CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 2, 2002

Cristiano da Matta

CRISTIANO da MATTA: No problem, thank you. Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon, everybody.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: (Laughs) Yes. It did yesterday. Actually I was -- I stayed in Chicago on Sunday night. I flew yesterday afternoon so yesterday morning I went walk around with my mom and dad because they stayed in Chicago because my mom didn't know the city. So I am walk racing around and I see a lot of people looking at me. I am thinking, wow, I am probably pretty beautiful, you know, really nice looking, and then I remember that I just remembered that it was my hair that was all weird and that's why everybody was looking at me. Then I said, geez, I have to do something. It wasn't a good experience going through security in the airport like that too.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I think the biggest difference from when I started, definitely is first the same experience with both teams I have driven for so far, PPI Motorsports where I started and Newman/Haas Racing. PPI I had a first year that wasn't -- it was okay rookie season but then the second year was a lot better. Same thing with Newman/Haas, I had an okay first year, of course a lot better than the one I had with PPI. The second year has been a lot better so far. I think that just shows how important it is when the team and yourself starts to understand what you need -- what kind of information you have to give one another, and when the team really start to understand what you want out of the car. So that's very important. I think it's like also how much teamwork motorsports is because if it wasn't teamwork it would go in a new team and do good right away. It's not like this. You always improve in the second year. I am sure if there's a third year it can be even better because it is just getting used to working together.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, this year especially we had a very good off-season. Of course in the off-season it always makes a lot of difference if you have a very good off-season or not. So we definitely had a very good off-season this year. And that, of course, we can show that on the results we have right now; how good the off-season was. So I think that's the main thing. I think there's a lot of very good other teams there. And if I knew exactly the reason why we are doing so much better than the others I won't be able to tell to everybody right now. But it's just hard work, I think. It is like -- not that the other ones aren't working hard. They are too, but it is just -- we had a couple of good things, very -- a couple of very good tests in the off-season. Now we're just collecting all the fruits that we were growing at that time.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: No, the team had a couple of changes inside, but always small changes. We never changed anything big. We still have the same chassis. Still have the same Toyota engine. Still have the same crews, the engineering group changed a little bit. But nothing -- we haven't made any major change. So it is just working together. Maybe the change on the engineering group it's a big factor because we brought in -- before the Newman/Haas engineers were all working together for a long period of time, so they were all used to think about, you know, on the ways of fixing a certain problems with the car handling, more or less in the same way, and one thing that was very good that the team hired a new engineer from other team and he came in with lots of new ideas, and I think that added a lot to the team. I think if I have to say, of course it is a combination of a lot of things, but if I have to name one thing I think that's going to be the biggest one.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: It was, of course, very, very reward especially we have had a very tough time on the ovals so far. Up to that weekend we were improving and improving and improving but we never felt like we were in that good of a shape up until qualifying. Then when qualifying came and we were able to qualify third, I thought, wow, we have a shot of winning this thing tomorrow. Of course, we were actually a little bit surprised because we didn't know that we had improved so much in the ovals. So it was very rewarding in many ways. First because of the engineering group, they did a great job, they did just a terrific job about setting up the car, you know, considering where we were at the beginning of the season and where we are right now, it is a long ways. The first of all race of the season we finished 15 laps down to the leader just so you think I am not exaggerating. And now we're up to win the race, so it is a big -- long way, so the engineering group did a great job on, you know, finding what was wrong in such a short period of time. And other one was my crew just, we had some terrific pit stops yesterday, so you add everything and it is just a great team win, you know, of course I wasn't doing as good on the ovals too and to conquer the victory yesterday, so it was just a good satisfying day for everybody.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, the CART FedEx Championship is very popular over there. Of course, with Gil deFerran winning the last two years it became even more popular. Now I am getting -- there's a lot of people commenting about this season, especially that me and Bruno Junqueira are running first and second right now. So that's attracting even more press and more fans than in the past. So I don't know. It's a good thing. I think as long as the Brazilians keep on doing a good job, they are always have huge fans there, but we're still quite a long ways to get to where our soccer is right now.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I think that's for sure the main factor. What Rocky did inside the team that was very, very interesting was before the -- the team has lots of engineers inside the team. But all of them have learned everything they know with Peter, that has been there for a long time. And if not, with Peter with Bryan Lyles (ph) which is another senior engineer we have on the team that has been there for a long time. So they all learned to think an approach situations in the same way. They are all very good, of course in what they do. But they all very used to doing everything in a very similar way. So it was the first time for the whole group that they were able to see different approach to different problems. I think that's what it counted.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: I have a very good feeling about the Toronto race. This type of track, it's a type of course that we have been running really well. The car has been running really well. As a team we have been strong in the street courses and the road courses a lot more than in the ovals, so I am feeling comfortable going in. I think we have a very good chance to do very well. It's always such a tough series -- such a tough competition because sometimes you think you are in good shape maybe end up 10th or whatever but I think we have a very good chance to be inside the Top-5 and be fighting for the lead at the end of the race.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: (Laughs) Yeah, I really meant that.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: All right. (Laughs).

