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IZOD INDYCAR SERIES: HONDA INDY TORONTO RACE 2July 14, 2013Sebastien BourdaisHelio CastronevesScott DixonTORONTO, ONTARIO THE MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined by our third-place finisher from today's race, Sebastien Bourdais. Talk about today's race and that great move on the last restart. SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Yeah, it's been quite an interesting end of the race. It was a lot of basically just go with the flow and don't make any mistakes. Everybody was going pretty hard. But the first stint, I could have gone faster, but Ryan started to lose his tires. I didn't have any 'push to pass' the whole race. It was pretty much a matter of keep it there and try and do good in all laps, hopefully you can jump them. But we didn't do that. I was maybe a bit too conservative on my out lap and Ryan just got us. After that, basically it was the matter of who had a gap behind us, a little gap in front of us. I knew I was never going to pass them fair and square. I was trying to keep my tires underneath me and making sure they were in good shape if for any reason there was going to be a yellow. It just all happened at the end. I knew it was the only way I could make something happen. But in the meantime I knew I was pretty much screwed 'cause they all had 'push to pass' and I didn't. In the back straight, all bunched up, there wasn't much I could do to defend. Both times I just managed to position the car where it was right and things went our way and behind us was pretty much chaos. Nobody was anywhere near us. That was really cool. Ryan managed to pass me. I got him straight back because I knew if I wasn't getting him back straightaway, there was no way out of this. After that, I was going to be under attack from Dario. I really tried super hard to get him back. He was struggling with his tire pressure, he couldn't get the tires again. It was super, super sensitive on the braking. I just went for it and I worked. After that, we just set off to chase Will. The last restart just went around the outside. I have no idea what happened behind me. Was grateful Helio didn't squeeze me against the wall. Went from there. Race was over. Here we are, 'push to pass', seventh to start, third at the end. Couldn't be any happier with that. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Do you think the team has made enough improvements that you can have a car capable of competing and running up front every week? SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Well, I think the baseline street course setup, you need to have a base. Is it going to work everywhere? Probably not. When you have a base, you just need to go the right direction on that specific track and go and make it better. So I think we got a really workable base to begin with now. It's not perfect. Dixie is obviously gone, so we got work to do. We'll keep at it. But obviously from where we were to be able to have four podiums, that's pretty sweet. On top of that, last night the guys had to work till 1 a.m. to change the fuel cell because the thing was leaking after the race. Everybody puts his head down, gets to work. Next morning everybody is all smiles. It makes a big difference, for sure. Q. When you hit on a setup that's working now, were you surprised? SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Yeah, if I tell you the setup, really? It's very surprising that we ended up where we are on such a bumpy street course. At the end of the day it's working. Tom came with kind of an idea and we just went more and more towards that direction. It just clicked for the first qualifying. Oh, okay, now we got grip. Now I can push. It was a pretty big eye opener. Then we just kept working at it all weekend. I think we were maybe a little weaker at the race yesterday. Again, we made small changes for warmup and the race, and the car was better again. That's what it takes. Once you get closer, baby steps. Q. How satisfying is it for a driver that's accomplished as much as you have to be on a team where you do make those little baby steps? SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: It's awesome. I think I've proved in a championship-winning car with a top team I can do it. Done it a few times. Hopefully people haven't forgotten. But at the end of the day it's a whole different challenge when you have to start from scratch with a team, just bring people onboard to try to build something and get the right chemistry. It's a completely different challenge. I really thought at the end of last year we were going to have an awesome season. Like I said yesterday, we just didn't adapt very quickly to the new tires. Finally I think we understood something and it's the turnaround for our season. Q. Your previous success here, did that play any role here? SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Yeah, it's a pretty selective racetrack. It's one of these tracks where experience pays. P.T. was always awesome here. There