Max Papis
Adrian Fernandez |
MERRILL CAIN: Good afternoon,
everyone. Thanks for joining us for this week's CART media
teleconference. I'm Merrill Cain with CART public relations.
We're pleased to be joined today by Adrian Fernandez, owner of
Fernandez Racing and driver of the #51 Tecate/Quaker State
/Telmex Honda/Lola/Bridgestone.
Adrian was of course injured in the closing laps of the last
CART FedEx Championship Series Molson Indy Vancouver. Over the
course of the last week, he's been recovering from a hairline
fracture of his left hip suffered in that accident. Actually
it's an accident that Adrian has called the worst of his
career. The injury will force Adrian to miss this weekend's
race, the CART Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio.
We're also pleased to be joined today by the driver who will
replace Adrian behind the wheel of the #51 car, Max Papis.
Adrian, we'll begin with you on the teleconference today.
First of all, give us an update on your condition. How are you
feeling? How is the rehabilitation going? If you could also
tell us your feelings in bringing in a driver of Max's
considerable skills as a replacement as you continue your
recovery.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: First of all, thank you everybody. It's good
to be here. It's an important day for us. My recovery is
getting better, even though we as athletes always want a
quicker recovery than what we're having, even though the
recovery is coming quicker than everybody expected.
It's very painful. I have to spend basically eight hours a day
in massages and all types of electrostimulation in my skin to
try to get the swelling down. A lot of exercise in the gym, in
the pool, et cetera, et cetera. Every day I can feel that I'm
moving more. I'm still very stiff. I still have a lot of
swelling on my right leg and my butt.
But it's getting better, and I feel that if I keep improving
the way I'm doing, hopefully I will be ready to get back in
the car for Elkhart Lake. You never know. I'm treating every
day as it comes, giving it my best effort, trying to rest as
much as I can, trying to eat as healthy as I can and try to
push as hard as I can without exceeding my body's limitations.
So I have the best group of people taking care of me. [CART
Chief Orthopedic Consultant] Terry [Trammel, M.D.] has given
me the best advice along with [CART Director of Medical
Affairs] Steve [Olvey, M.D.]. I have Brett Fischer, which I
think in my opinion is one of the best physiotherapists here
in Phoenix, together with my trainer. They're giving me the
best possible help and physiotherapy to get back as soon as
possible.
In terms of Max [ Papis], well, [Fernandez Team Owners] Don
Halliday and Tom Anderson, my partners, we were actually
thinking, and I was thinking actually from day one, day two,
when I had the accident, I mean, I was so hurt in that it was
hard to believe that I could get back into the race car that
soon. So that's when we started thinking. Everybody put their
thoughts in. Everybody made sort of their list of people that
they thought could take my place for the next race.
We all came up with the same name, which was Max. We all think
that Max is a proven driver. I've been racing with him for so
many years. He's the best driver available. He has a lot of
experience. Unfortunately, he had some problems with his team
and he couldn't continue the season but, I mean, it was very
impressive what he did with such little resources, such a
small team. I think that's what impresses everybody.
We thought that Max could help the team and lead the team
together with [Fernandez Racing teammate] Shinji [Nakano] who
has raced dramatically in the last three to four races, and
lead us in a good way for Mid-Ohio. So I'm very pleased that
Max was able to take the offer and join us for this next race.
MERRILL CAIN: Thanks, Adrian. With that let's bring in Max
Papis. First all off, Max, congratulations on this great
opportunity. It's obviously been an up-and-down season for
you. You competed in the first five races of the season for
Sigma Auto Sport, scoring 32 championship points. You had two
podium finishes for really an underfunded team. You had to sit
on the sidelines for the last five events, but now you get an
opportunity to showcase your abilities again for Fernandez
Racing in Mid-Ohio this weekend. It's also the place where you
made your first Champ Car start back in 1996. Can you talk
about this opportunity and what it means for you to get back
on the racetrack?
