CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 13, 2001

Cristiano da Matta

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I felt personally a big, big improvement, especially on the last two months of the off-season testing. So as we started, of course, it starts everybody is new to everybody, so it was a little bit more difficult. But it wasn't a difficult start that I can call difficult anyway. It is the start and everything is not going as fast as -- when everybody of course is working with each other for a long time. So after November and December we got into January. I felt like our performance in testing improved a lot and we were able to make a lot bigger steps during test days, make a lot more improvement on the car during those test days in January and February then before. Then I was used to in the past. So I knew that we were getting along really good and really -- and of course getting better everyday, so I knew we were ready to start.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, for me it is a little bit of an unfair comparison to make because the team I drove to has a lot to do with the team you drive for and the kind of people you are learning stuff from. So when I was in 3000 I was driving for a pretty bad team. To be honest, in that year, 1996, I didn't learn much. The two years had in Indy Lights, I drove for two very good teams so I learned a lot when I was driving lights.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, I think it depends a lot on the team.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thanks.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, it was the biggest thing for me, the most difficult thing for me on the race is that, of course, I didn't want to give him easy life to try to overtake me. But at the same point I didn't want to make contact with him. I could see from my mirrors that he was getting more excited and more aggressive and he was feeling like he could pass me so I had to keep a close eye on him. I think twice I really had to turn the car where I wanted to avoid him. Fortunately his two overtaking maneuvers didn't go right because from inside the car, driving ahead, the places he tried to pass me I was sure he wasn't going to be able to pass. Actually one of the opportunity I actually let him by because I knew there wasn't anyway he was going to make it through the turn. So just waited 'til he passed by me then I turned and of course he couldn't make it. So -- but, yeah, we were having fun but I had to keep a real close eye on him. I think he drove a very good race, but it was just a situation like off line it was so dirty that it made his life a little bit more difficult.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, no, there wasn't any time to laugh about that. Maybe after the race, but not at that time.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: The biggest thing is to just keep doing our normal work, I think. We just -- it is a good thing that I am racing for an experienced team; that they have won many races before, so I know that another race win is not going to change their attitude about their work. So we are just going to keep doing the same kind of work we have been doing this last season and in this first race I am sure the results will keep on coming naturally to us.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Biggest thing I saw there was, which is probably apart from the race itself is -- the most important thing is the crowd. There was a lot of people there. I heard more than 100,000 people watching the race. Just by being there you could see that it is not -- they were not just normal race fans that are just there watching having fun. They are very, very big part of them, they knew a lot about what CART Series was all about; knew the drivers, the teams, what were the changes from last year. I was impressed that a lot of people knew that Newman/Haas had spent so many years with Ford and now we have Toyota and I was replacing -- like a lot of fans had a lot of knowledge. So I think it is very promising.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, it is two very, very different circuits. Mexico the track was really really smooth. There wasn't a bump on the whole racetrack. It is probably the most smooth racetrack I have ever driven at. At Long Beach, is a different thing. It is a very, very bumpy circuit. So the way to set up the car I am sure is going to be pretty different in both of these race tracks. My expectations are good for Long Beach. We have been doing good off-season testings at Sebring which is a bumpy track too and the same kind of rough circuit as we have at Long Beach. So I would imagine that we are going to have a good car there, a good competitive car there. It is tough to know how competitive we are going to be because the way the series is today, it is just so competitive sometimes you just get to the racetrack you don't know if you are going to be Top-5 or Top 15 or Top 20. So there is always this questionmark, you know, ahead. But we are working hard here on our setup. We are improving a few details we know we could have done better in Mexico, and we just waiting to get there. But I am pretty confident about what we have in our hands right now.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: No, I am in Miami still.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, Yeah, I knew that.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, we had two good stops but I don't think there is any difference in time by using one system or the other one. The fact is we were able to try those things on the car and actually do some pit stops practicing with that in the test with he we had at Laguna back in February, so we were pretty confident about the system. And we knew that we wouldn't be losing anything to the other system and we were doing a lot better with safety with this new system. So we decided to go for it.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Thank you.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I don't really know what people expect to see in some of our races. I think there were some passing going on. Of course there is never going to be like one of our races in Michigan or Fontana, it is just a different type of racing. I think people have to understand that. But I think the track is pretty good. The natural use of the racetrack from now on, just by having more races there, some other series racing there, I am sure when we go back there next year I am sure there will be more than one line on the racetrack and that will help passing just by the track being more used, something normal for a new road course.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, there was only one spot where I think there was a new patch on the surface and this new patch was coming off a little bit and it was making the track really dirty off-line. That is actually where we had all crashes we had on the race. It definitely -- the track was deteriorating from the beginning of the race. It was actually something that was happening already on the Indy Lights race. It is strange because during the whole race weekend we never had anything and we had long sessions on the racetrack. Maybe it was a little bit warmer on Sunday or just cars going through there all the time. But it definitely made everybody's life a little bit more difficult, especially on that turn where we hardly, hardly had a line wide enough for one car. Sometimes you actually had to go a little bit over the curb just to make yourself room enough for all the four years on the clean line. So it was definitely a challenge.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I think it is definitely a good idea, yeah, but I disagree when you say about the -- the track is pretty wide. It was just a matter of -- it was a new surface, so it was dirty off-line, the line for us was really narrow, but the track itself is wider. Like I said before, I think next year is going to be fine with just having more races there.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, it is not going to change the way I am driving. Probably if there was like two or three rounds to go and leading the Championship I would drive a little bit less aggressive, let us put it like this, and more in a defensive kind of driving just to maintain a gap. But that is not the point when you still have 20 races to go, just have to keep on pushing and just race, race after race, and still too early to try to conserve a gap which is not even big. It is a 5-point gap can disappear just like that in a series as competitive as ours. So not going to change my style right now.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, in my -- I always think I have to fight as hard, like even in a street course that you have walls beside you all the time, you still have to fight as hard as you do in the road course when you have an open area beside you. You cannot let the walls, for example, change your way of driving or, for example, just the way the racing is with more bumping for example, we cannot let those things change our style. So I am going there I am just going to be driving the same way.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I think to be honest, I don't think there will be a big difference in performance right now between the chassis available. I think the biggest thing you can make is the difference you have on the setup you are using. I think no matter if you have Lola or Reynard or whatever you have, the setup you are using has been a lot more important than the -- I mean, I am talking about this year because -- the two manufacturers seem to be so close, so it looks like the setup the team is using has been very, very important.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, Toyota definitely, they were up to speed last year. They won five races last year and I think this year it is my third year with them and I always saw from one year to the other a big, big difference performance-wise. They were always improving a lot in the off-season time. I think this year is no different. This year they made a huge jump. They raised their game again and it has been working better than ever.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, to be honest, I am taking suggestions because I haven't figured it out yet because it is a strange feeling to be honest because the first time in my whole life racing that after I start the season a one-month gap and I cannot test, usually, you know, one month gap we would have three or four tests and it would be busy. But now I have all this time, I am going to keep on riding my bicycle a lot, keep on working out pretty hard for Long Beach race as we are going to be out of the car for a month, and play some guitar. I am going to have a lot of time to do a lot of stuff. I am going to probably spend a few days back home in Brazil, spend some days here. It is so much time I don't even know yet. .

