Formula One news
De Ferran keeping tabs on Andretti
27 March 2007Honda F1's Sporting Director Gil de Ferran was at the IndyCar Series opener at the Homestead-Miami Speedway and had some promising things to say about frontrunner Marco Andretti, who tested for the team twice over the winter break. The 20-year-old, who qualified fourth but retired early with handling problems, is being closely watched by the 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner.
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"I think Marco is one of the bright young stars," de Ferran told the IndyCar Series official website.
"He has shown tremendous potential at an early age. The people he's racing against are very good. We would be remiss if we weren't looking at promising talent from around the world.
"Marco is very mature and a very intelligent guy. He's very much in control of his world and his situation and that impressed me a lot. He's a tremendous talent in the car but his attitude and his head impressed me the most."
Despite having run Andretti in testing during the off-season, de Ferran maintains that he is not about to jump in the deep end in Formula One and that Honda is merely watching his progress for the moment.
"Marco is with a great team here in IndyCar and is focused on winning over here, that's the target right now," de Ferran said. "He's one of the bright young talents and we would not be doing our job if we weren't paying attention to who is coming up."
De Ferran also said that the team is not happy with the pace of the Honda car after the season opener at Melbourne, where its drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button finished eleventh and fifteenth respectively.
"We just had our first race and it wasn't the most competitive race we ever had so hopefully, we'll get better as the season continues," de Ferran said.
"I've been there for almost two years now and I know a lot more than I did when I started, but still everyday there is something new that you learn and I'm always doing my best to influence the program in a positive way. I think we have a good driver lineup; the two top guys are certainly capable of winning races and fighting up front all the time. The team is very good in terms of operations but in terms of competitiveness we're not where we want to be yet.
"It's not easy. We're fighting against teams that have been doing this for many years with lots of knowledge, but that's not excuse. We need to keep improving," he added.
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