MAX PAPIS: First of all, let me tell you I'm extremely pleased
to be here talking with you guys. Adrian, Tom and Don gave me
great opportunity here. First of all, I hope Adrian is back in
the car as soon as possible because being a replacement driver
is not really the way I like to be in motor racing. Luckily
it's a circumstance where Adrian is not really badly hurt and
he's on his way to recovery. So I think that this is a great
opportunity again to join a really professional team with a
great fan base- maybe one of the greatest in CART now. I've
been able to work with Honda since the first time in 1994 when
I drove my first ever Formula 1 car for them in Team Lotus. So
I feel that doing this right now and doing it in such a
professional environment as Fernandez Racing and doing it at
Mid-Ohio, where actually I had my race debut in 1996, is
something that will make me very proud. I have a lot of race
fans as well there. Hopefully we're going to join my fans and
Adrian's fans together. If that happens, it might account for
the whole crowd (laughter).
MERRILL CAIN: We have a number of journalists on the line
here, both American and from south of the border as well.
Let's open it up for questions.
Q. Adrian, are you visiting a facility here in Phoenix for
your ongoing therapy or are they coming to your home in
Paradise Valley?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: I go visit a facility. It's south of
Phoenix. I don't know if you have heard of Fishers Port. Brett
Fischer is a guy that trains a lot of the guys from the
[Arizona] Diamondbacks, and many other athletes. He's one of
the top physiotherapists. He has his own business now. I
commute every day. It's just 25 minutes, so it's not bad.
Q. What are you doing with Brett? Is it eight hours a day?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Well, I spend like three hours with him
basically. They put these things, I can't remember the name,
and they put this cream on top of you.
MAX PAPIS: Electrostimulator.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: That one (laughter).
They put it all on my body. Right now it's very hard. What
they're trying to do is stimulate the blood. There is a lot of
basically bad blood there that is basically dead, almost dead,
and there's so much swelling there, they're just trying to
relieve it and get it away from that area.
The swelling is going away. He puts me in heat and then in
cold, with other types of stimulation. Then he has me do some
exercises and some massages. But every day is different
depending on how the injury is going.
I go to my club where I do a lot of exercise in the swimming
pool. Then I do some exercise that I can do, for example, my
upper body that is not hurt. I can keep my fitness level up.
As far as cardiovascular, it's hard to keep it up because
there is nothing really that I can do for it. I can do some
cycling, but very low pace. So at the moment I'm just trying
sort of to keep up with something so I don't lose too much.
I was in very good shape before the accident. I think that is
helping me tremendously to get back.
Q. Are you using a cane or anything? Can you walk okay?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: No, I'm using crutches. Because the
fractures are on the left side of my hip, one close to the
coccyx, to the pelvis, it's very uncomfortable to put weight
on my left leg. I can put maybe 60% weight on the left leg and
a hundred percent on the right one. I still have to walk with
crutches at the moment.
Q. Max Papis has a good race in Mid-Ohio last year. He started
in 26th and finish 9th. This is a good position to run the
race. Did you consider this when you selected Papis?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Not really. I mean, we thought about Max,
then we thought about what he's done there in the past, but it
was just purely coincidence. I think giving him the proper
equipment, he can be very quick everywhere.
Max has a very good foundation of fans and people since he
drove with the former team [Rahal] in Mid-Ohio. He had good
results there. I think at the end, it just worked perfectly.
All of that was just a coincidence.
MERRILL CAIN: Max actually wound up I believe in the 24th
position last year at Mid-Ohio. He does have a couple of
top-five finishes at the course, if I'm not mistaken.
MAX PAPIS: Absolutely. Mid-Ohio was the place where I made my
debut and I finished fifth in '99, I think. You know, it is
just something really special. Again, as I told you, to be
back in the car after two months, it's a great honor. The
other important thing is, I hold 32 points in the
championship. I think that with few more points, maybe I can
be back in the top 10 again (laughter).
MERRILL CAIN: You never know what might happen.
MAX PAPIS: You never know.
Q. Adrian, are you going to be able to make it up here at all
this weekend or are you going to have to stay in Phoenix?
