06/09/2004

Ricardo Zonta looks ahead to Monza

I have had a very enjoyable time since becoming race driver for Panasonic Toyota Racing. When you race you get more used to it every time and now my confidence is coming back. I was very emotional and a little bit nervous in Budapest but going into Spa I was a lot calmer and more focussed. After a good performance like we had in Belgium you start to feel very relaxed in the car.

My Friday practice sessions are completely different now as my work is now more specialised. I still have to do some long runs but with only two sets of tyres rather than six as a third driver I have to pick only the very best to try out. That makes a difference especially around a long circuit like Spa where the more laps you do the more you improve from a driving perspective.

At the Belgian Grand Prix I thought I could qualify well but we had a wet session and I pushed so hard in pre-qualifying that I made a mistake. The mechanics did a fantastic job to make so many repairs to the car in just a few minutes. I asked to put a lot of fuel in the car because I knew the performance of the car would be compromised by my spin but it was still disappointing to line up 20th.

It was a great feeling to make up ten places on the opening lap of the race. I wasn't getting too excited though because I was not sure how our car would perform in comparison to other teams. When I saw that the cars behind were not catching me I told myself eOkay I've made some places now just keep going.' I felt very positive and thought I could maybe get one point. But when I saw so many of the other drivers having problems and making mistakes I got more and more hopeful.

I thought that a podium was possible in the last part of the race because I actually assumed that Kimi Raikkonen still had to make a pitstop. So after the safety car came in once I'd seen in my mirrors that the Sauber was too far behind me to attack I set about putting pressure on Rubens Barrichello in front and concentrated on getting to the finish.

I had no warning that my engine was going to blow. When I tried to go through Eau Rouge it just stopped. I started to press everything in the cockpit trying to work out what happened. I was full throttle downshifting doing everything I could then I saw the smoke and realised the engine had gone. I didn't really believe it three laps and only 18km from home. Looking back while it was disappointing not to bring home the points I was still happy to be on the pace and show that our car was competitive.

On paper Monza is a circuit that should suit our car. It's a medium-fast speed track where the engine makes a difference so that should help us as the torque of our engine is very good.

I didn't race at Monza in F3000 but I've had some good moments there in F1 especially in 2000. That time I found myself back in 15th early on but I overtook so many cars in the race that I was up to third by my pit stop. I changed my strategy and finished sixth but it was a good race for passing and I had a lot of fun.

I especially like the Parabolica corner. It's a real driver's corner - compared to most of the corners on the calendar you really feel that driving style can make a big difference there. Arriving in seventh gear at 350-355kmh we downshift three gears and then speed off. As a driver you can really feel the speed and the exit is very long and you can play with the car there.

The corner depends a lot on the tyre degradation and from the first lap on a new set of tyres to the last it changes every time. We must always find a different limit of what the car can do and not exceed it at all. It is really down to the driver.

Having a test session so close to the race weekend enables us to work more closely on set-up and tyre evaluation. We completed over 400 laps during the three-day session with Olivier Ryan and me which gave us plenty of time to improve the balance and carry out a lot of back-to-back runs looking mainly at tyres and traction control. I hope that our homework and preparation leads to some points for Toyota on Sunday afternoon.