June 17, 2004
With a fine first time victory for the FinOz team, the Championship is really starting to come alive!!

Winner - Steve Elencevski (FinOz - Ferrari (c))

Q: Great result Steve, your first race victory here in F1VWC! How does it feel?

Thanks. Certainly a great result for the team & myself! It feels great to be on the top step of the podium for the first time & i hope we can make it a regular thing.

Q: Did you have any problems with your race?

Not really. The first stint went pretty good, & the car even felt good during the longer middle stints, so i could lap consistently. So no real problems.

Q: There is some strong competition in this league, but can you and the FinOz team secure more victories in the remainder of the season?

Yes the league is very competitive & we have worked hard for this win. I do think we can get a few more wins since i have sorted some problems i've had from the beginning of the season. We'll continue to work hard & fight for wins & see how the championship unfolds.

Q: How has the season so far met your expectations?

Apart from the problems i mentioned, i have to say i'm quite pleased with how it's all gone. It's my first season driving GP4 competitively & we are always learning things at every circuit we go to. If i can finish in the top 3 or 4 of the Driver's championship & we finish in the top 4-5 of the Constructor's then we would have accomplished the targets we set out at the start of the season & look forward to an even better 2005, but there's still a long way to go this year & we'll continue to fight til the last race.

2nd - Scott Whiteman (EIRE - Jaguar)

Q: Another podium for you Scott, how did it go?

Well in all honesty it could have gone better, i had a spin costing me about 4 - 5 seconds which took me from being in a position to press Steve to being that safe distance behind him and not being able to take him out of his comfort zone. But congratulations to him, a great event.

Q: It has taken 7 races for someone to beat you in a straight fight in a race, does this give you confidence in closing the gap to Mikko?

Well i would also class my failure at monaco as suffering a loss as it was me who was unable to finish and not the machinery, but obviosuly the more people that are challenging for race victories the more possibility there is for gaps in the table to change quickly.

Q: What are your expectations for the rest of the season?

Obviously I'm a realist, and being so many points behind Mikko means that i cannot afford anything else to go wrong with myself or the EIRE car for the rest of the season.

Q: Usually you have something funny to tell us in the Press Conference, what will it be this time?

I've actually decided that i will be more serious from now on, so nothing funny, I do however think that McLaren are a shoo in to win the constructors title in the FIA championship this year!

3rd - Mikko Jakonen (Mapes-VO - Honda)

Q: Well done Mikko, another podium in 2004, how did it go?

Thanks, yep I managed to get to podium again, which I consider a good result after all the turmoil that we've had. We could manage really little preparation for this race and as a result my setup was far from optimal. I was consistently several tenths off pace in the first sector, which cost me the chance to fight for higher positions today, I just had too much understeer through the first couple of corners. The car wasn't very comfortable, so halfway through the race it became obvious that third place was the best I could manage, so I concentrated on maintaining that.

Q: A respectable result also for your new team mate, with strong performances like that, can Mapes-VO win the Constructors title?

Yes, Matt did a really find job, it seems all he needed was a decent car! I'm quite happy driving with him and our chances for the Constructors title are as good as ever. We just need to keep scoring points consistently, if we do that I think we have a very good chance of renewing the title.

Q: Although Scott finished ahead, he hasn't caught up too much in the Championship, and he has been beaten in a straight fight for the first time, how important is this?

Yeah it's good to know he's beatable, too bad it wasn't done by me. I think everybody has ironed out their problems by this time so the fight for wins will be very tight the rest of the season. I just need to get some more performance out of the car and myself to keep in that fight. I still have a comfortable lead in the Championship but I have to be able to beat Scott (and Steve) in the track more often than not to not lose this advantage.

Q: How has the team coped with losing Petri?

We've had some hectic times this last week. At some point I wasn't sure we'd get our cars in the grid, all the mechanics were busy adapting the car for Matt, they barely had time to prepare my car for the qualifying. Considering that our 3-4 result was really outstanding, everybody did a 200% job to make that possible. Right now I would really like to have a little break to be able to go to factory and get everything sorted out, but all these back-to-back races make that really difficult. I just have to hope the team can keep doing the magnificent job they have so far, and prepare a winning car for us in the American races. It won't be easy.

But getting Matt to replace Petri was the smartest thing to do, he at least knows the car and the team already, and proved himself fast in the first outing. So I think we'll be stronger than ever, at least by the time we get back to Europe, if not before that.