are balance issues because of the pavement changes and all that. So you need to know what you're looking for, what is setup and what is track related. For sure, I've identified these now and I know what I need to work on to to have a fast car. The braking zones are so damn bumpy that you really need to have the confidence, know where to brake, know where to position the car. It definitely helped me. It's no wonder why in '11 we finally got things going with Dale, last year we were strong, this year we are strong. Q. (No microphone.) SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: No, this place has been the same for 15 years. It's always been bumpy like that. I think every time they smooth it out with the patches they make, but the patches they make are slipperier than everything else. When it ages, it digs in a little bit more and becomes grainy. The concrete patches they lay down, it's a mirror. You see the rubber goes on it, and it shines like it's a freaking polished thing. So on restarts when the rubber is gone, it's interesting. Q. There were no bases on those trophies. SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: It was the same setup. Yesterday he handed me the whole thing and I had no idea the trophy was not attached to the base. Q. How much of a grind was this weekend for you? SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: It was good. But, man, we did a lot of things in order to get front grip. The steering wheel got pretty darn heavy. The last pit stop when you put the last set of tires, full tank, the track is rubbered up, the steering effort, you earn your paycheck around here. It's tough when it's the second race of the weekend. Pretty happy it's over. Q. Your opinion on a doubleheader format coming out of a successful weekend? SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: When you have a good car, it's awesome. I scored as many points as I scored all season. I'm not against it. It's always the same. It's the same with the standing starts. It's the same with the doubleheaders. If the fans love it, if it makes the event more profitable for the promoters, for the series, it's a good thing. We don't have a say in it. We are just the racers. We have our own opinion, but at the end of the day we'll do whatever it take this series wherever it needs to go, and that is to bring it up. Bring it on. If it works, let's do it. Q. What Scott Dixon did this weekend, did that remind you a little bit of yourself back in the day? SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: He just was the class of the field the whole weekend. It's like trying to compare yourself to another driver. He was in a league of his own. I've experienced that in the past. But it doesn't remind me of me. I'm just a regular guy who is trying to do the best job we can. Scott did it this weekend. Good for him. He earned every bit of it. I think he passed me three times this weekend. It's not like I can deny he was the fastest guy. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Sebastien, on the back-to-back podiums. We're now joined by Helio Castroneves who finished second today and maintains the championship points lead by 29 over Scott Dixon. Talk about today's race. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Great day for us, another day. Certainly coming over here, Hitachi guys did a helluva job preparing the car. Man, I think it's probably one of the fastest cars I've had since early days in CART. I was really on rails. I was really comfortable. After yesterday, unfortunately got caught in a yellow in Friday's qualifying, so started eighth. Saturday's qualifying we were able to start in front, which was great. We packed all our chips today, took a chance in the setup of the car, and it paid off. First of all, the standing start was awesome. I enjoy it very much. I had an awesome start. That's probably why I like it. I heard the fans enjoy it. There's a big thumbs up for the series to try that. I'm glad we're going to keep improving other things, details, that's going to make it better. But certainly it was a big thumbs up for that. We had a great car. But unfortunately our great car wasn't good enough to finish first because Scott and Ganassi, they had a better car than us. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Helio, Dixon was so dominant today, even on the restarts. Any point during this race when you thought you might catch him? HELIO CASTRONEVES: When we put the black tires, my car was actually a little bit better, especially after warmup. I said, Wow, the car looks really strong. I said, Okay, with myself, I really thought we have a shot at the least. But he opened up a lead about six, seven seconds before we got traffic. Then it was a very tough one on that area. When I got traffic, people coming out of the pits, it was absolutely ridiculous what they were thinking. I was very disappointed with some of the fellow drivers.  