On whether the bigger team has an advantage in electronics that the customer does not have:
No I don't think so. We have our own control codes and we work on similar sort of things, and they're actually sort of interested in some of the things we do. They'll have an advantage because they probably have more people doing it, and that's an advantage. But I don't think there's now a big difference. And I think that if we produced aerodynamics that were 5 percent better than them we would go half a second quicker than them.
On a few other factors:
There are a few other factors in it, because sometimes when you've got more downforce you get a little more heat in the tires, and therefore your tire will actually work better. But in general if your tires are in the right working range and your car is two seconds behind Ferrari, you can factor your aerodynamic results and say that is the difference between the two cars.
On how much Spyker pays for the engines:
A lot. [Pause, laughter, questioning look from interviewer.] I would think most customer engine programs are in the region of euro 12 to 14 million per season.
On what they receive for such sums:
We have enough engines to cover the 17 races plus we have 20 000 kilometers of testing mileage. If they break that's their look out and they have to give us another one. For every 5,000 km of extra testing we want to do they will charge us a certain amount to do that extra mileage.
On what they receive for such sums:
We have enough engines to cover the 17 races plus we have 20 000 kilometers of testing mileage. If they break that's their look out and they have to give us another one. For every 5,000 km of extra testing we want to do they will charge us a certain amount to do that extra mileage.
On what he misses from his days working at a manufacturer team:
I think that nowadays from the chassis point of view, because the engine is so restricted, there is not actually much to miss, to be honest. You're a little less free in the installation but I mean, now, again you can't change the engine for three years so it's not as though you can suddenly change the engine mount and choose a different chassis arrangement or whatever. The manufacturers can't change anything either so I'm not sure we really do miss a lot. So as long as you have a good relationship with your engine supplier and you can afford the cost of the engines I don't see there's any reason why you can't go on and be competitive.
On when Spyker will start beating Ferrari and winning races:
I think that's a way away yet, but give me a few months.
