Q: Question to David Coulthard, is it a personal catastrophe to you if Raikkonen happens to be faster from the start?
DC: Well, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to work out it ain't going to be good, is it, if I'm not quicker? The fact is Kimi is quick and on that basis it would be unlikely to think I'm going to be in front of him all the time and he has got every chance to be quick in the beginning as he has in the end. It's not like he has just learnt to walk, he has been racing for a number of years. And as I mentioned before, the experience thing is only maybe about drawing on information from the team in the past and different situations in Grand Prix events but he has done a complete year and he knows how to drive a car quickly. I recall when I started in Formula 1 with Williams, I started at the front and I don't remember any big pressure with that because you're just concentrating day-to-day. I think in many ways, as you gain experience, you start to see the bigger picture and you become of more use to the team in the course of a season but also it can wear you down a little bit because you are involved in some of the decisions so I'm trying to find the balance between having that sort of pure seat of the pants driving and not thinking too much and using experience to help me.
Q: Michael, a horrible hypothetical for you: You're a betting man and you have $50 left to your name, who would you put it on this week-end?
MS: Put it in my pocket.
Q: David. You can't use the same answer. You would like to make more out of it?
DC: On myself.
Q: Juan Pablo?
JPM: Probably myself as well but, I don't know.
Q: I have a question for the drivers. Have you been reading your contract after sacking Jos Verstappen? Or any comments?
DC: I'm sorry for Jos Verstappen. It can't be a nice situation to think you have a contract and you're geared up for the year ahead and then it changes. I think in all these things, there has got to be reasons behind it and only the people that are involved have all of the facts so really rather than just adding opinions without knowing everything it is better not to say anything.
MS: I don't have a contract with Tom.
DC: Are you sure?
MS: I haven't read mine and pretty happy with what I've got at the moment.
Q: Question for David Richards: David, when you parted company with Benetton four years ago, you said you wouldn't come back into Formula 1 unless you were financially involved with the team. That isn't, as I understand it, the situation at the moment but presumably you haven't changed your principles. Can I ask: is there an agreement in principle for you eventually to take over a major shareholding or a shareholding of any kind in BAR?
DR: Understandably, these things tend to be behind the scenes and somewhat confidential but I haven't changed the principles which I said at the time.
Q: Could I ask the drivers, the three of you, which of you is the best driver in Formula 1?
MS: Which is the best journalist?
Q: The richest. I thought every driver believed he was the best driver in Formula 1.
DC: I think the point is it is not a boxing match or something like that, it's not WWF, we are not doing all the big promo: I'm going to knock you out. Clearly you have confidence in your own ability and each of us sitting here have won Grand Prix - obviously Michael has won a few more than Juan and I and it's a bit unfortunate to be racing in a period against a guy who has won more Grand Prix than anyone else in the history of the sport but there you go, that's the challenge and it's one I relish and I enjoy and I'm looking forward to adding to my meagre 11 Grand Prix victories.
JPM: Well, I don't know. I have been always a big fan of Senna since I was a kid and I would say Senna.
Q: Of the three of you?
DC: That's how important he thinks your questions are; he doesn't listen to them.
JPM: I never considered myself the best driver but I never considered myself inferior to anybody. I think if somebody can do it, you can do it. Simple.
Q: Juan Pablo, do you feel any more pressure on you coming to Melbourne this time last year as a rookie or is there more pressure this year going into the first race as a genuine championship favourite?
JPM: I think last year was more pressure because everybody was expecting that I would fall the same way, like Zanardi had a bad year so everybody was expecting I was going to go the same way. Always you get a bit of pressure to do well in everything, but as long as you do what you are meant to do, drive 100 per cent and see what happens.
Q: Have you got a chance to see the circuit this year and if it has, do you have any safety issues that you would like to bring out?
Q: I guess it's to all three of you. Who has actually been around the circuit?
JPM: I have been.
Q: Any safety issues, anything you are worried about?
MS: We always feel - and that belongs to every circuit - that there is room for improvements. We have seen the improvements has been done in terms of the fencing for marshal safety, passive safety for the people. I have seen doubling the fence down the pit, the start and finish line straight, so there has been done quite an effort to improve safety. We live in a world where total safety doesn't exist, whatever sport, whatever event, wherever you go, total safety doesn't exist, but from the GPDA side we always find issues where we can improve safety, and I'm sure after this race we are going to come up with some solutions again to ask the circuit to do something.
Q: To the team bosses, going back to the two day weekend thing, isn't the cheapest place to test a car on the Friday before a race?
DR: Clearly you have got all the equipment there, you have got the people there on the Friday before the race, but I think you can't look at that out of context with testing as a whole so I think there has got to be a debate about testing as a whole and throughout the whole year; you can't just sort of look at Friday in isolation from testing between races and through the winter period as well. An overall restriction on testing would sort of be equal for everybody and certainly make dramatic savings.
OA: I agree with David in this case.
Q: When you say dramatic, what percentage of budget? With the engine thing, how much money would you save by just bringing one engine?
DR: It's not what the teams would save on the engine side, you have got to think of an engine manufacturer now is looking not just at one engine but you are looking at an engine for qualifying, an engine that you are probably going to throw away at the end of a Saturday afternoon, and then an engine for racing, and the numbers of engines involved. Ove can answer the question far better than I can because he is actually doing it so he knows firsthand. You have also got to look at it in the context of how the public perceive our sport as well: a sport that sort of throws engines away after 50 kilometres and does special developments for that, is that the right image for us to be projecting in the future in the current environment we are in?
OA: You've answered the question.
Q: To the drivers: Have you been informed about the shooting incident on track overnight, the police investigation of a guard said she was shot at by a masked intruder and has security been unguarded around you?
Q: Does that answer your question? Is there more security, David? Notice anything?
DC: I haven't personally but I was not aware of the incident last night.
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