We lost a lot of time there. It was about 13 seconds. We were never able to recover. That was the only point I thought we had a chance. But once he was 13 second ahead, I was like, Wow, this is going to be very tough to deal with. Q. You know at the point in the season when you're thinking very hard about how to get a championship out of this. You've had Ryan Hunter-Reay chasing you for a long time. He had a tough day. Now you're dealing with Scott Dixon. Does that change your approach to the rest of the season in any way? HELIO CASTRONEVES: No, our approach is the same. That's what got us here. Hopefully with that same kind of consistency, mentality, when we have a car to go for it, we go for it. I think with that kind of thinking, it's going to take us there, as well. Q. Dixon is coming. He seems to be coming fast. Even though your points lead stayed about the same as it was when you left Pocono, now he's the guy on your tail instead of Ryan Hunter-Reay. How do you see this whole thing shaping up? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Well, both are champions. I think they've been there. We just got to keep focused on our work. I'm not worried less or more because it's Scott. The same thing was with Ryan. They're both great teams. But I trust my guys. I know we have the best equipment, the best guys out there. We know what we capable. That's what we're focused on at this point. Q. How much do you want to win the championship? How much of a goal is this for you? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Interesting, when you have opportunities like I have, I want as bad as anybody. Especially having those guys behind me, I have that chance. Experienced guys, experienced teams. When you put yourself in this position, yes, I'm going to fight as much as I can. If I have a good car to finish, I will finish strong. If I don't have a good car to finish, I'll play smart. You use different strategies, ways to put us there. That's what's happening at this point. So I want it more than anybody. Q. Tell me about the physicality of today's race and how draining the weekend has been. Do you think the two race weekend format is safe? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Good question. I think the first race, I don't think it was a lot of yellows, but it was different. People didn't know how it's going to go, the track, tires, things like that. In fact, I finished the race, Wow, it wasn't that bad in terms of physical. But running in front, pushing as hard as I could to keep up with Scott and the rest of the field, you felt it. I felt it. Plus we didn't have any yellows today. I think everybody behaved different than Detroit. So when you have that kind of scenario for two hours pushing and pushing and pushing, it was certainly fatigue, I have to admit. But I'm glad that my trainer Carlos is working over 10, 12 years with me. Yup, I'm there. Q. The restarts with 10 to go, they lined the lap traffic up. That played into how much you could go after Scott on the one restart. Do you like that rule? HELIO CASTRONEVES: No. I think it was 15 laps to go, wasn't it? What are you going to do, 15 laps to go? You're not going to lap the field, you're not going to get your lap back. It's very unusual for you to be very lucky, get your lap back, have a very good finish. But, saying that, it's the rules. I think we should review that kind of scenario because even if I would be in that situation, which I've been, it's not fun 'cause what are you doing there? You're in the middle of the leaders and you can cause a big mess. Yes, I wasn't happy. Finally with 10 laps to go, there was another car there, at least we were able to do it. But I wish they change that rule. Q. Were you having to contend with Graham? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Graham, Simona and someone else. Three cars actually. It was the 4 car. First, where do I line up? Second, exactly what you going to do? I know they're a lap down. Graham and Simona were fighting for position. That's what they told me. I don't know what is the position, 15? That's my point.  Nothing will pass Scott because he was in a league of his own, I tell you. It could create more emotion for everyone. But I think they should review that, instead of 10 laps. Q. You said you enjoyed the standing starts. Came off without a hitch. Can you see this becoming a normal happening on other street courses, a road course here and there? HELIO CASTRONEVES: I think it should. At least something different. Detroit, Toronto, at least they could becoming the only place to be standing starts. Not only one race, but two races. But, yes, you're right, we got to review a little bit some of the tracks that we're able to do that. You guys tell me, but it sounds like the fans enjoy it. It could becoming something like that, for sure. THE MODERATOR: Helio, congratulations on the podium. Thanks for your time. