I think it's a tough course. I think
qualifying setup and race setup is significantly different here. I know
we're going to have the speed. It's all about being conservative enough
so you don't wear out the tires halfway through the first stint and
things like that. We just need to be on top of our game. It's obviously
the case right now, we need to keep on doing that.
MERRILL CAIN:
Champ Car practice begins tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., final
round of qualifying 2:00 p.m. Good luck tomorrow.
-ccws-
