As for how things went in testing prior to the teams arrival in Australia. He did admit that the team had suffered some gearbox problems but that they had been resolved.

Juan Pablo said: "Yeah, myself, I’ve done over 7000 kilometres of testing. Our main focus has been reliability. Of course there have been some aeros bits that have come in and stuff. The car from day one seemed very driveable. I think set-up-wise we are pretty close, we’ve got a good window. We tried a few different things, but we definitely knew from day one where we wanted to be. So our main focus was on reliability. We had some gearbox problems but those problems were solved. We’ve done a lot of race simulations and it’s good. It just keeps going and going, it just runs."

As for the exact nature of the gearbox problem Juan Pablo would not elaborate apart from saying that the problem had been fixed for some time. He expressed his satisfaction with the fact that he has a car that he felt was competitive.

Juan Pablo further explained the recent testing for the team. He added: "The last two tests we didn’t have any problems. New parts came in and we tried to look what happened, because in December we didn’t have any problems and then new bits arrived and then suddenly, whoa, everything started to break. And then we went back to what we used to use and everything was fine. I think the car is very competitive, it’s a lot quicker than last year. We’ll see. The only question is how competitive we are in compared to the rest. It doesn’t matter how much quicker you are than last year.

What matters is how much quicker you are against everybody else. I think we have a strong car. I don’t know if it’s a winning car or not. Hopefully it is. We’re much better prepared than ever going into the first race. We know we gave away both championships last year mainly because we didn’t score any points in the first five races. Based on that, you’ve got to think that if you could start scoring good points from the first race you’d be fine."

The questioning then turned to how things were within the team, what with Juan Pablo moving to McLaren in 2005 and Ralf the centre of much speculation as to his future with the WilliamsF1 team. Juan Pablo said that everyone was working towards the goal of winning a championship. For Juan Pablo regardless of which team he is driving for he is there to race and win.

Juan Pablo added: "I think it’s good. I don’t have any problems with anybody really. The team seems to be working exactly the same as last year and before I even signed. It’s good. They want to win. It would be nice to win the championship before I leave, to be honest. I’m here to race. I can’t say I’m going to take it easy because I’m leaving at the end of the year. I’m here and I want to win, and if I have the chance I’m not going to give it away."

As for the situation regarding the Michelin supplied teams and there ability to transfer information amongst themselves did Juan Pablo feel that this would give him an advantage over the Bridgestone supplied Ferrari team.

He answered this by saying: "Well, in a way, we could be in a good position because we can… you know different teams try different things, but in a way, you can play both ends. If Michelin can get all the information together and develop the tyres based one everybody’s information, then it’s a good thing and I think they have so far, against having one team only developing the tyres for one single car. It limits the amount of miles they do, even if they try to run and run and run. It’s not the same as 15 cars running as two.

So we’ll see. It will take a bit of time to know where you are and if you look at the pace they had in Imola, it was unbelievable, you’re going to say, but it’s the only time they’ve been quick, and it was zero degrees ambient and about five degrees track temperature and we’re never going to race… well, I’m not really planning to race in that weather. (Laughter)."

Juan Pablo made it clear that he felt that Michelin had done an excellent job in assisting each team.

He said: "I think Michelin has done a really good job in being able to develop everything each team wants. I can’t say that Williams are suffering a little bit because they are developing tyres for another team. I think they have been 100 per cent behind every team and I’ve seen a lot of the development during the winter and I’ve got to say that Michelin has done a fantastic job so far."

As for the situation with each car only having one engine per Grand Prix weekend did Juan Pablo feel that this would change the way how the drivers approached such things as practice sessions. Would it see drivers limiting the number of laps they did to save their engines.

He answered: "I don’t think you’re going to see many cars going round and doing 40 or 45 laps in practice. I think everyone’s going to be a little bit cautious, especially being the first race.

I think the first session you’re probably going to have to do one or two runs to get a balance and you’ve definitely got to go out in the second session like you used to do before, back to back the tyres, and then make up your mind. It’s like it used to be before, you had to make up your mind on the tyres and that was it. You couldn’t really start changing tyres on the Saturday morning because you were working on race set-up, especially with the new speed limit and everything, a lot of races are going to be three stops.

You need to have the good tyres for the race. So it won’t be such a clear opinion on the tyres like probably they will, but Ferrari’s in the same position, McLaren’s in the same position, and Renault’s in the same position. I’m pretty happy."

The questioning moved to the press conference the previous day in which he left after been confronted by supposed reporters who asked him nonsensical questions. Did he feel that he reacted to the situation appropriately?

Juan Pablo explained his actions by saying: "You know it’s very hard to say whether you react too hard or not. I was very polite to him. I think that especially when you’re doing a day for a sponsor, you’ve got to be very professional what you’re doing, and when it’s not handled professionally, then I don’t think you’ve got to be there. There’s a lot of money involved in it from everybody: from the sponsors, from the team and if it’s not controlled properly and they’re not respecting not only myself but everybody in the room… I found out…. If you’re in a place where you’re joking and having fun then it’s alright but I wouldn’t really find if funny… you know I didn’t find it funny, a guy asking me if I wanted to play golf with his grandmother or whatever. I didn’t tell him anything. I wasn’t rude to anybody. I just said ‘sorry, ‘scuse me’ and I stand up and I left. It was very straightforward.

If you look at the pictures and everything they’ve got in the newspaper I find it quite amusing actually, because it wasn’t even from yesterday. If you look at the pictures from yesterday I was laughing on the way out because I was talking to a friend of mine. You’ve got to establish a precedent that you’ve got to do a professional job and it wasn’t done professionally, and it wasn’t handled professionally by anybody so I decided that I didn’t have to be there. I just stood up and left.

Was he concerned about how others viewed his actions. He was quite clear that he did not feel his actions were out of order, and either did Frank Williams.

Juan Pablo explained further: "I talked to Frank, Frank is OK with it and that’s all that really matters. I talked to Frank and he said to me ‘I’m glad you behaved in a good way, it’s a shame we couldn’t complete the day.’ I said ‘yeah, it’s a shame, but it wasn’t handled properly from the beginning.’ When the two guys after the first time it should have stopped and nobody in the room did anything to stop it so I decided, they not interested in stopping it, then I will. They’ve got respect me, I’m doing a professional job for them. I’m not lacking in respect to anybody so I decided to leave.

Of course, as Formula One never comes here, only each year for three or four days, it’s a big thing if something happens and like everything, the press wants to be with Formula One and people want to see if they can stir some bad things about it and they did, and that was all. I don’t think it got out of hand or anything. You can ask any of the media who was there because there were a few guys from Formula One you can… I didn’t shout at anybody or anything, I just got in the car and left."