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: We're pleased to be joined by the winner of today's and yesterday's race. Today is Scott's 32nd win in IndyCar racing. With it he takes sole possession of seventh on the all-time active drivers win list, passing Paul Tracy, Sebastien Bourdais and Dario Franchitti. This is also the sixth victory for Target Chip Ganassi Racing on the streets of Toronto. Scott, tell us about your day today and just the weekend overall. SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I think Toronto's always been a place I've wanted to win at. We've eluded it many times. I think my first race here might have been in 1999 in Indy Lights or 2000. We had a bit of a vacation from this place for four or five years when Champ Car and IndyCar weren't running here. I love this place. The town is a lot of fun. The fans are knowledgeable and love what we do. It's great to see the excitement they had here all weekend. The promoters I think did a great job to have so many different things going on for different people. It wasn't just for racing. There were other forms of entertainment. It's good to see people actually get it and put on a great show for everyone. The weekend for us just went really smoothly, from practice when we didn't show our speed, went to new tires late, then there was a caution. You know, Q1, I messed up. Started fifth in race one. Q2, we got the pole. Both cars have been good all weekend. The 10 car used its tires up a little quicker throughout the race, on reds especially, which I think cost us a little bit on both days. We'll get to the bottom of that and have both cars performing their best coming up to the next few races here. Yeah, today's standing start, I think everybody was nervous. I was waiting for another waved-off start. I think once we had the drivers meeting this morning, they said if it was waved off, they were going to keep doing it until they got it right. Got a decent start. Saw Helio coming. I pushed the overtake, started to get going again. The concrete patch in one was very slippery, so I hit that and slid off. I think I actually got into Helio a little bit. Hopefully didn't wreck his car or anything. Everybody got away cleanly. I was very surprised about that. I was expecting to hear full-course caution after the standing start. Apart from that, the day went smoothly. Car was good on tires. I had some in reserve. It was nice to save some fuel and look after the tires.  Everybody time we did a pit stop, it seemed we would pick up three or four seconds. Getting close to the finish of the race, you expect a lot of cautions. They started to come. We were in the right place at the right time. It worked out perfectly. THE MODERATOR: Also it's worth mentioning that nobody was able to accomplish this in Detroit, but Scott clinched the SONAX Perfect Finish Award here in Toronto and the $100,000 prize. SCOTT DIXON: Nice of SONAX. Nice to give the boys a little bonus after our rough start to the year. I didn't realize it sort of passed over. That's fantastic. It's a nice added bonus for us this weekend. More importantly, we're here for the points. It's been a helluva swing over a seven-day period. We were 92 points out and now we're like 27 out. It's nice to put a little pressure on Helio, and hopefully we can keep that going. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Seven days ago you were winless and seventh in points. Do you think you're firmly in the championship hunt now? SCOTT DIXON: You know, I think so. I kind of alluded to it yesterday. Helio has had a pretty stress-free year as far as not being involved in accidents or having mechanicals. Ryan Hunter-Reay, every time I kept seeing him this weekend, he was in some kind of altercation. He lost a lot of points over the weekend. Yeah, I think it's still going to be a tough battle. I like the look of the tracks we have coming up. I think we are in the hunt. I think some tracks we'll be at a slight disadvantage to the Chevys, some we might have an advantage. This weekend was a bit of an eye opener for our team at least. Some of the other Hondas were not up maybe where they should have been. Q. You've become the winningest active driver in IndyCar. Did you ever think that was something achievable when you first started this? SCOTT DIXON: Probably not. I started this when? I was 20 or 21. I was probably trying to think of where to go that night instead of what my future was holding. No, I tried to just concentrate on it on a day-by-day basis, week-by-week. I'm very fortunate to have 31 of those wins with this team, 12 years with this team. I think me and Helio are probably the longest active drivers with one team, which I think says a lot for the wins we've had and what we've achieved together. I would have wished some of those were a couple more 500s and a few more championships. But that's the way it's gone. We'll keep digging, trying to improve on that. It's cool to be on that list and moving up it. Q. Back to the points. In a way it's almost like you go to the casino and you hit jackpot. Now there's another doubleheader in the next to the last race of the season. How will Houston be? That could be a major factor in deciding who wins. SCOTT DIXON: I've never raced at that