Q+A Albers
At Imola last weekend, Christijan Albers earned MF1 Racing its best chunk of TV coverage of the year. Unfortunately, it was for all the wrong reasons. And since the team hadn’t thought of selling sponsorship space of the floor of the car, it wasn’t fully able to take advantage of the unusual position Christijan found himself in following a disastrous encounter with Yuji Ide…
But seriously, everyone was very happy to see Christijan clamber completely unhurt from his upturned car after that first lap barrel roll. That he emerged from the cockpit without so much as a scratch was a testament both to the strength of the M16 chassis and the effectiveness of all the safety systems introduced by the FIA over the years. A nudge from Ide was the last thing Christijan needed after problems in qualifying had compromised what until then had been a promising weekend. He’s now looking forward to getting back into action in the next race at Nurburgring, a track he has raced on many times throughout his career.
A very short race for you! What’s the verdict?"I have to say that I find it quite strange that if you roll over a few times, everybody wants to talk to you again. The last time I got so much attention was in 2003 and 2004, when I was a frontrunner in DTM…"
How disappointing was it to end your day so early?"You know, the thing I’m most disappointed in is Saturday, because of the qualifying. I was so strong the whole weekend. We had an electronic problem on Friday, and we didn’t know exactly what it was. We had it just once, but it went away. And then we had this problem in qualifying. We could have been even quicker than we were on Saturday morning [16th with a lap time of 1m25.8s], but we didn’t get the chance. It prevented me from doing a normal, reasonable lap time. Instead I had a weak lap time of 1m27.0s on my second timed lap with new tyres, after I couldn’t do a first timed lap because the engine software was holding back the power. It was only using seven cylinders instead of eight!"
So of course, you should have been higher up the grid…"Yes, if that hadn’t happened, I think I could have been into the second session, and I wouldn’t have been so close to the Super Aguris. And I wouldn’t have to be on the strategy I was on - heavy on fuel, which also didn’t help me with the start. The problem with the Super Aguris is they take a lot of risks at the start, because they want to be in front of us, and Ide just drove into the back of me. For me it’s just a race incident – everybody else thought it was a little bit stupid, but I don’t want to get involved with that."
What goes through your mind when you’re flipped upside down and you didn’t even know what’s happened?"I didn’t see anything coming and then I just started to roll, but I knew it was Ide behind me. Nothing went through my mind, because it all happened really quickly and then it was over. For me, it’s OK to have a crash like that because I remained alert, and it also made me aware again of how safe F1 is. So it only makes me want to jump back in, go quicker and closer to the limit again."
Four races in, and you haven’t got much to show for it. But have you seen some real potential in the car and the team?"The team is working really hard, and we’re doing everything possible with the budget we have. I have to say, everyone is doing a great job. But we have to fight more and more, and it’s never good enough. What we have seen is that we have to improve our starts. We’re testing this week [at Silverstone] with a full programme. We saw on Saturday morning that we were competitive; my car was right up there. We just couldn’t attack during first qualifying and we left the results at home. We have to push extra hard to get nearer to the top again."
Obviously you were with another team in 2005, but from what you’ve seen, has the team made a big step since last season?"Yeah, for sure. You can’t compare things here with what I had at Minardi last year. This car has got much more downforce, and it’s much better to drive. It’s also a really good team, with a lot of smart people. But of course you also can’t compare us with a top team, because a top team has a much bigger budget."
But were you impressed when you arrived at Imola and saw the new trucks, which are as good as any in the paddock?"Midland is really improving everything within the team, and we’re trying to be as good as our competitors. But we have to do it in steps, because we don’t have the resources to do it as quickly as the others. But we’re going to fight and get some good results before too long, so don’t worry!"