What's the projection as to when you'll be able to go back in
the car?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Yeah, we thought about it. But it will be
very bad for me to go to Mid-Ohio because it's a lot of flying
time, it's a lot of downtime for me to recovering. There are a
lot of things that I'm doing that I cannot do in Ohio. The
following weekend is the next race. If I'm really trying to
get back in the race car, those four, five days that I'll be
there, I think I can use them very productively here in
Phoenix just trying to get back in shape.
Q. Max, it's great to hear that you're coming back to
Mid-Ohio. You're certainly right about all the fans you have
here. At the CART town meeting last Thursday here in Columbus,
Chris Pook mentioned he expects next year the car counts to be
back up to the range of maybe 22, 24, several teams will be
coming in. Have you been talking with anybody in particular
about a ride for next year?
MAX PAPIS: I'm a businessman, and at the same time I'm a
sportsman. Of course, I've been looking around for different
options for me for next year. But at the moment, I am 110%
focused on Mid-Ohio to give the best results I can for
Adrian's team. I know that Don Halliday, Tom and Adrian have
been putting in a lot of effort up to now. I feel that their
task for success is very similar to what has been my task for
success this year.
At the beginning, we started with nothing, and we ended up
third in the championship, actually placing on the podium
twice. I feel that I want to give my 110% focus to bring home
the best results I can. Of course, I've got people in places
that are doing the talking, controlling what's happening in
the market for me for the future.
Again, in the future, you never know what's going to happen.
Maybe Adrian wants to have one more car in CART. For me next
year, a lot of things are going to be up in the air. As I
said, I'm a businessman. At the moment my only focus is doing
the best I can for Fernandez Racing this weekend. If that is
going to lead to something more for the future, it's something
that is going to be more than welcome and I'm going to
evaluate that in the best way I can.
Q. Do you know if it's possible you will be in Elkhart Lake?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Well, if I go to race there, probably I will
go Thursday. I will fly Thursday before the event.
MERRILL CAIN: I think she was asking when you would make that
determination.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Sorry, sorry.
Well, basically it will have to be almost on Wednesday or
Tuesday before that week. Hopefully after this week I will
start getting better and better. I think right now if I would
choose to go to Mid-Ohio, it was going to be the wrong
decision. I'm still in a lot of pain. I can't imagine right
now sitting in the race car.
But my body is improving considerably every day, as I said. So
I hope to know something by next Monday. But every day I'm
getting better, so probably even Wednesday or Tuesday of next
week will be the time to start realizing if I'm close or not
close to drive again.
Q. Can we say that 2003 will be the year of your triumph
together with Max?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: 2003? It would be nice. I tell you, I have
talked to Don and Tom. We would love to have Max as a driver
next year. We're working in a lot of areas to try to find
sponsors, as Max is working in his area to find some sponsors.
I think that will be a very successful combination. It will be
nice to have somebody like Max helping leading the team.
This team is still very young, but he has a lot of good
talent. I think the team is ready to win. There are a few
little things that we need to put in place so the team can be
a hundred percent competitive.
But, drivers like Max would definitely help the team raise
their game and get to where we want to be. So we're working
hard to get the sponsors and to get the support we need to
hire people like Max Papis. That would be ideal for us.
Q. Max, Mid-Ohio, shall we say, will be a sort of revenge to
your undeserved situation?
MAX PAPIS: First of all, definitely, no, it's not revenge
because I feel I've done everything in my power to bring home
results every time I could this year. It's good satisfaction
for sure. I have a lot of fire and a lot of hunger inside of
me in order to go out and achieve the best results I can.
There have been a lot of thoughts going through my mind, a lot
of things in the past couple months. I've been thinking a lot
about my life, my career. I've been training really hard in
order to keep my physical fitness up, even if it's very
difficult because, when you're not in a car, you cannot really
replicate what the physical effort is going to be like when
you're in the car.
But I feel that I have a lot of hunger and a lot of fire
inside of me. Hopefully these things are going to bring home a
good result for Adrian and, again, I'm always the same person,
I am always a very determined and focused person. But I keep
the smile on my face because motor racing is always motor
racing, you know, is not a war.
