(Continued from previous post)
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Will Buxton - Australasian Motorsport News) Just a few words from all four on the current level of safety and the job that the FIA does to ensure you guys are all safe over a grand prix weekend.
HK: As I have said already, I think all the parts of the accident - the car, the barrier and then the lift from the car and to the medical centre and then further to the medical centre in the city - that all worked very well. It is not only luck that I came out of the crash. It is really the work that has paid off. I can't be more than thankful about that. But we should carry on working on improving as much as we can. If there are any other areas we think we can improve then we should go for it.
RK: I think similar to Heikki. The FIA has done a fantastic job. His accident and my accident in Canada have shown that safety standards in F1 are very high and we have people working on it trying to improve more. I think these two accidents have shown that standards are very high.
JB: Everything that has been said. It is great that all the time we are taking a view to try and help safety. As the Grand Prix Drivers' Association that's our main aim as well. It is good that we are all working together for a safer sport. It is never going to be the safest sport in the world, we all know that. But there are certain things we can work on to not take away the excitement but to make the sport a little bit safer.
KN: Same for everybody. Safety has improved a lot. It is good to work together with the FIA and the drivers to help improve. We just need to do that.
Q: (Will Buxton - Australasian Motorsport News) For Jenson, Robert and Heikki: Jenson, Monaco 2003, Robert last year in Canada, and Heikki in Spain. I believe all three of you lost consciousness and had no real recollection of the crashes that you had. Having no recollection, how much does that actually help you get over it, not having the mental image in your mind of exactly how it all played out?
JB: I think when you walk away and you're fine the next day, you get over it very quickly. So obviously if you have an injury you think about it more, but when the accident's happened, you know you've walked away from a situation which you probably didn't think you would walk away from. You have a lot of confidence in the car that you're driving and the circuits that you're racing on.
RK: I think very similarly. It was a bit different in my case, I think, because I remember most of my accident. When I was asked if I had seen my accident, I saw it for real. It was just what Jenson said: it gives you more confidence and in some ways you are lucky but in other ways it shows how safe Formula One is and how strong F1 cars are.
HK: All I should really add is that I don't think I lost consciousness at any point. The first people who arrived at the scene reported me being awake and assisting getting myself out of there but I don't have any idea, I don't remember that. But after such a hit on the head, I think it's a bit of a shutdown by the body to protect your brain and your organs. I don't have any issues with that. It would be good if one day the whole image came back into my head. I don't think I would have any problem with that, but at the moment all that I can talk about is what I saw on the video.
Q: (Marc Surer - Premiere TV) Heikki, another question. The first moment when you were stuck in the tyres, did you have the tyres on your head, do you remember that? You were stuck in the car, or you don't remember that at all?
HK: Yeah, I've obviously seen it on the images, that the tyres were over me and I sort of penetrated through the tyre wall, but I don't remember that moment.
Q: (Marc Surer - Premiere TV) Did you have marks on your helmet?
HK: Yes, quite a lot of marks, but I think the helmet did its work, it took the impact very well and I didn't have any injuries to my head, that's the most important thing.
Q: (Marc Surer - Premiere TV) Jenson, you mentioned the tyres just now. You have hard tyres here and last year it was 50 degrees on the asphalt, now we maybe have 20-something. Do you think it will be a problem to get the hard tyres up to temperature?
JB: I think it's going to be very different, for sure, but in the winter we do a lot of testing in colder temperatures and we are able to get tyre temperature, but it's just going to be very different to what we're used to here. The tyres are obviously going to work in a very different way and over the next two days, that's what we're going to be working on and working with. The information from last year will also be useful but it's going to be very different to what we'll experience this year, for sure, both tyres (compounds), not just one tyre.
Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Heikki, was that the first black-out of your career and was that the most serious accident that you've had?
HK: I think it's yes to both question. I haven't had a black-out before. I've had a couple of serious accidents before but I never knocked myself out like that and therefore it's got to be the most serious accident so far.
Q: (Dominic Fugere - Le Journal de Montreal) Question for all four of you: I would like you to fast forward one month from now and just give me a quick answer: if I say to you Montreal, what do you reply?
JB: Great, great steak, fantastic steak. Four weeks from now, I wouldn't have a clue. I think we will have a greater understanding of the title contenders. For us, as a team, I think you will see us improving, for sure, not enough to fight with the title contenders, but improving all the same.
Q: I just wanted a quick word association, that was all.
JB: Steak was my quick answer. There are loads of good restaurants. There's one called Buena Notte which is fantastic.
KN: Well, ...