circuit. I think a few guys have. I'm not even sure the history of that place. I raced in CART, but that Enron Field or something. That was donkey's years ago. I hope I have a good performance. I hope it's similar to Toronto, because the car is good here. Big picture, it's the same for everybody. You have to make the maximum you can out of each day, each weekend. Yes, it is tough when you maybe have missed a performance on a doubleheader weekend. Instead of having one bad weekend, you're really having two. So, yes, that is and can be frustrating. I think we've seen that this weekend in the points for some of the guys. They've taken a big hit. All I can hope is that Houston goes well for us. Both doubleheaders have been pretty smooth for us so far. Who knows. Q. On TV before the race started, for obvious reasons, Paul Tracy hoped that you didn't win. Can you understand where he was coming from? More importantly, when you look at the names ahead of you on that list, there's three Unsers, two Andrettis and one famous Foyt. Those are legendary names. I don't care if it's NASCAR, Formula One, whatever. How does it feel to have your name on the cusp of those guys? SCOTT DIXON: You know, it does feel amazing. We never really talked about it much. I think last year we touched on it a little bit after the Mid-Ohio win. Moving closer to some of these guys, you know, going back to the other question, years ago I didn't think I'd ever be in this position. I was a happy kid from New Zealand racing cars, then it worked into one day I was actually getting paid to race cars. It was a win-win situation. I know a few of the guys. P.T. I've known for a few years now. Maybe not as close as my teammate Dario. He's a character. Obviously a guy that I idolized with his aggression and the way that he really wheeled a car around. He was definitely exciting to watch. I'm sure he didn't want me to win today. But I'll probably see him later tonight. Yeah, no, for me I think stats are for maybe when you retire, you kind of look back on it. No disrespect to anybody or anything about it. I want to race. I hope we can win more races together. But to be on that list, yeah, it's amazing to be among those names. What I hope for is we can win a few more. Q. Can you comment on the health of this race? Toronto has had to recover since taking the year off. 2009, 2010 the grandstands were pretty thin. This year it looked pretty good. SCOTT DIXON: Doubleheaders are kind of hard to read because it spreads it over two days. I think some people only come for one day. I don't know statistically. But even on the back straight in the trees, there was a ton of people sitting on the grass. I hadn't seen that for a long time. I really think that the crowds this weekend, whether it was due to the weather being so nice, most of the stands were packed. There were people everywhere. I think the craziest thing in this town is how many high-rises are going up. How do they sell these things? Must be a lot of people living here. Q. Does that change your opinion on doubleheaders? Attendance-wise, do you still think they're a good thing? SCOTT DIXON: I don't know. I think it's something the promoters would have to look at. Being the first year of it for us in the current state, Detroit and Toronto, I'm sure they'll figure it out. I think TV numbers, who knows. I think that was kind of more of the push, some people might catch it Saturday, but they'd definitely tune in on Sunday. That seems to be more of a pull at the moment. How that is working out, I have no idea. The doubleheaders, I think we've picked two of the toughest places to do them physically. It's very easy to slip off and crash at these places. To try to maintain the car throughout the weekend, the crews, how hard these tracks are on these cars, it's definitely the toughest places that we come to. I like the doubleheaders. Obviously they've been working for us, so we probably want to keep them around. I could take them or leave them, as well. Q. I don't know if you'll answer this or not. But we know up until last weekend, Target Chip Ganassi had struggled for about 18 months not having the results that you're used to as a team. We know that you're not the factor. We also know that you received a new generation of Honda engine recently and you tested at Sebring and did a fair amount of work there, presumably developed the car there. Is there the one or the other of those you attribute the success you've seen over the last couple of weeks? SCOTT DIXON: I think Pocono was maybe a circuit, going into the race, I thought we had a good car. The car has been good on the ovals for me. I know the 10 car has struggled in some areas, but we've been pretty strong. I think Iowa, we had a shot at winning as well until we had wiring go out, started missing and losing boost. I think it's been a combination of things. Everybody has had a lot of sit-down time with Chip, which is always interesting, gets you a little refocused. People were kind of lacking confidence. I think Pocono was one of those