Q. Adrian, looking toward this weekend, when the decision was
made that you could not get back into the car, what went
through your mind? How do you handle that?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Well, it's not the first time this has
happened to me. Remember a few years ago in '99 I broke my
wrist in Detroit. I actually missed four races at that time. I
found PJ Jones to replace me for those races.
When you're injured, you're injured. There's nothing you can
do. It's an unfortunate situation. Some of us as drivers have
been there. You just have to understand your situation and
your priorities actually change. My priority right now is to
get as healthy as I was before and get into the race car as
soon as possible.
When you're in a situation like that, basically it's hard.
But, I mean, maybe '99 was a little bit harder because I was
in very good position in the championship. Unfortunately, this
year we're not as strong as we wish we will be in the
championship. It does hurt a little bit, but at the same time
I think it will be a good opportunity for us to have Don
Halliday and our engineering staff work with another driver
and see where we are with that.
I don't think it's too negative. I always believe that things
happen for a reason. I believe this is happening for a reason.
At the end we will see what opportunities this bad situation
is going to bring.
Q. On Sunday the difference will be you'll be watching a car
that has your name printed on the side of it, and you'll be
watching it from TV.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: It will be nice. I'll be relaxed. Max is
going to be suffering there.
MAX PAPIS: I tell you guys, I've been watching the races on
TV, as well, from Italy. It's a strange feeling.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: It is a strange feeling. Don't mess around
with my cockpit, Max. Don't change the things. I like things
the way they are (laughter).
MAX PAPIS: Okay. I'm going to keep it as it is.
Q. Max, you mentioned briefly a few moments ago what it's been
like for the last five races. You talked about trying to keep
your physical conditioning up. You're as much, in my opinion,
a mental racer as you are a physical racer. How have you tried
to stay mentally sharp?
MAX PAPIS: First of all, let me tell you, when I started my
season this year, I never thought I would end up not racing
after Laguna Seca. It's been a very unfortunate situation,
something that I couldn't predict, something that really upset
me a lot because I was very committed to bringing home very
good results. We were on a good path to achieving great
results. Actually I still hold 32 points in the championship.
Keeping the past in the past and looking in the future, I
felt, being out of the races gave me time to think about my
life besides motor racing. It's not easy to be out there
watching people on TV that you know you can do better job than
sometimes. You have the will, you have the passion, and you
can't do it.
But at the same time life is unfair. Life is always unfair.
You need to push things toward what is going to be the best
for you. You have to create your own opportunity.
Unfortunately, this situation with Adrian, again, is not what
I wanted to do. Again, I'm not someone who is around in the
paddock waiting for someone to get hurt to jump in the car.
That's absolutely far away from any of my concepts and my
value of a racer.
But I was pleased that Adrian chose me in a very unfortunate
moment. In this moment I'm very close to him, I really do
understand what it means being hurt. I was hurt a couple years
ago in Fontana. Luckily it was the last race of the season. It
took almost two months for me to recover.
It's a difficult mental process. At the same time, your mind
doesn't really have much time to think about, "All right, who
do I have to ask to be replacing me? Who is the guy I want in
the car?" Your mind is on, "I need to get better. I need to be
in the car immediately." These decisions are very delicate
decisions.
To come back on my side, I say to you again, I was out of the
car for a while, but the fire that is inside of me has always
been inside of me and is here still. Other people have the
opportunity to do what Adrian did. They didn't.
Sorry for them. I'm very pleased to join Adrian. I'm going to
do the best I can and give all the fire and all the passion
I've got for the sport to Adrian's team. Maybe for just one
weekend, but it's a fun thing for me to do too.
Q. You say you looked at your life, had a lot of time to
think. Did you come to any conclusions?
MAX PAPIS: I'm not a poet. I'm living out my life. My life is
complete even without motor racing. I'm a happy person even
without motor racing. Of course, I love motor racing, and
motor racing is the way for me to achieve my goals and my
dreams in my life. It's the thing that I'm best at. I can't
play soccer that well. I felt, you know, through motor racing,
I've always been able to achieve my goals and my dreams in my
life.
