Please give us a comment about the circuit, the facilities, the importance about being here in Abu Dhabi and how you felt it has been for you.

Just a stunning facility. I think it is a massive credit to the people here and to Bernie. I know we give Bernie a hard time sometimes but he still creates races and encourages people to build facilities like this. It is a stunning facility. It is a very interesting track, quite interesting combinations, quite challenging from a racing perspective. The pit lane is controversial but sometimes I think we are getting a bit sanitized in Formula One, so a bit of extra challenge for the drivers is not necessarily such a bad thing. I think it is just fantastic.

Obviously you did take lots of steps this season. What is the atmosphere like in the team back at the factory and here as well since Brazil?

Obviously euphoria at what we have managed to achieve. Firstly, I would like to say the championship has been fought in a great spirit. I know sometimes the media likes grief or needle in the championship but I must say this championship has been notable for the spirit in which it has been fought. Good battles, good spirit within the teams and for me obviously with the results that we had a great championship to be proud of. It probably wasn’t until I got back to the factory that I appreciated how much it had meant to a lot of our people because they have been there a long time and not had any success and the team had won one race up until this year. We have still got people there from the very beginning of this version of the team as the team goes back as far as Tyrrell. It is a long-standing team but guys did come up and say we have worked a very long time for this and it was special to go back and share the pleasure of the championships with a lot of the people there who had been working hard for so long. They never gave up. We had such a difficult winter with no clear vision of where the team was going and the guys still worked enormous hours, made enormous commitments, worked their weekends and did everything that was needed not even knowing if they were going to go past February, so it has been very special in many ways and for me quite exceptional because of the contrast of where we were over the winter and where we are now. I must say in those circumstances I think Mario to a fair degree is seeing it now. Formula One does come together when teams are in difficulty. We had a lot of support from everyone during that period. We have our fierce competition, but I am glad to say Formula One still sticks together to help each other when teams are in difficulty.

There has been quite a lot of focus on your drivers for 2010. Is there anything more you can tell us? Have you got closer to working things out with Jenson?

No, we agreed that we would get through the championship. We agreed that nothing would happen for a few weeks after the championship, so the next two weeks will be pretty busy.

You mentioned in a radio interview on Sunday that you were 99 per cent certain that Jenson would re-sign for the team. Jenson remarked yesterday that he would not want to put any kind of percentage on it. What makes you so certain that you will actually re-sign him at the end of the day?

I see the way Jenson works with the team and I see the way we work with him. I think we have given him the equipment this year to show what he can do and he knows our plans for the future. We have got another little matter that we have got to sort out, but I am sure we will find a resolution to that, so that’s why I am reasonably confident. Of course I want to keep Jenson in the team, so we are working hard to find the solution to keep Jenson in the team. He has done a fantastic job this year and I think he will be even stronger in the future with this championship behind him.

Can I ask you to give a brief assessment of the direction you would like to see Formula One take now that Jean Todt is the president of the FIA?

I think he’s an incredibly worthy successor to Max (Mosley) in that role. As Christian just mentioned, he’s experienced our sport and other sports at all levels. He was a navigator and won the World Championship as a rally navigator, ran a World Championship-winning rally team, ran a World Championship-winning Formula One team. There are very few people with that experience. Jean’s very good at bringing people together and finding solutions to difficult problems and finding solutions when there are a lot of different interests involved. He steered the ship of Ferrari over 12 or 13 years, I think, and particularly through the early periods it was very difficult and he managed it extremely well. He’s got a great ability to manage situations, and he particularly likes working in a team environment. He’s very strong at bringing out the qualities of people in a team environment and I know that he’s building a very good team around him at the FIA, so I look forward to the future with a great deal of optimism. A huge amount has been achieved over the last period: safety in Formula One is at a very high level, lots of things in Formula One are great and I think Jean will take that forward.

Have you met Luca di Montezemolo here as the new World Champion?

No, we’ve spoken on the phone. He’s been very gracious in his congratulations to me. We’ve had a quiet word on the phone but no, he very kindly spoke to me and sent a note both before and after the race, and then we spoke a few days ago.

Silverstone now appears to be the only option for a British Grand Prix next year, bearing in mind that Donington has fallen by the wayside, given its financial difficulties. Bernie said this week that Formula One does not need a British Grand Prix but I’m sure yourself, as team principal of a British-based team, would disagree with him.

We saw what was a fantastic event Silverstone was this year, the huge support it had. I think it was Damon Hill who made the point, which I completely concur with, that Formula One is what it is because of the balance of races it has, the history it has, the heritage it has. And the reason that Formula One as a championship and as a series is so attractive to countries like Abu Dhabi and the new races we’re going to is because of that heritage and that history, and if we destroy that, then perhaps we don’t remain as attractive for countries in the future. So we’ve got to get a balance between keeping the history and heritage of Formula One and the new opportunities we have at fantastic circuits like this, so I think it would be a tragedy if we lost Silverstone and I hope Bernie can find a solution with Silverstone to keep the race there. The Donington episode has been an unfortunate distraction but let’s hope that he can find a solution for the BRDC to run the race at Silverstone in the future.

What do you have as a project in the future concerning Formula One here in UAE, because we heard that they built a school for learning how to drive this kind of racing cars here in UAE on Yas Island, so will you send your drivers for six months or so next year?

I must apologise, I’m not aware of driver training. What is very interesting is the technology side. There is a lot of interest from a number of countries to set up technology bases and I understand Williams have set one up in Qatar and we’re very interested in that sort of opportunity to share the technology and get benefits from both sides to train people. I’m very keen on the strength of Formula One as a medium for training engineers and developing technology, so I think there are great opportunities in those areas. I’m not so sure about the driving side. I’m not so aware of that, but certainly on the technology side, there’s huge interest in that side.