Q. Ferrari voiced concerns that some teams may be pushing the legal limit of the double diffuser, are you comfortable that all the technical people are in line with what is allowed?
RB: I think so. There were some interesting requests to Charlie Whiting a few months ago. I thought Charlie was very clear on what he considered to be acceptable. So I think Ferrari is probably referring to those requests, because they were pretty extreme and I think they got tidied up. Whether there is something we don't know about, who knows? We haven't seen other people's cars. We have got the Red Bull next week and Adrian (Newey) normally manages to think pretty laterally about what he is doing. I am not aware of anything [but] we will have to wait and see.
Q. Are there any surprises when you look at the other cars, are there any components which are worth looking at?
RB: It's too early to say, to be honest; we haven't had a very good look. All the photographers are out there gathering data for the teams. I am sure when the engineers pour all over the photographs there will be some interesting things. Obviously, most teams have gone to high front chassis of varying degrees – as we have.
Q. But yours is lower than others...
RB: Hmm – the tip of the nose, but where we feel it most beneficial which is on the front bulkhead it is fairly high. That was the problem for Nico – when he got in the car, he was finding a problem with the height that was necessary to see the corner apexes properly. Obviously, he did his seat fitting in the factory and when he got out on the circuit it was a little bit different.
Q. What areas have you looked to improve over last year's car?
RB: Well, there were a few challenges. One is obviously the fuel capacity. We believe the Bridgestone tires need a different weight distribution than they had last year – they have a different characteristic, so we had to design the car around that. I think the predominant thing is for all the teams to find more aerodynamic performance. This is not the definitive car; the definitive car comes out for Bahrain. It's an interim car for us, as I am sure it is for all the major teams. Mainly aerodynamic performance.
Q. How will it be different to optimize the car for Michael to the drivers you had in the car last year?
RB: Michael is very precise in describing what's going on and what he wants, and what he feels is needed. He is very clear on what he feels and what he thinks the direction is for the changes to come. That has always been notable about Michael in his career. That is probably the most noticeable difference, but both Rubens (Barrichello) and Jenson (Button) gave very good information on the car, so it was never a problem. It's that Michael is perhaps more precise in his opinions and what is happening.
Q. What did he bring to the table after today?
RB: It is a constant process, it is not a specific thing. You are constantly trying to develop the car and understand what it is doing. At the moment he is fairly happy with the car and has not really pinpointed any areas we need to work on but I am sure as he gets into it more, and starts to find the limits of it more, then he will have stronger opinions about the areas we need to improve.
Q. What were the essentials that you wanted to take from today?
RB: We wanted to make sure that the drivers fitted properly, we needed to make sure the fundamental function of the car was good. All the basics really. You should also remember that Michael has never driven these tires. I know they are new tires this year but he didn't drive last year's tires either. So he has never driven them since '06. He needed to get a bit of an understanding with those - it was really the fundamentals today, we hardly touched the car. Apart from some front wing settings the car ran as it started all day.
Q. Was that because you didn't have a shakedown before you came?
RB: We had to do a lot of checking, checking the engine function, checking the fuel system, that's why there was a fairly big gap in the middle. We had to change the car for Michael, but we knew we had that gap and so that's why we configured the day to use both drivers to get a quick snapshot of how they both felt about the car.
Q. Were you afraid that Michael wouldn't be able to achieve a fast time for his self-confidence?
RB: No, I don't think Michael lacks self-confidence.
Q. Do you think Wednesday will be an exciting day with Michael meeting other World Champions Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso on the track?
RB: I think testing is a work program. It don't think it is really a consideration for him, it's not really for us. It's what we see at the first race when it starts to get exciting.
Q. It's not about intimidation slightly? Taking a psychological edge?
RB: Not in testing, I don't believe. You have got to do the work. You have got to run the programs properly and make sure the information is accurate. If you start doing those sort of things you can distort the program.