Again, I feel that I have a different value and different
things. This is just a little bit of time to think about
what's the important part of life- that is your values, being
a good person and looking around to see what the future can
bring. At the same time, looking the future, as I always said,
I'm not desperate. I am a race car driver that has a lot of
wins still in his backpack, a lot of will, and I'm going to
achieve my goals and I want to do in the future.
At the moment the goal, again, is working with Adrian, giving
the best things I can, and hopefully I'm going to be back at
Elkhart Lake, and he will maybe need me there as an advisor,
if nothing else.
Q. Adrian, have you ever talked to get any Mexican driver that
you thought in 2003 probably will be in racing to prove in
these events when you are missed?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: No. We considered all of our options. We
talked with our sponsors in Mexico. In reality, there is
nobody really ready right now to just jump in the car. I mean,
there is not much practice that you have on Friday. You have
one hour and a half. After that you go to qualifying. They
took a lot of the practice that we had last year on Friday. It
puts a lot of pressure on somebody that has not even driven
the car.
The only really guy that can do it right now is Luis Diaz from
[the CART Toyota] Atlantic [Championship]. Unfortunately,
there is no time to put him in the race car for practice or
anything like that. Again, Honda doesn't really allow us to
put any drivers without any laps in the car prior to an event.
So this happened so quickly, there was not a way to make that
even possible. That was an easy choice in that respect because
that was not an option.
Q. Max, do you think you get revenge in life? Oriol Servia has
an opportunity with Patrick [Racing], you with Adrian.
MAX PAPIS: You know, first of all, let me tell you, I bought a
Spanish dictionary. So you guys can have all the Spanish
interviews you want. I'm improving my Spanish every day. I'm
watching Spanish TV.
First of all, I want to tell you something. At my first ever
race at Mid-Ohio, the first ever live interview was for TV
Azteca and it was difficult. I was on the grid. It's kind of a
funny thing for me to be back in an all Mexican team with
Adrian.
For what you said, revenge, I don't believe in revenge. Nobody
owes me anything. I make my own future. I build my own future
with my hands. I'm pleased that Adrian gave me this
opportunity. There is no revenge because nobody did anything
against me. I only have the will to achieve my goals. I'm
going to use that will in the best way I can on Sunday. I know
it's not going to be easy because I've never driven a
Honda-powered car and I've never worked with Fernandez Racing.
But I will take it step by step, try to get the best out of
it, because we will have an hour and a half practice,
qualifying, another hour and a half practice, qualifying.
After that, maybe I will have to go back again and watch the
races on TV. I will take the best out of those three days and
leave them with an open heart and great feeling.
MERRILL CAIN: Max, you pointed out you've never driven a
Honda-powered car before, you will be in a Honda this weekend.
How quickly do you think it will take you to get up to speed?
Do you think it benefits you from the situation you were in
with Sigma, not having much testing time, but you were
productive there?
MAX PAPIS: What it takes to achieve goals and success is
chemistry between the driver, engineers and mechanics. I was
pleased when I walked into the Fernandez Racing shop today
that I saw a lot of familiar faces, a lot of mechanics that I
have worked with in the past. There's even a guy here I've
been working with in Europe.
Don Halliday, I know him. I've never worked with him because
it was Kenny Brack's engineer last year on my team.
I felt maybe what I've been going through with Sigma this
year, you know, I don't really know. I didn't want it to be of
a help because let's say I started under very different
condition and circumstances. I feel now that I've learned a
lot, I've matured and gained quite a lot of experience. I'm
going to bring all those factors in play, with my will to
succeed.
Again, I was always a Friday morning practice and Friday
afternoon qualifying guy in a way that I've never really been
able to practice or do anything with Sigma this year. But
we've been able to achieve great goals. That tells you that,
no matter what, you can achieve your dreams or goals. You need
to believe in it.
