Monaco: Button Qualifying Q&A


By Phil Huff
May 23 2009

Jenson Button followed his fourth pole position of the year by spending half an hour with the media, talking of how important Monaco is, as well as wider F1 issues. Here's what the Brawn GP driver, and championship leader, had to say.

Jenson, this is the big one, this is Monaco. To some extent your home grand prix and one of the most demanding grand prix circuits on the calendar. What does this pole mean to you?

Yeah, I mean they all mean a lot. I have got to stop saying that, but they do and today was a really tight fight as well. All through the weekend I have been fighting with Rubens or Rubens has definitely had the upper hand. The McLarens have been up there, the Ferraris have been up there, the Red Bulls, the Williams. It has been a fun weekend I think for everyone involved and hopefully the viewers. And qualifying was no different. It was manic as it always is in Monaco I suppose but great to come away with pole. I was right on the edge on that lap and to snatch pole I am chuffed to bits.

It looks from the outside to be a well paced weekend as the track picked up grip on Thursday where you were a little bit in the background. But as the track got faster today in Q1 and Q2 and building up to that perfect lap in Q3. Was it perfect?

Well, it might look like it from the outside but l was a long way off in P1 on Thursday and really didn't know where we were. I had very low grip but worked with the balance a lot and all the way through the weekend we just improved it little by little bit and that is the great thing with this car. If I was driving last year's car and I started Thursday as we were then I would have massively struggled. But this car listens to changes. It is great to be on pole especially around a circuit like this. Obviously with the history that is involved with Monaco but also because this is a tough circuit. Mentally it is very tough, so it is nice to be on pole.

Try to describe for us the treadmill you are on right now. It looks unstoppable from the outside. Do you allow yourself to enjoy moments like this or do you just focus on the race tomorrow?

Of course you enjoy the moment but it is strange as it is a lot more stressful than you think. It might sound silly but it is and you want to stay in this position obviously and anything less is a downfall I suppose. This part of the season it is really important for me to be at the front and to pick up the points and tomorrow is going to be a tough race and Rubens has been very strong this weekend and Kimi also, so it is not going to be easy. I know it is difficult to overtake here but for sure it is not going to be easy. But the way things are going this season it is a great feeling and hopefully it will continue. I have got to thank all the guys at Brackley who have done a fantastic job and Mercedes Benz, so yeah, thanks again and hopefully we can have a good day tomorrow.

How exciting was that lap? Tell us about it.

Yeah, it was pretty much on the edge. I thought I was going to be in the harbour at one point. It was a good lap and I really did get everything out of the car. It is the best lap I have done this weekend. On Thursday I struggled a little bit to get to grips with the car and the circuit. But we have done a lot of work since then and the car came to me in qualifying. We had a few problems that we needed to sort out and we did through the session. The car was great in Q3 and it was definitely one of the best laps I've ever done for sure.

You say you have made a lot of changes since Thursday as you were not happy with the car. How much did you change it from this morning to this afternoon?

We changed a few things. I was really struggling just having no front end on the car. High speed corners and a little bit low speed apexes, so we changed a few things and it has improved the car dramatically especially on the prime tyre. I couldn't get the prime tyre to work all weekend. I was a second off Rubens on the prime tyre, so we got it to work and the option was the same, so I'm so happy to be on pole here. It is a fantastic feeling because it was really on the edge the whole lap, every single corner, so it was a fantastic, enjoyable lap for me for sure.

It does seem to be one of the attributes of the car that it does react to changes?

Yeah, that is one of the things about the cars for the last couple of years. If we started with a bad car here then we would race with a bad car. With this car you can change the set-up and it listens to the changes which is fantastic, obviously, good or bad. And they are always going to be good. But yeah, it is so important the racing car and I really feel at home in this car. Even when things are bad you know you can make them better, so I am very happy. Very happy for myself and for the whole team and Rubens has been so bloody quick all weekend which is good for me. Having a team-mate who is not pushing you but is in front of you for the whole weekend does spur you on.

You talked in Spain about changing your driving style here. How much have you done that?

I tried that in the first session and it didn't really work. I sort of scraped a few barriers with the rear of the car and it looked pretty cool but the lap time wasn't there. I found a reasonably good balance. We have just got to make sure that we look after the tyres in the race as I am damaging the rears a little bit. But hopefully it will be a different situation in the race and I think it will be. I am pretty happy with where we are.

You have had two points' scores here in eight races, so it hasn't been a lucky circuit for you.

It hasn't but 2004 was pretty good. I finished second. In the melee of safety cars I think we probably lost that race. But I enjoy driving around here. With a bad car it is very tough but when you get a good car and you get the set up right it is such a buzz. It is such an adrenalin rush to get a lap out of a car around here as the whole time you are on the edge. There were a few corners when I thought I was going to be in the wall. I don't know if it was the same for these two but it was for me. But I got the lap done, so I am very happy.

In Q2 you did 1m15.016s and in Q3 you did 1m14.902s. Can you explain this please?

No, not really. I think I just went quicker, I suppose. Q3 is the one that matters. In Q2 I did struggle with a bit of understeer. I was behind another car on my lap which cost me some time. I was a little bit scared that I wasn't going to make it through Q2 but I did and Q3 is the important one. For sure, I pushed harder in Q3 than I did in Q2. The fuel effect wasn't anywhere near like I thought it was going to be. I was able to brake in similar places with higher fuel as I was with lower fuel, so I don't quite understand that. Yeah, I just pushed that little bit harder. If I was 95 percent in Q2, I was 100 percent in Q3. I couldn't have got anything else out of it. I have been nowhere near Rubens through the swimming pool but I drove as fast as I could through there and yeah, I thought I was going to end up in Flavio's (Briatore) boat which he would not have been very happy with. It was a good lap, I was very happy with it.