JB: Girls, girls, that's a good one.
KN: The views.
HK: I don't know, I don't know what to say. It's a great city, great circuit but there's no point in looking too much into the future. I'd rather live in the present time and try to make the right decisions in every-day life, whether it's racing or normal life.
RK: It's not one of my favourite race tracks.
Q: (Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News) Heikki, you were awake, but what was your first memory after the accident?
HK: I remember being in intensive care in the hospital in the city, a lot of people around me. I was a bit confused what had happened, so I asked my team doctor Mr Hintsa 'what are we doing here?' and he explained what happened and then after that, the memory has been normal and I was aware of everything after that. That's where I got back on track.
Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto Moto und Sport) Heikki, the tyres did a good job in terms of deceleration but on the other hand it took quite a while before they dug you out of there. Is that a worry?
HK: Yeah, of course, it's something that we all should look very carefully at and see if there are better compromises but luckily I had no injuries and I was not in a hurry to get out of there, my life was not threatened because of that, so in this case, the tyres did the work very well. But had I injured myself while hitting the barrier, maybe then it was more important to get myself out of there quickly and it would have been a bit marginal. It's something we should have a look at.
Q: (Heinz Prüller - ORF) Can I ask you a private question: it's Mothers' Day on Sunday, can I have a few words from you about your early days, the first help your mother gave you, maybe sacrificing or giving you your first car to drive, helping you in your career, whatever?
JB: Whoops. Is it Mothers' Day on Sunday? OK. I think we can say that our mums have been a big part of our lives. Yeah, my Mum is a big fan of racing... you can ask her, she's going to be in Monaco. She's been a big fan of my racing, been a big supporter. She's kept my feet on the ground for sure.
KN: Right, I didn't know that, I'm afraid. Yeah, when I was doing go-karting my mother was always taking me to the track and taking me home again. She was helping me a lot, so that was the biggest contribution from my mother.
HK: Well, obviously she's always been very interested in what all of the kids in our family are doing and she's always supported myself. I think on Sunday she was actually working while I was racing. My dad called her and told her that 'Heikki's had an accident' and she was like 'OK'. And then she got home and actually saw what happened and she went a bit crazy, but she's just about recovered now. I think I should try to give her a better Mothers' Day present rather than a call from hospital to say 'I had a crash.'
RK: Well, I think a mum is quite an important person for everybody here, one of the most important in my life and thanks to my mum and my father I am here.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti - Corriere della Sera) Jenson, it is said that Honda didn't want the Super Aguri team any longer. What can you say about that, and how bad is it for Formula One to lose a team during the season?
JB: Personally, I think you need to speak to Oshima-san or Nick Fry who will be here over the weekend. They will be able to give you a much better answer than I can. But obviously for the drivers, for Takuma and Anthony, I'm very sorry for them, because I'm sure it's very difficult doing the first few races and then not having a job racing in F1 from then on, so really just sorry to those guys and hopefully they can get back into Formula One in the future.
Q: (Dominic Fugere - Le Journal de Montreal) To go back to the safety barrier, would you guys feel happier if you had a safety barrier which didn't have bits and pieces flying off; that there was just foam behind a steel wall as is being used in America?
JB: I think the angles at which we hit the wall are far greater than what they do in America, on the ovals. I think if any of us had hit a safer barrier, it wouldn't have been that safe, the speed and the angle at which we would have hit it. What do you think, Heikki?
HK: Yeah, I agree with that answer exactly. I think we probably should look more individually at the most dangerous corners. We can see ourselves which are the most critical places and probably make decisions accordingly and it's not that straightforward, just adding some kind of wall here and everywhere. It's not that simple. For myself, at Turn Nine in Barcelona, it worked very well this time and we've just got to see if we can do anything better and look at other corners as well.
Q: (Marco Degl'Innocenti - La Gazzetta dello Sport) I'm not sure I caught what you said before: you said that your first memory after the accident was in the hospital? But we saw you raising your hand when they took you away from the circuit. At that moment, what were you thinking? Were you not awake?
HK: Exactly what I said before: I have no idea about waving my hand but also the fact, as I said earlier, that I never lost consciousness. I was awake all the time assisting the people helping me, I told them to take my crash helmet off, I assisted them by telling them I had no injuries, I was OK, just that the brain was confused and I didn't record anything on my hard drive, if you like. Then, when things calmed down a bit and the brain started working again, that was back in the hospital in the town and since then it's all been OK. But it's good for you if I waved, and I guess I felt everything was fine.
SOURCE: F1 Official Website
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