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, it surprised me a little bit. But that lap, that specific lap I didn't get a really really good run out of turn 8 or 7, I don't remember how CART was calling the turns there. But we were calling it turn 9 actually. So I didn't get a very, very good run out of turn 9 and I think he saw the chance and he tried, but he wasn't -- I think he didn't try harder because he knew we were coming in in a few laps.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: No, Brack was definitely my main concern. At that very moment I knew that he wasn't going to make it through the turn because I was breaking on the clean line, on a good line. There was a lot of rubber there. My car was good on the breaking and I was breaking pretty deep there. I saw him coming to the third line and trying to break deeper than I was breaking on the clean line, so I had no doubt that he wasn't going to be able to make it. So I just waited until he drove by me and then I turned.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Well, I think the walls in Long Beach actually they are, of course a street race is always a little bit more dangerous because the walls are so close. But the way they -- they put the walls around the racetrack in Long Beach, it is the best way possible. There was a concern, the drivers were concerned last year about the fencing that was getting too old, and from the reports we have, from the drivers association, we heard that we were going to have all new fencing all the way around the racetrack which is what we asked for last year. So the walls are actually not our main concern right now because I think they do a pretty good job on positioning them on the best way possible. If we got this fencing that they told us that we are going to have this year, I think the safety conditions are going to be pretty good. Of course racing is always a dangerous sport, but we appreciate that they are trying to make it as safe as they can for us.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yes, I wore it on the race in Mexico. I know that they are not many drivers that can get themselves comfortable in the car with the HANS for the road and street courses right now. I have been lucky to find one of those devices that fits me pretty well and I was able to get comfortable with it straight-a-way. I know there are a lot of people that have a lot of complaints about when the track is bumpy and all, that but I -- in the off-season was tested in Sebring and Laguna which is two very tough and physical tracks and I didn't have a problem so I decided I am ready to use it everywhere now.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, it was actually a little bit confused because I made a mistake and I parked the car on the wrong spot after the race was over. I know that -- that made it a little bit more difficult for the Brazilian TV. But actually I was able to talk to them and it was not -- how can I say -- it wasn't as a -- it wasn't as a peaceful interview as it was supposed to be because there were a lot of people around me at that time and they had to sneak in and interview me and there was a lot of people talking loud and all that. But it still came out well.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yes, we are being shown there on live TV now.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Yeah, they actually -- I talk of course to my mom on Sunday night and she told me that she saw the podium. And even before the race, she was telling me that they even showed the trucks parade. That is when they started the broadcast there, so they saved a lot of time before and after the race.

CRISTIANO da MATTA: Okay, T.E., I appreciate that.