Italian GP - 8 September 1996.
Red Bull Sauber-Ford Press Release

Monza has always been one of my favourite tracks. Alongside Silverstone and Monaco, it is also one of the places where I always wanted to win a Grand Prix, so I was really happy last year to climb to the top of the podium after the Italian race. I have always enjoyed coming here and I did again this year.

Obviously, the Red Bull Sauber-Ford team do a lot of testing at Monza and so it is a track I know and look forward to driving on... it is just a shame that we could not end up with some points to show for it!

After Budapest, we had been to the A-1 Ring in Austria and after Spa, back to Monza for testing and I had been very happy with the car. I knew we would need plenty of power at Monza, as everyone does, but I was happy to know that I was going to have use of the latest-specification engine for this weekend. It made quite a difference, but we always want more power whatever we have.

Since Hungary; I have had a feeling that things have been getting better and better for me. I suppose it has taken quite a while for me to fit into a new environment and for them to get used to me, but it is really beginning to work out now.

At Spa, I had a different monocoque and I just did not like it. I changed back to an older one afterwards for the testing and I was very happy with it, so that is the one I kept with at Monza. On Friday, however, I got a bit of a surprise. The car just did not feel anything like as good as it had done during testing. I just could not find my way down to the sort of times I had achieved with ease at the same track the previous week. We changed the car during the course of the day, but the stability under braking was a problem and I worked to fix that, but was reasonably happy with 10th-fastest time, even though it was not as good as I had hoped.

Fortunately, the weather was beautiful and that kept us all happy and made the paddock typically Italian - full of buzz and chatter and silly season rumours. I will mention more of them later, but it is enough to say that you do hear some really crazy things at the Monza race. On Saturday; I was hoping that Ferrari might make me an offer! But they didn't so I concentrated on my own job again and really had a go at it in qualifying with the new-spec engine.

I felt I had to push very hard, virtually overdriving the car to get the best out of it and braking really late to find the best speeds and lap times. I got a fantastic tow from Lavaggi on one lap - I haven't had a tow like it since I was in Formula Ford - and that really helped me but there was some oil at the chicane and that cost me a little bit of time. It might have been an even better lap, but for that.

Overall, it was pretty good. The car felt much better, the balance was not bad and I had out-qualified my team-mate, who is on his way to Williams next year, for the third time. So, it cannot have been that bad, can it?

My future was obviously my chief concern as you would expect and I think I only need to say that I am happy with my prospects as I see them. I think I may well be able to stay within the Ford family, perhaps with the new Stewart team, or to stay with Sauber. But we shall just have to wait and see how it all works out... maybe Ferrari will come after me after all!

The paddock patter came to an end by Sunday, of course, when we all concentrated at last on the race. I wanted a good start and I got one, but at the first chicane I had to brake really hard to avoid hitting the Ferrari of Eddie Irvine, who I thought was going into the back of Mika Hakkinen's McLaren. Unfortunately, that flat-spotted my tyres at the front and for the rest of the first phase, I was suffering a bit with understeer and vibrations. It meant I lost speed in the Parabolica which is vital if you are to build up for a good run on the pits straight, so I lost some ground there.

My second set of tyres was very good and I was able to do okay until I made a mistake when I was catching Pedro Diniz. Finally, the oil pressure light came on in the last six laps and the engine just went out on me at the first chicane at the start of the last lap - and that was it.

Another race over when I could have been in the points with a bit more luck. Still, I felt I had done a good job and stayed out of trouble and run the distance reasonably competitively and with Heinz-Harald dropping out after only nine lap, I had carried the flag for the Red Bull Sauber-Ford team quite well. It was just a shame there were no points to show for it because the team deserved some.

With thanks to Johnny, Red Bull Sauber Ford and Bob Herbert
This page prepared 11 September 1996. All rights reserved.