I know I haven't got much time to develop, but I hope that
come Sunday afternoon we will have a little bit of chemistry
between all of us where I will be able to be understood
without talking too much.
Q. Adrian, obviously a heavy impact there in Vancouver. Glad
to hear you're making progress.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Thank you.
Q. Clearly, Bruno [Junqueira] came through the side of your
car. Can you talk about the safety implications, whether the
car did its job or whether more needs to be done there to
prevent the intrusion in the chassis?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Absolutely. I believe that we need to still
work on trying to find a solution because if a car is hit on
the side by another car, there is so much strength put in
these cars on the side. But the nose is so strong, and the
nose of Bruno's car basically wasn't damaged. It was basically
like a rocket. When he broke, he went underneath the side, hit
the top, broke the top, hit the carbon fiber and I believe the
carbon fiber basically saved me. It made a huge hole in the
car, then basically hit my right side in my hip, my butt,
everything.
As for the noses, maybe there is something we can do that when
it hits the car, maybe it can dissipate some of the energy,
and a structure that can take some of the impact and then make
it hard after that in a bigger surface area so it doesn't
penetrate. What we have to do is study with CART and try to
learn something from here.
Also something that I believe has to go is corners like that
like in Vancouver, either they make it more visible or they
have to go. It's absolutely too dangerous. I was a little bit
mad on TV really to just watch the broadcast that nobody made
comments about how the accident happened. They don't even
mention it. The only thing you hear is [Alex] Tagliani saying,
"I got hit by Fernandez." They don't even make a story of what
really happened.
You watch the broadcast and it's very easy to see what
happened. I mean, what happened was [Patrick] Carpentier lost
the car, he was lucky not to hit anything. So lucky he was, he
didn't put his hands away from his steering wheel. He
basically gave up. Suddenly he found himself straight again
and didn't hit anything.
But then you can see in Tagliani's in-car camera, he went down
two gears, broke right at the exit of the kink, broke very
heavily, and went two gears down. I wasn't that close to him.
So when I came out of the kink, the first thing I saw was
Tagliani almost parked. I had no chance- absolutely none. It
was completely blind. That's when I hit him. That's when my
car veered to the right and that's when Bruno, who was one lap
down, wanted to do a fake start, so he didn't get involved in
any crash. He came out of the corner completely blind, he saw
me sideways, had no way to go and completely t-boned me on the
side.
That corner is flat out, but it's not that easy flat out
because is very bumpy. So, you're asking for a disaster to
happen sooner or later. I'm going to talk to CART, because I
think out of all the corners in the series, no other corner is
like that. This is very fast. This corner needs to be changed
or opened so we can at least have some preventive moves in
case somebody spins. We need a little bit of a chance to see
what's happening ahead of us. The radio or yellow flags can
help you because it happened so quickly. So that needs to be
looked at. The system of the nose has to be changed.
[Tommy] Kendall really needs to try to see exactly what
happened. Out of thousands, thousands fans in Mexico, I saw
the broadcast, and it almost sounds like I was the guilty part
of the accident. So that really made me a little bit mad.
Q. Max, what do you think your realistic expectations are for
the weekend?
MAX PAPIS: First of all, I'm very glad I'm not going to be
joining you at the commentating booth, as was the plan.
Realistically, I would be pretty happy if I would walk away
from Mid-Ohio with a top-five finish. But you can never put a
number on your goals actually. I feel we've got all the tools,
equipment and people here to be able to create something
unbelievable. So I'm going to put my head down, do the best
job I can, and see what comes out of there.
I'm always a very realistic person. That means that I know
that I have a lot of hurdles to go through. But in my career,
in my life, I've been able to jump pretty high over the
hurdles. As you guys well know, I feel that if there is
something that doesn't lack in me, it's the will to go out
there and achieve my goals despite every difficult situation.
I'm going to apply once again my positive thoughts, my will
and my determination, and we see what comes out over there.