weekends where, yes, some of the cars had new generation engines, not all of them, and they had worked on areas that did help us win that race. I think they do help us at circuits like this, as well. Honda are doing the best they can. They're a great group of people. I've worked for them for many years, with them for many years, and they weren't in competition. I think they're coming back. They're digging deep. The toughest thing I think in the series is you get five engines for the season. You take kind of two of those updates around Indy time. So you're stuck with a spec for so long. If there is a bit of separation, there's really no way to catch up unless you start taking engine penalties. We've had our fair share of those this year. It's been a little bit of Honda, a little bit of the team. I think everybody sort of refocusing. Pocono was a big shot in the arm for confidence and getting things together. It's not one thing; it's been a combination of a lot. Q. The next race coming up, how confident are you you can make it four in a row considering last year? SCOTT DIXON: It would be nice. Mid-Ohio has been a good place for us. We've won there, I don't know, four times. I'm hoping to gain some good points there. But typically Penske have been strong there, as well. We'll go there and do our best. I think we have a pretest there the Wednesday before the race weekend. We'll see how that shapes up. But, yeah, I'm confident in the fact that we've had cars that have worked there in the past. Areas where we've developed, Barber, the car was the best. We had to fight our way. Didn't do my job as well as I should have in qualifying and just came up short. But, yeah, I think we're all confident going to Mid-Ohio and hopefully that plays true. Q. Is this season starting to remind you of 2007? SCOTT DIXON: Just needed a cup of fuel. That would have been different. We don't intentionally start the season bad, though we typically seem to somehow. I hope that it goes like '07, but turns out like '08. It's so competitive, with how many different race winners we've had this year, the points are jumbled up, people have made strides at different points in the year. I suspect there's going to be four, five, six people that are going to be fighting for it at the end of the year. Hopefully we're one of them. Hopefully we dig deep enough and maybe it goes our way. Q. There were times during this race where you were 13, 15 seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves. Was there any point during the race where you wanted to slow down a little bit anticipating a restart? SCOTT DIXON: No. The gap kind of maintained. I tried to keep it about seven, eight seconds. I started saving fuel on the first stint trying to save the reds a little bit. We were shooting for a five-second gap. It kind of picked up a little bit once their tires started to go. I think where we made good strides was the pits and in and out laps. We seemed to jump three or four seconds in one swoop. Until I see the data... We tried to keep it at a pace, they came on the radio, Did the same time, I would go in trying to burn the car up. They were very consistent. I don't think they had the speed we had in reserve. I think they would match up and they could go quicker again. Yeah, funky things can happen if you try to slow down too much. You miss your points, you'll end up in the fence. You try to maintain what the car is doing. Q. I asked Helio the same question. What is your position on lap cars lining up with the leaders on restarts? SCOTT DIXON: Today was great (laughter). I don't know. I've been in situations, I'm trying to think recently, Milwaukee or somewhere, where we had that situation. I think it's more track-dependent. Indy they say 10 laps to go, people need to get out of the way. That's a lot different to Iowa. It's a third of the size. The 10 laps go by very quickly. I think for the drivers that are in those situations, they probably want to get out of the way. They probably want to go through pit lane on a restart with 15 or 20 to go. But they're probably also fighting for somebody that's on the same lap right around that same position. It's kind of hard to know what to do. Maybe they think they're strong enough to get a lap back. It does get confusing for fans and also race teams. When you have to line up for double-file restarts, there's people in the mix. You're third, you could be restarting ninth. I don't know. I know there's been a lot of discussion in drivers meetings about it. It's one of those things I think some weekends it works for you, some it doesn't. Courtesy-wise, if I was in that situation, several laps down, when you're racing from a lap down, you can get your position back off strategy, that's different. But, yeah, I think if you're more than one lap down, you should probably get out of the way. THE MODERATOR: Scott, thank you for your time and congratulations on the weekend. SCOTT DIXON: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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