You made a big deal about being aggressive over the past few races. You touched on it just before saying you found a balance in the car. Are you going to have to return to your smooth driving action, now that you've got pole? Do you just want to stay out ahead of everyone or are you going to have to be right on the edge the whole way through?

You've got to be on the edge but you've got to think in a different way than you do in qualifying because in a way you've to look after the tyres, you have to also be on the edge, so it's a difficult one. But you can't be touching any barriers in the race because that would screw your race. You have to drive a little bit differently than in qualifying and I will drive as quickly as I can, obviously within the limits. You've got to respect the barriers. I hit one on Thursday, I only just tapped it, but it bent something on the car, a track rod. Yeah, I will be staying away from them, for sure.

We talk about this place being the most important race on the calendar to get the pole. You've got it here today, and now with the race strategy the race is in your hands. Can you tell us how you go to bed tonight considering that you wait all your career to get pole at Monaco and going into the race tomorrow, people at home are going to be so excited about what's going to happen?

Well, honestly, I didn't… this might be a negative attitude but I honestly didn't think I was going to outqualify Rubens today but I have, so I'm very, very happy and I'll go to bed happy but also already thinking about tomorrow. This circuit is very unusual, it's different to any other circuit. People will say if you're quick round Monaco you're a master and what have you but I don't think that's the case. I think it's just different to other circuits, it takes a little bit of a different driving style and that's it really. Some drivers might be very quick for the rest of the season and they're not so quick around here. It's just the way it is. But I'm very happy that I've worked closely with the team and Rubens over this weekend and I've been able to get the best out of the car and put it on pole. I'm not thinking about tomorrow yet. That will be when I get back to the team. It's not over yet; starting on pole is obviously an advantage, that's why we get so happy about the best lap in qualifying but it's a long race and anything can happen, as they always say. We don't know what fuel other people are on. I don't know what fuel Kimi's on, we'll find out soon, but they might be much longer than us which would obviously make them more competitive than us. We have to wait and see and as you might have seen in practice, there's been a lot of graining on these tyres, especially the rears, so that's going to come into play. The Ferrari seems good on the harder of the two tyres, maybe quicker than what I've been, so it's going to be an exciting race. Some people say Monaco can be a procession but I don't think that will be the case. There will be a lot of marbles, I think there will be quite a few mistakes tomorrow with the tyres graining, so it will be an exciting race, I think we will put on a good show for the fans.

In the last two races you've arrived and the car hasn't really been working for you and you've had to work quite hard to get yourself into a position to challenge, so I wonder if you could say a little bit about whether that gives you great satisfaction at the end of it to then be sitting here and looking good for tomorrow, and also just talk a little bit about the confidence that you need to drive you through that process.

Turning up at the first races and qualifying on pole and winning that race was the same sort of feeling as I've had this weekend, to a much bigger extent, obviously. But with it being so difficult over the last couple of years and winning the first race this year was a magnificent feeling and this weekend has been a little bit like that in a way because I struggled on Thursday, then got to grips with the car and everything's come together in qualifying. We need to look at why we're turning up and I'm not happy with the car to start with. Obviously I'll sit down with my engineers and we'll all go through it but they've done a great job to put me in this position, we've all worked very hard on improving the car. I have quite a lot of confidence, obviously, so far this season, but you take every race as it comes and even though I've won four races this year you still come here and think I've got to win this race, I've got to get on pole, and if you don't, you think of it as a little bit of a failure. You take every race as it comes. Even if I hadn't had the first five races, I would have confidence but you never know what's going to happen.

Monaco is really difficult to overtake, sometimes it makes for a really boring race. Does it mean that's perfect for you?

It's perfect for the guy that starts on pole always. You think that going into the race, but as I said, anything can happen. The first lap of the race is always exciting for us all. If there is a car that can overtake us it will for sure be a car with KERS. There are a couple of places on the circuit where there is always that possibility. The first few laps are important but the way the system is now with fuel, going into qualifying, Kimi might be running five laps longer than us on the first stint which might work better, might work in his favour, might not. We have to see, so it's not as easy as just qualifying on pole and you've won the race. But it won't be a boring race, I don't think so.

Rubens mentioned that he has got at least one fresh set of soft tyres. How is it with you and is this a big advantage to have a new one left for the race or a disadvantage if you don't?

Yeah, it matters when you're going to use it in the race, for sure. If you're going to use it at the start, your first pit stop, your second pit stops, your third pit stop, whatever. We have to wait and see. But yeah, I have one set of the super soft tyres left.

Could you explain the difference between the preparations for Sunday's race now you're on pole compared to the races last year? Is it more exciting or are you just more focused on the race or do you sleep as you do every day?

I always sleep very well. It's a much nicer position, for sure, especially round Monaco, to be at the front because there can be mayhem around here. People know that it's difficult to overtake, so everything happens on the first lap. It's much nicer being at the front, as it always is. Last year I had a lot of accidents, more than I've had in my whole career and it's because I know how important it was to fight my way through, on the first couple of laps. So yeah, it's a nice position to be in and I'm sure every driver will say the same, it's pretty normal.

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