Question: Jenson, explain the problems with the car at the moment, because obviously there are some fairly major issues. What can you say?
Jenson Button: It’s pretty simple really; we’re not quick enough. We’re not producing enough grip I suppose, for the drag. We can be reasonably quick in a straight line but the car is pretty difficult to drive and we can’t do a corner the same twice, pretty much, in a race. It is very difficult to be consistent. Or you can put a bit more downforce on and then we’re nowhere because we don’t have the straight line speed. So we’re a little bit stuck really. It is frustrating for everyone in the team, not just myself, but this is what we have at the moment. We just have to do the best job we can until we get something better.
Question: Is it better or worse on certain tracks? Better or worse in race conditions than in qualifying?
Jenson Button: It’s easier in qualifying because you just have to do it once but in the race it’s a much more difficult car to drive. We had a reasonable race in Malaysia from where we started on the grid, and Rubens did also, but I don’t think that really reflects our performance. I think that maybe other people didn’t have such a good race and we got the best out of what we had.
Question: Rubens has been complaining about stability under braking, as he was this time last year, but I understand it’s a different problem?
Jenson Button: It’s a slightly different problem! No, we are struggling with braking stability but that’s not the only thing. It’s very difficult to pinpoint one problem with the car. Under braking you have a stability problem at the rear, at the apex you have another problem and traction is not fantastic. But that’s what happens. Everything seems like it’s not working. It seems like the traction control is not the best TC that we’ve had and other parts of the car are the same. The package at the moment is not that great and as soon as we find more grip and downforce for the same sort of efficiency, I think all the other problems will fade away.
Question: Nick, what are the plans for curing the problems?
Nick Fry: It’s not really one thing unfortunately, as Jenson said. The car is just short of grip. It’s principally an aerodynamic issue although there are some mechanical changes we also want to make to the car. We will make some changes at Barcelona, principally a large number of aerodynamic parts. There will be more for Canada and we are in the process of testing those in the wind tunnel and elsewhere. There will be more after that, probably in Magny-Cours. I think it’s just going to be a series of rolling changes, if you like, rather than one change which is going to fix the problem.
Question: So rumours of a new car are greatly exaggerated?
Nick Fry: I think it depends on what you mean by a new car. There are large parts of the car where we don’t have any specially identified problem. The gearbox seems to work, the engine – with the exception of this afternoon – has been pretty reliable, the main part of the monocoque, albeit that we may have to alter things to make some changes to the aerodynamic shape. As far as we can tell, the rear suspension seems perfectly okay. We are going to have to change a reasonable amount. I wouldn’t call it a new car but it’s not going to be insubstantial either.