Winners' Press Conference Transcript
------------------------------------

1. Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford
2. Nicola Larini 	Ferrari
3. Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Peugeot

Q. Michael, is it possible to gain any satisfaction from a victory like this?

MS: There is no satisfaction at all for me. This win certainly should
make me satisfied, but for me too many things happened this weekend to
let me feel satisfied.

Q. You were behind Ayrton's car. Did you see what happened to him?

MS: I saw that his car was already touching quite a lot at the back on
the lap before, the car was very nervous in this corner, and he nearly
lost it. On the next lap he did lose it. The car touched with the rear
skids, went a bit sideways, and he just lost it.[Editor's Note: Ayrton
Senna died of injuries suffered in the crash.]

Q. You seemed determined to be the first one on the grid ...

MS: The impact looked very dangerous, but I didn't have the feeling that
it was anywhere near what happened yesterday. So ... I knew my car was
alright and it wasn't going to happen to me. Sure, everybody has to make
sure that their cars ARE alright and that things like this don't happen.
What we have to do is to make sure is that we all learn from this, to
get the experience from these accidents. I think there are a couple of
things that can be improved. We should have made the changes before. We
were even discussing these further safety issues today, with Ayrton,
Gerhard and Michele, and we intended to organise a meeting in Monaco.
I would like to push, now, to get as much done as possible in terms of
safety.

Q. Any problems for you in the race?

MS: Nothing apart from Berger, who was not easy to pass. I was quicker
at the end of the straight, and he made it very difficult for me. It was
certainly an interesting part of the race, between me and Berger. There
was nothing unfair about it, and I knew I had an advantage over him,
from the first part, of 3.6 seconds. I knew I would be making an early
pit stop, so I wasn't taking any risks in trying to pass him. Instead,
I was waiting for him to make a mistake, and when that mistake actually
came I used it tom overtake him. After my pit stop, when Berger was in
front of me again, we had another little battle. I hope it made the race
interesting ...

Q. Did you and Damon Hill touch at Tosa?

MS: We were very close together, but I didn't feel his car touch mine.
I just saw that something had broken on his car, maybe the wing, after
we had been running closely together. Maybe he touched the kerb on the
inside, but we didn't touch.

Q. Nicola, how does it feel to be 2nd here at Imola?

NL: I am very happy with this result because I have been looking for
something like this all through my career in Formula 1. Maybe it is the
last opportunity, because next week I will be back in a touring car
and Jean will get his car back for Monaco. Although I am very happy
for myself, it is difficult to be happy when I think about my injured
mechanics.

Q. Any problems in the race?

NL: No. When the race started I intended to do only one pit stop. The
car was hard to drive at the beginning because I hadn't done any testing
with half tanks. Ten laps from the end it was very difficult to brake
and I had a lot of wheelspin. But I could control Mika because he was 30
seconds behind me.

Q. Mika, you must be pleased with 3rd place from 8th on the grid ...

MH: After all the work that we have done since the start of the season,
and after the bad luck which we had in Brazil and Aida, this time it
was good. We finished the race and we got on to the podium. I have to
admit I was pleased. It was good fun: I pushed very hard all the way,
unfortunately it wasn't enough to get a better position.

Q. How was the speed of the car on the straight?

MH: That was our basic problem all weekend. Starting the race from 8th
position, I knew it would be difficult to pass people in the race. But
at the end of the day it was OK.

Q. Do you intend to make any proposals about safety?

MS: I took the opportunity to talk to Mr [Roland] Bruynseraede of the
FIA about all the circuits where I personally thought safety could be
improved. Although Roland is pushing very hard for something to be done,
it cannot be accomplished in one day. Maybe there will be other drivers
with different solutions, and they must be discussed. We agreed to try
to have a talk at Monaco on the free day, Friday, and we want to get all
the drivers together if possible.

Q. Michael, what are your feelings about this circuit?

MS: You cannot make a circuit so safe that there will always be the
run-off areas necessary [to cope with a big accident]. But when things
happen like they did yesterday and today, you will still have major
incidents even where the run-off areas are as wide as possible. There is
nothing to do about this except to make sure that the car is right and
that things like this cannot happen.

MH: If you look at the quality of the circuits, like Imola here, there
are corners like Tamburello, where Ayrton went off, which are taken at
really high speed, 300 km/h at the exit. [Unfortunately] there are bad
bumps there, really bad, and that is not the only bumpy place at Imola.
These kinds of thing must be improved.


[ /tom haapanen -- tomh@metrics.com -- software metrics inc -- waterloo, ont ]
[ "no nation was ever ruined by trade."                 -- benjamin franklin ]