I'm looking forward to going out there and meeting all the
race fans that have been so kind to me through these months
when I was home, looking around for different things. All
these race fans have always been behind me. All the people,
they've been supporting me, I'm sure they're going to make a
difference when it's going to come down to a time where people
have to make a decision and have to say who is going to be the
best guy in the car for next year, or who is going to be the
most loved person. I think all those things make a difference,
even if people don't realize, but they do a lot.
I'm really looking forward to be out there, especially in a
car that is so loved by people, like Adrian's car. I've always
been kind of, you know, envious of him. He always had his
pickup truck on the parade lap, full of people. Hopefully this
time they are going to be with me.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: You'll have them.
Q. Adrian, I'm not really clear how happy you are with your
current situation. I wondered if you see a change in the
future that would involve Max long-term.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Well, right now I believe that I still have
a few years of driving for myself. I have accomplished a lot
of my goals in racing and business. Even more, I have
surpassed a lot of those goals. But I haven't finished my
business racing in CART. I want to win races for Fernandez
Racing. I still have a few years left in me.
We had some difficulties in the last few races. I mean, the
team has definitely raised their game from last year. Our pit
stops are better. The organization is a lot better. But for
some reason or the other, in the last few races, our race car
was absolutely lost. The setup of the car was lost. We were
very, very slow. We came to Vancouver trying to understand
what was happening. The car was a lot more competitive. We did
some things that for some reason just took us a little bit
longer to get of or to find. But the car was a much more
drivable car, it was much more competitive.
I feel that Max will benefit from these last things that we
found in the race car. I'm trying to get back into the race
car. Like I said before, it will be a very good thing if we
can find the money, find the support, and hopefully try to get
Max to drive the other car. I think for both of us, it's
actually better to have two drivers than just one driver. That
would be our first priority. Right now, to be honest, I
haven't thought about retirement yet.
Q. Looking ahead, at the town meeting [CART President and
CEO]Chris Pook said he wanted to encourage all of the Champ
Car teams to develop the ladder system, Atlantic teams.
Adrian, have you looked toward this possibility for next year?
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Well, we in a way are helping at Telmex,
with Mexican drivers. I was involved in that process and in
that development. We are basically helping six to seven to
eight drivers in different series from Mexico, to Barber[Dodge
Pro Series], to Atlantics. In a way we have already started.
I don't think right now it's appropriate for the team to do
that. We are still young and we need to first cover our bases,
be competitive and win races. After that, we'll think about
it.
When you go too quickly sometimes you overgrow yourself, you
don't do what you were supposed to do. I don't want to bring
the wrong message to our sponsors right now, like Quaker State
and Telmex, that we're not focusing on what we're trying to
achieve.
At some point in the future we may consider it. At this time I
don't feel that we should be doing that because we are already
doing it in a way.
Q. Pook also mentioned, not starting under the caution, but
starting under the green, bringing back standing starts to the
series. What do you think about that?
MAX PAPIS: I think the show is good enough even without
standing starts. If you are thinking about standing starts,
you have to revise a lot of the tracks we are going to race
on, a lot of the first corners we're going to race on.
I think you can focus in other places. The show is already
pretty good. I think that it's a minor thing. I think it's a
minor thing right now from my point of view.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: I agree. I agree, too.
MERRILL CAIN: Adrian and Max, thank you both for joining us on
the CART media teleconference this afternoon. Adrian, we wish
you the best of luck in your recovery. We hope we do see you
at Round 12 at Road America at Elkhart Lake in a couple weeks.
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Thanks.
MERRILL CAIN: Max, we'll be looking forward to seeing you in
action this weekend in Round 11 of the CART FedEx Championship
Series, the CART Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio at the Mid-Ohio Sports
Car Course. Again, congratulations for the opportunity. We
look forward to seeing you this weekend.
MAX PAPIS: Thanks a lot. Let me say congratulations, because
it's kind of offensive towards what happened with Adrian.
Let's say go out and do the best you can. That's what I'm
going to do.
MERRILL CAIN: Thank you. This Sunday's race will be seen live
on CBS television at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Thanks again to
everyone and have a great afternoon.
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Ricardo González
News and Commentary
