"Over a week after finishing third in Monaco, I am home in Brazil and with hindsight can see all the positive aspects of that race, which given that I started it from pole, could be seen as disappointing. But the most positive element to come out of it is that we proved that the Ferrari F2008 was definitely competitive there; the first time that has been the case for a few years now. Before going to Monaco, we could not be completely certain how the race would go after the disappointments of the last two years. While the facts show just one third place, it's entirely believable to say we could have won on the street circuit if the race had been run in normal conditions. I'm not saying we would have won easily, but victory would have been the logical conclusion to the weekend. In the end, we lost in what turned out to be a crazy race, given that we started from first and second on the grid with the best possible strategy.
It's clear we are up against two very strong opponents in McLaren and, even if they have not actually won a race yet, BMW. It's all getting very close and exciting and shows you need to pick up points in every race. So the six points we got in Monaco is not enough, but it's not bad and the fight for both championships is still very open.
Soon, I will be leaving home here in Sao Paolo where I have enjoyed a few days with my family and friends and heading off to Montreal. Based on what I've just said about Monaco, we can be optimistic about turning this event, which also has not gone too well for us in the past, into a successful weekend. At first sight, the twisty Monaco street circuit and the Montreal track have little in common but in fact, there are plenty of similarities. To start with, they both have a low grip surface that is usually very green and dirty at the start of the weekend. Like Monaco, we use very soft tyres there and also like Monaco, you need a car with good traction and stability; a very efficient car with good mechanical grip.
I like the Canadian circuit and I went well there earlier in my career, finishing fourth for Sauber in 2005. Last year was not so good, as I had that incident with the traffic light at the end of pit lane, and it was not a nice feeling leaving Canada having been black flagged during the race. It's an interesting track and all the teams will be in the same position of having had our "Montreal track" test day at the Ricard track wiped out by rain in the pre-Monaco test. I love the city and the atmosphere and I am looking forward to having a nice time there both on and off the track. There is plenty of support for Ferrari in this city and we also have a round of a Ferrari one-make series as a support race. It's nice to see a field of Ferrari road cars charging around a race track! I've got hardly any experience of racing anything with a roof, although I competed in two Super Touring races for Alfa Romeo back in 2001. In one race I crashed, but in the second one, I finished fifth and did what I had been brought in to do, namely help my team mate win the championship. It was good fun, as first time out, I qualified in front of my team-mates! Qualifying in front of the nineteen other cars in the field on Saturday afternoon would also be a good start to this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix."
