SBRS: Antonio Pizzonia interview

12/4/2002
Q&A with Antonio Pizzonia

Former Formula Dodge standout Antonio Pizzonia recently spoke to the press about his much anticipated rookie season in F1 competition. The Brazilian gained miles of experience as a Formula 1 test driver for Williams, impressing the team greatly with his natural speed and ability. And 2002 ended on the highest possible note for him. His time and effort at Williams helped convince Jaguar to sign him to an ambitious line-up.

Q: How happy are you that you have made the grade after a frustrating time in Formula 3000?

"I feel great. It is a dream come true so I am really happy to be here and hopefully I can help the team and do a good job."

Q: How difficult was it dealing with the disappointments of F3000 after such a great career before that?

"After one year testing for Williams I did a very good job there and that is why Niki and the rest of the Jaguar people decided to take me, because the tests I did for them and Williams meant that Frank Williams and Patrick Head were telling him about me. So I think that was a bit more important than the F3000 championship."

Q: Do you think you have a point to prove next season - and that your speed is more like you showed in British F3?

"Yeah, I hope so. There is a lot of work to be done here, but I am really happy because I really feel that everybody is working really hard and they are really excited about next season, and the new car looks promising, the new engine looks very promising as well. So we have to wait and see when we first drive the car. I can say that I will be working very, very hard to make things happen."

Q: What is a realistic target for next season, especially now that points go down to eighth place?

"I hope we can score some points and I think we can do that. Everybody is expected to have a better season than this year, so hopefully we can do better than what they did this year."

Q: Will the one-shot qualifying format make it more difficult for new drivers like yourself?

"I quite like the one-lap only format but the problem will be the tracks that I do not know, because I will lose quite a lot of track time. But anyway, it is probably going to be a little bit difficult in the first year but hopefully for the second season it is going to be good, because I quite like the idea of one lap only."

Q: Do you think that having two young chargers in the team will help lift Jaguar next season?

"Of course I am trying to prove what I can do, and Mark is probably in the same situation, so we are definitely going to be pushing each other quite a lot. But we also have to work together to build up the team, so at the track we are going to be racing each other all the time, but when we are not on the track we really have to work together and not let happen what happened this year between Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa, because it is not good for the team."

-Andrew Torres, cart/barber-

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