Q+A Tiago Monteiro
After a short but welcome break following the Malaysian Grand Prix, it was back to business in Melbourne on Friday. As usual, conditions at the Albert Park track changed as the cars put more rubber down, while cool temperatures and blustery conditions made life difficult for some teams.
Tiago Monteiro was the quickest of the MF1 drivers, finishing the afternoon session in 18th place. We asked him for his thoughts on the day, the season so far – and how he enjoyed his time off since Sepang!
You seem to have a bit of a tan! Have you had a nice holiday since the last race?“Just in the solarium! No, the truth is, I went to Bali with my trainer. We had a great time there, getting fit, trying to sort out my back, and relaxing. I loved the place. If you like surfing, it’s just paradise, and even if you don’t surf, it’s still very nice. It’s a big island, and you’ve got a lot of places to go. It’s not just beaches, there are a lot of lovely villages we went to visit.”
Were you able to switch off a bit, after such a hectic start to the season?“It was my first real week off since Shanghai last year! OK, I had a few days over Christmas, but since Shanghai, I’ve been flat out. Things like sponsor commitments, finalising new deals and finalising old deals, as well, working with the team, testing… I was so busy all winter; it was crazy. I thought I was going to be able to relax at some point, but I didn’t. So last week, I turned off a bit – no phone calls or anything!”
So how was your first day on track in Australia?“The track is not quite ‘there’ yet, but it’s getting there. Even though you know the track from last year, it’s always good to run on it again. It’s a very tricky, bumpy track. We realised what our weaknesses are very quickly, therefore we able to work on them today, and improve the car a great deal. I’m pretty glad with how the day went, and now we have some good information for tomorrow. But there’s still a lot to do.”
It’s a lot cooler than the first two races. How are the Bridgestone tyres here?“The tyre choice is not straightforward. Both tyres work very differently, and they each have their positive and negative points. It’s not an easy choice. So we’re going to have to be careful with the tyre choice.”
How would you sum up the start of the season?“We’ve been having a few issues – nothing really serious, but small things that have compromised us a bit. Then in Malaysia, I had my back problem, so it hasn’t been very easy. Performance wise, we’re not where we want to be at the moment, but to be fair, we haven’t really been able to use the potential yet. We know we’re going to have some updates that will come soon, so everybody’s looking forward to that.”
Can you see that the team has made a step forward since last year?“It’s definitely a step up. It doesn’t show up enough on the track, because everybody else did a step up as well, and there are no more small teams. Minardi is now part of a big corporation now, Aguri has Honda’s support, Sauber has made a big step forward with BMW, and Williams, who were struggling a bit, have come up again. So while it doesn’t show, we are a lot better than last year, definitely.”
You mentioned your back problem in Sepang. Have you had something like that before?“Yes, I had a similar thing happen in 2000 while I was driving in F3, but never since. So I’m surprised that it came back again like that. We think it might have happened because of Bahrain, when I did the race in the T-car with a bad seating position, because the car wasn’t ready for me. The whole race ended up being a very uncomfortable situation, so that probably didn’t help. But it’s OK now.”