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, we were in the improving process with our oval setup. Since Motegi we have been improving a lot. If you look back to the left, the race before Chicago, which was Milwaukee, I was running within the Top 6 up until I had a mechanical problem, and Christian finished fourth. So that's already a big improvement from Motegi. I just didn't believe that we were going to make that much more progress in that month off we had between Milwaukee, a month off -- off oval races but we had a couple of road racing, but I didn't think we were going to make that much progress. I think because last year we struggled so much in those type of tracks, I really didn't think the engineers were going to be able to find a good solutions for the problem in such a short period. They did. (Laughs). You know, I have to, you know, take my hat off to them, congratulate them for the great work they did, and that's -- that was all the difference. It was all understanding of the car and the ovals, understanding the aerodynamics and the mechanical grip and we were just getting closer and closer to be ultra competitive in the ovals.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I say yes, because to come -- I have seen teams be in a situation where we were, for example, with our ovals struggling bad, struggling so much that just sometimes you think back and you know, I am a huge race fan so I have seen teams in this situation before and I think every time I see a team in the situation like that, usually when it is so bad, when we were so slow like we were usually it takes like two years so you come out of it. So to do it -- to come out of that situation in like, in six months, it is just, for me, it -- they did a superb job, like they are very -- of course they are very proud of themselves right now and they should be because it's just -- it is unbelievable. I swear I didn't expect it. I got into Chicago and I was thinking, okay, if I finish this season Top-5 I am going to be doing fine because then next couple of races we're back to the road courses then I can start scoring big points again. But we won, so they impressed me. I think they are magic.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: No, I -- after the morning session I had the feeling for the car and the car was pretty good. So I knew I was going to have a shot for the pole. I was a little mad because I made a little mistake in my last lap, left corner on qualifying, and I lost the chance of being on pole. I was pretty mad at that time. But I didn't want to say anything because I wanted to try to surprise people. Because if I say I had the car to go for pole and I made the mistake, I didn't want to say that, otherwise, people would expect us to run good on the next day. I say no problem, I told the engineers what happened. I tried to push too hard coming out of Turn 4 and I lost the rear a little bit and correct it but I lost some time there. I kept it -- the team kept it to themselves. The guys told me, hey, you know that you are coming this much faster that lap, I said, yeah, I know, but sorry, I miss it. And I knew it was going to be good on Sunday.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thank you.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I think the rear wing is not bad. The rear wing seems to work fine in other tracks, like Japan, and Motegi, we had a lot of passing. Germany and England last year, and Milwaukee we had some passing too, it was just the Chicago track is a tough race to pass. I think the winning configurations maybe still not perfect but we're going the right way. I think the changes CART has been making they have been all very positive. And if you look right now, it's a lot better than last year. It's easier to pass than last year, but still not where we want it to be. The Chicago track is a tough track to pass. It is a tough track to drive so it makes it a tough track to pass too. That's the biggest thing. I think on the wing package we're going the right way. Maybe we still have some more to go but we're definitely heading the right way.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yes, I think also going into turn 7 it's a little bit more difficult than going into Turn 3 and going into Turn 1 but it is possible to pass there. I have seen passing there in the past, but it's not -- definitely not impossible, but it is difficult. For overtaking points for a street course it's pretty good. I think Toronto is probably actually the only street course, I think rather than Australia, they that offer us so many overtaking points.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thank you very much. Congratulations again. It's really a routine now.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thank you. I don't know whatever, but it's a good one.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: I think there's no -- nothing wrong with the wheel nut. I don't think there's anything wrong with the guns that we use to change the tires. It is just -- now we don't have to refuel the car all the 35 gallons the fuel tank can take. So what happens it's sometimes -- before you could take your time changing the tires because the fuel was going to take more time than tires anyway. So the fuel would be the determined factor for how long your stop was going to take. Now because you don't have to fuel the tank up, if you rush the tires you do gain time in your stop. I think everybody is just pushing harder and harder on trying to change the tires as quick as they can, and when you are pushing hard you are on the edge, it is just more likely to make mistakes.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: I am sure. It's probably one of the biggest strengths of Newman/Haas. It's definitely the crews we had. For my car and for Christian's car, they both have been there in Newman/Haas for a long time. They all know each other very well for a long time, and they have been practicing that together for a long time. So if you see a crew like Christian's do something like that, it's just happens, you know, it is just like sometimes a driver spins in a race, or, you know, right to right something wrong it is just -- it a human mistake. It's always going to happen.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: No, I am not thinking like this. I am thinking about what we can do to make my car better and what I can do to make my drive better. I am not thinking about people trying to catch me or trying to run away from people. I am just thinking about improving and I think once we -- if we do that, if we do it right, I think the result will come naturally, and we don't have to worry about that.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thank you very much.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I had success before in the oval. I just didn't have it last year and at the beginning of the season but I won the Chicago race before and I won Fontana last year too.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I always knew I could do the job. I never had any doubt about myself because I have won not only won but every previous series that I competed before the CART race I have won almost every Championship that I participated in before. So I knew I could have done the job, but the thing is you organize everything around you so you can do the job too. I think of course, your confidence -- once you get to a level like CART you have -- everybody that's there is because they have won a Championship or has dominated other series. So you are competing against guys that are pretty confident too, and very good too. So against those guys to get something extra, sometimes -- it's not that I had some doubt. I knew I could win races. I knew I could fight for the Championship, but to know that I am able to win those many races in a row, that increases my confidence because I didn't know that I was going to be able to do that.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, yeah, it's just -- I believe a little bit in those things like in the atmosphere inside the team, in the -- how positive everybody is about it, about the team, so I think about the races, about themselves, and I think it's not only for the driver, but for everybody. When you are doing something and you are not thinking, well, I am doing this right, and maybe this is the right thing to do. When you are thinking just I know I am doing this right because I won this and this and this and this in a row or I have won so much lately I am sure this is the right thing to do. It really makes a difference.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, it's the same kind of deal, like Brazilian players they are better than the Germans. It was just too, you know, be calm and do the job. So now that's the way we're thinking inside the team. We know we're very good and we know we have tough competition too but we can do it.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thank you, Merrill.