European GP - 28 April 1996
Red Bull Sauber Ford Press Release

Seventh place is probably the worst, or at least one of the worst, finishing positions you can have. You are so near to a point, but so far away too. Still, it is a lot better than eighth, ninth… or even worse!

That is how I consoled myself after Sunday's European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring because I did feel I was back in the swing of things a lot more. In fact I was beginning to feel some of my old confidence returning for the first time in a long while.

The car was more the way I wanted it to be, we had a bit more from the engines now that they are revving up 16,000 rpm for the race and I really felt I could push it a bit. I tinkered around with the set-up on Saturday at this race and surprised myself by discovering that they worked.

Previously, I had not really found many points of reference for myself with the car and I had not done enough testing to make any proper progress. It is obviously not ideal to be working things out at a race weekend, but when you succeed, it is worth it.

I spent Friday just getting accustomed to the car and to the circuit but I was not sure, at that stage, which way to go on set-up. The balance did not feel quite right. I had a lot of understeer in some places. That is what I worked on Saturday. I had done most of my previous work on my own experience and on some of Heinz-Harald's settings. But that does not always help, so this time I decided just to go my own way and see what happened. And, well, it worked!

We reduced the understeer a bit, the car felt more like my car and I quickly felt my confidence growing. I suppose that was reflected in my time and grid position - 12th, two places behind Heinz-Harald but only one tenth off his pace.

It was not a bad place to start from and I was lucky to make a really good getaway. The only problem was that someone else had stalled or something and there were cars swerving everywhere. I had to brake - there was nowhere to go. In those sort of conditions the best thing is to settle down, build up a rhythm and press on. After a nervous kind of start, the felt better and I ran quite well until the first pit stop. Unfortunately, my second set of tyres were terrible. They were really dreadful. The grip was very low and that caused me problems. Luckily, the third set were a lot better and I got going quickly again and managed to work my way up to - yes, seventh.

It was good to finish, good to be a bit more competitive, but I am sure we can do even more. It is just a matter of time and hard work. I want to do some testing and then I feel sure we will see things happening - hopefully I can do a couple of days at least at Imola in the week after the San Marino race. So far this year I have not done as much as I would have liked. I did a full race distance at Barcelona early on and a short nine lap burst at Jerez. But it is not enough and as I have said it is better not to go testing at the Grands Prix.

The Nurburgring is one of those circuits I enjoy. It is not that bad to drive on and it has some quite challenging corners where you have to commit yourself. If you are not happy with your car, you really cannot do that, of course.

So, I was pleased to be able to feel more confident from Saturday's session onwards. I remember last year. I took the second corner in third gear through lack of confidence - but this year I was going into it a gear higher and therefore much faster than last year.

That is just a reflection of how I was feeling. I was even getting to the point, which is good, where I was feeling I would be in control of the car in a spin. It is strange. It is all to do with confidence.

Last year, for me, it was the opposite. I always felt I never knew quite where I was going. This time, at the Nurburgring, I felt much happier with both the car and with my driving.

Now I know I have got to produce this improvement more consistently and find the development we need through testing. If you are doing things like this at a Grand Prix it makes the whole thing 20 times more difficult.

Last weekend was definitely better - in lots of ways. To start with, the weather was great compared to last year and that made everyone feel happier.

The Germans can be quite enthusiastic at races, but there was a reasonably low-key atmosphere this year, generally and I spent nearly all the weekend working at the track. I did not go out to eat or anything like that at all. It was one of those races where I seemed to live at the track and just sleep at the hotel down the road.

At least, the Nürburgring is not far away front home - Monaco, now, of course - and that is good. It means it is easier to keep in touch and to get back afterwards. That is good for Becky.

She completed our move pretty smoothly, but did, as expected, leave me with a few jobs to do. One was to move our sofa into the new apartment which is on the ninth floor. Well, you can only imagine the problems....

It would not fit into the lift. So we took the advice of a friend and decided it would go up the stairs, on its end, and then into the apartment. We carried it up nine flights of stairs, myself and two other friends, only to discover that it would not fit in through the door. And Becky told me off about a few scuff marks as well… I was not too pleased.

We had to take it down again and, eventually, get it into the place by helicopter. We did it in the end and it means we are now a lot more settled. It is much more like home. I've got my bike, from TechnoGym out on the balcony, so I can do a bit of training on that every night and we see a bit of DC (David Coulthard) so it is working out fine. I think everyone will love it once they get used to living there.

  Unfortunately, I am hardly at home at all because straight after the Nürburgring it was Imola and then testing. But you cannot complain - that is what my work in Grand Prix racing is all about.

With thanks to Johnny, Red Bull Sauber Ford and Bob Herbert
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