The second part of the FIA Press conference from Germany with Team bosses Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari), Norbert Haug (Mercedes), Vijay Mallya (Force India) and Mario Theissen (BMW Sauber).

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) For Stefano and Norbert: last week BMW tested their KERS system on the track. Where are you guys at with your systems?

SD: Still not on the track, so if they did that, I am very happy for them. It’s a very complex project and for sure we are working very hard to have a very reliable and competitive system but at the moment we are not yet ready to go onto the track.

NH: Well, we will test before the end of the season, according to our planning. We think we can do a big, big part of the development at home, in our facilities and we are on track, I have to say. Mercedes Benz has a lot of knowledge about this technique and so we are definitely heading in the right direction and we will test before the end of the season.

Q: (Will Buxton – Australasian Motorsport News) Question for the three engine manufacturer representatives, expanding on Dan’s question on KERS. I’ve read some stories about Red Bull having problems with their testing of KERS: instability of the batteries, overheating, potentially dangerous by-products coming from exploded batteries. What are your thoughts on KERS moving forwards as a system, its stability and how much resources you’re going to have to put into making sure that these things work and work safely?

SD: OK, first of all we need to understand exactly what has happened. I think that is something which will be discussed at the next Technical Working Group and we will have an understanding exactly what has happened to them, so we don’t have to over-react to anything at the moment because of course it’s a new project, we need to take care of all the safety aspects and all the other things. Once again, we know that there is something to work with and to make sure that this will be an effective device without incurring any risk of potential problems or safety issues. But I would say that as far as we know, from our side, the situation is in progress and under control.

MT: Well, I have to say KERS is an exciting project. It is definitely cutting-edge technology. If we want to gain a lap time advantage, the power-to-weight ratio of KERS components needs to be of the factor of three or four of what you would see in current hybrid road car vehicles, so that already indicates that we are really pushing the envelope here. We are developing or working on several alternatives, especially in terms of energy storage – we do an electrical system – and we have had some issues already in development which is normal, no big ones, and we have carried out extensive work on reliability, on potential damage and on all cases which could happen. So that means we have done an FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) on the entire system, especially on the storage unit and we are doing specific tests to really figure out what can be done or what can happen and what can be done to avoid it.

NH: Our company has a lot of knowledge on KERS, that is very well known. We share some of the knowledge with BMW on the production car side. It’s an interesting, challenging project, not an inexpensive one, by the way, but I think it’s challenging and we are looking forward to having a good system on our car very soon.

Q: Dr Mallya, what sort of challenge is it for an independent team?

VM: It’s a very big challenge. We buy our engines, we develop our own gearbox and to have some sort of a hotchpotch of a car where the engine is sourced separately, the gearbox is sourced separately, the KERS is developed separately, isn’t my way of doing things, so I’m in negotiation with my friend in red here (S Domenicali) who supplies me with a wonderful engine to give me a package and it makes no sense for us to try and develop our own independent KERS system. So hopefully he’s making good progress, so that I can benefit from it as well.

Q: (Kevin Garside – The Daily Telegraph) Stefano, let me take you back to the English newspaper, if I may. It was The Times and they were presenting a trivial football news kind of story. They suggested you were swooping at the McLaren Mercedes event last night, tempting Lewis’s father with an offer to bring young Lewis to Ferrari. If that wasn’t what you were talking about, perhaps you could tell us what you were speaking to Lewis’s father about?

SD: That’s fantastic anyway. It’s good news! I was walking away from Norbert’s party because I had other things to do with our sponsor. Anthony just came up behind me and just said hallo and that’s it, very easy. It’s nice to see how these things can grow. Everyone has seen it, I think. Easy.

NH: I think that’s a great place to start negotiations with our driver: behind the Mercedes grandstand. Of course Stefano would do that! Why would he not meet in a hotel room or wherever? And he’s a gentleman, by the way. He’s not coming to our function and then talking to our driver. But I think it’s great that there is some communication going on next to the race track, and I think that was it.

Q: (Marco Evangelisti – Corriere dello Sport) Norbert, apart from KERS, what is the state of the project of your new car and how is it affected by the necessity to always bring new developments for such a close championship?

NH: Everything is going according to plan for our new car for 2009. We have our plans and we are on schedule, so everything is fine. It will be an enormous challenge for everybody. There are a lot of changes in the rules: not only the slick tyres but the changes to the aerodynamics, the KERS, so a lot of changes, probably the most changes in the shortest period of time for 20 years in Formula One or longer. So it’s a huge challenge for everybody. Maybe it mixes up the order a little bit next year, so you can probably expect some teams that are not so strong right now to be stronger, because lots of them are already concentrated – flat out – on the 2009 car. So that may change the pecking order a little bit, that’s possible, but we are working according to our plans.

Q: (Thomas Richtr – TV Nova) Mario, have you already done a simulation for next month’s Valencia Grand Prix and what are your thoughts about the official FIA information that the race length will be 305 kilometres while Ross Brawn said it could be even slower than the Monaco Grand Prix?

MT: That’s a total contradiction to the information that I have and I have talked to Hermann Tilke today who told me it’s quite a fast track.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) For Dr Mallya: I know you are not directly involved but can you give us an update on a Grand Prix in India?

VM: In fact the news is quite positive. I happened to be having lunch with the CEO of one of India’s biggest banks and he confirmed to me that they had sanctioned a facility to the development of the Indian track, that he has actually bought the land and on October 1st. Construction of a brand new track will begin and so for the first time, now I think I feel very confident to be able to say to you that there will be a brand new track and that we will have our first Grand Prix in 2010. It’s just outside New Delhi.

Q: (Carole Capitaine – L’Equipe) A question for Mr Domenicali: after Silverstone, you said ‘we made some mistakes, it’s a Grand Prix to forget but also not to forget because we can learn a lot from such a Grand Prix.’ What did you learn after Silverstone?

SD: I think that for sure it’s pretty obvious that Silverstone was not really a weekend that you like to experience but anyway, that’s part of the game. The thing that you normally do when you have such a race is to do a step-by-step analysis of all the things that didn’t go well, starting from the general performance of the car during that weekend, then going to qualifying, then of course the things that happened during the race. We did a very, very detailed analysis of all the things that didn’t go in the right direction and I think that all the people involved have done the right thing. I’m pretty sure that the situation that we experienced in that Grand Prix will not happen again.