GP Monaco preview with Tonio

After slightly disappointing finish in the Spanish Grand Prix, Tonio is now eagerly anticipating the Monaco Grand Prix, which will take place just one week after the last race. The Italian has a strong record around the Principality; he drove three GP’s and qualified in the top 13 on all occasions. His best finish was 10th in 2006. In the 2004 F3000 race, he also started from pole and won the race.

Q. How was the Spanish Grand Prix weekend for you as a whole?
TL: “It was a really long weekend as we had some problems with the balance from the beginning of the weekend. On Friday and Saturday morning we had a couple of issues with the tyres and then the throttle and unfortunately I couldn’t do the morning running before qualifying so I had to jump into qualifying a bit blind. Obviously it was not the best situation and it really hampered the starting position, which again affected how we could perform in the race. It’s a shame as we were expecting a lot from this Grand Prix as we were pretty fast in Barcelona in the winter testing.”

Q. In the race you pitted early but then got caught into some traffic – was this very frustrating for you?
TL: “Starting from so far behind in the race it was always going to be pretty difficult to catch the field. I struggled a bit on the first stint with the soft tyres as I was suffering a lot with snap understeer and oversteer as the car was not ideal after qualifying and due to the parc ferme rules you cannot modify it any more. In the end part of the race we set some pretty good lap times, so we can be happy about this aspect. I could have finished in 13th but we had an issue at the end that stopped us – we have to look into this now. It was still a good weekend for the team though as Adrian finished in the points so the motivation is still high.”

Q. Looking forward to Monaco, it will be your 50th race start – what are your feelings on this?
TL: “I never counted, but it’s good to know! It’s good to know I have been in this business for quite a while and reaching 50 races is an achievement, and it feels particularly nice to be able to do this in Monaco. I love the track, it’s a great race and we always have some highlights there. I really want to be back in the points to celebrate my 50th race.”

Q. Your last race was in 2007 and the track is pretty unique on the calendar – will you have to relearn it at all?
TL: “I won’t have to relearn the track as I have quite a bit of experience there from F3000 and then the three years I did in F1, but for sure the cars have changed a lot since I was last there and you need to get used to the handling on this type of high downforce, twisty circuit. Qualifying is for sure going to be tough here with the 24 cars out on Q1 so we will have to really work hard to optimise this, but the race is always a real thrill for any driver. The aim is to do the maximum and get back into the points.”