Q&A with Gianfranco Fantuzzi, Toro Rosso Team Manager

This is the second Faenza era for Team Manager Fantuzzi, as he worked here with Minardi
from 1998 to 2001 as a race engineer, before joining Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2006. In
2009, he took on a new role, relinquishing the job of General Manager to return to the race
tracks as Team Manager.

Like all young boys living in Modena, he was infected with the racing virus at an early age
and joined Ferrari as a mechanic when he was just 16-years-old. He spent 22 years with
the Prancing Horse, most of that time working as an engineer on the test and race team.
He also took a break from Formula One, moving to the United States to get involved with
the company’s IMSA programme.

“When I was young, I used to go karting, but I did just enough to know that I was much too
slow,” says Gianfranco. “I always preferred what goes on behind the scenes in racing and
so, after race engineering at Minardi, I moved to the role of Logistics Manager with the
Toyota F1 team.” However, a few years ago, he returned to his spiritual home and, as team
manager, spends much of his time with his head buried in the F1 rule book.

We are facing the longest season in the sport’s history. How does that affect the
logistical side of the team?

As you know there are 20 races this year, but because of the testing ban, we have
changed our structure just like every other team, so the race team has to also do all the
tests. Therefore, we should really talk about 25 events, not just 20 races. It’s a lot of time, a
long time away from home. In order to make life easier for the guys, we are trying to work
shifts, to rotate the personnel, otherwise it gets very demanding, on a personal level
especially for those with families.

Has it been much more complicated planning for this year?

Not really, the standard, the template, is more or less the same. There’s one more race,
which is India and every time you go to a new country it’s a little bit more difficult but
nothing impossible. It’s really the number of events rather than the type of events.

At the track we will be dealing with KERS. How has the team planned for that?

KERS is new for us. We were ready to use it in 2009 but we decided not to. There are
some safety concerns and safety issues, but we have initiated an extensive training and
learning programme over the winter, going through all potential situations than can arise
when working with this system. Our KERS supplier, Ferrari, has given us all the measures
and all the procedures we need to apply and we train at the factory on a daily basis.

This is the second year without refuelling, so what lessons have been learned
regarding pit stops?

The pit stop now is more of a strategic importance than before. Up to the beginning of last
year, the refuelling time was covering more or less all the mistakes made when changing
wheels. Now you have to be really trained and you have no space for mistakes and every
pit stop has to be done with the best performance possible. You lose positions very easily
with this procedure in this type of pit stop. Last year, we were not so happy with our
performance in this area, because we were okay, but not particularly successful, so we are
training daily since the start of the year to improve.

What are your hopes for 2011?

Winning? Maybe it’s too much, even though we never stop dreaming about it. To do our
best. To do a professional job and to try to get every little bit out of everything. No
mistakes, be very professional and learn race after race, day by day. Sooner or later the
results will come.