July 14, 2001 -
TORONTO, Ont. -- After a whirlwind of changes in the beginning of the 2001 season, CART rookie driver Max Wilson began to settle down with his new team Arciero-Blair Racing. With an eye opening fourth place at Portland in the rain and an impressive start at Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland where he led 21 laps at the Burke Lakefront Airport before a pit problem cost him a good finish, the rookie from Brazilain is hoping to bring the team to the next level.
A former Williams F-1 development driver and a Formula 3000 standout, Wilson sat down with NYAutoRacing and talked about his rookie season and the obstacles he had to overcome during the early part of the season:
KEVIN MA: Max, you certainly have an interesting CART career so far. You signed with Sigma last year, then your switched team to Arciero-Brooks right before the season went underway. Then the ownership changed before the Miller Lite 225 at Milwaukee, and the team switched the engine platform from Phoenix (Ilmor) to Ford as well. With so many changes being made around you especially in your rookie season, do they affect you at all as a driver and how did you deal with them on and off the track?
MAX WILSON: I can't say they were bad for me. The Sigma stuff happened and it was pretty tough for me because I had a contract with them and they just broke it. We worked together since last May or July, and then at the beginning of this year they broke the contract. Luckily, Brook Racing at that time contacted me and we struck a deal. Ever since it has been much better because everybody here has done a great job so far. We started pretty late where we were on the track in February and then the season started so we couldn't test anymore [under the new CART testing rule]. I think we really did a good job under these circumstances - all the changes we have made are for the better and my new team owner Larry Blair bought us the expertise of technology, and he made possible for Ford engine to come on board. However, with all due respects of Ilmor, even though it is a great company, they are not really focusing on the CART program, so changing to Ford was a right decision as results were being shown in recent races.
Larry Blair officially came on board before the Miller Lite 225 in June. He came to the team last October as an investor and he bought out the exclusive ownership in May and renamed the team to Arciero-Blair Racing. At first, Ford was committed to supply the 2001 spec engine, but due to shortage the team didn't get the new engine until this race in Toronto. Blair also mentioned that previous good results allowed Ford to speed up the progress of providing Blair racing with the 2001 spec engine.
Blair is seeking for major sponsorship backing. At this time he is doing a favor for his previous company Red Back, where he was the VP of Marketing from June '98 to May '01. He retired from the company and came on board to the race team here in CART.
KM: This week your team finally got the updated Cosworth engine and I look around, everybody in the team seems very happy about it. In terms of performance wise, how much of an improvement from the previous engine you used between Milwaukee and Cleveland?
MW: This engine is a lot more powerful than the old one and it is a lot better. I brought it out for qualifying this afternoon but I had an incident with Shinji Nakano [Nakano crashed into the tire barrier where Wilson couldn't make the corner and collided with him]. I had to go to my spare car with the old engine as well as other bits in the car, which are not the same. Because of that we didn't have a good qualifying session where we couldn't start from where we would like. However it was just a racing incident that I couldn't avoid
KM: Your were a development driver in the past few seasons, where you tested for Williams Formula One team in 1999 as well as testing for Michelin's tire program. The experiences you had over in Europe, do they help you here in the CART series?
MW: It actually helped a lot because the cars are very much similar here. This is a new team, and with the experience I have, I can try to help the crew as much as I can, and they can help me here likewise. Brian Ma is my engineer here and we work well together. I think we are doing a really good job - we scored points, we led in the last race. This weekend we had some problems but it happened and it happened to other big teams also.
KM: The results you got from recent races, do they boost your confidence on the track?
MW: Good results are always nice. Everybody has been working hard but after Portland we didn't score a point, so Portland was really important for me. If I could finish in the top 3 there that would be even better. The most important thing is, these guys work very hard and it is important for me to do well out there as well.
KM: What are the differences between racing in Europe and here in the America?
MW: Between here and Europe there are many differences, especially the environment. Here in CART is much more competitive than F-1 and we can have bunches of cars and drivers that can win races, which doesn't happen in F-1. This is the first time I race here and see how things work, I am happy now and I have so much fun here because the cars are very competitive on the track.
KM: As I mentioned before your background with Williams, could you translate your experiences from F-1 more to the CART series here?
MW: No, actually I bought everything from F-1, F-3000, F-3 and go-karts here. I learned a lot in those series and here I am just using what I've learned from my entire racing career and use it on the track here in Champ Car.
KM: You are a Brazilian and you spent a lot of time in Europe. With Formula One being very popular down there, would you go back to F-1 one day if you find success here in CART?
MW: At the moment I am very happy here, I don't have any desire to go back to F-1. Here is a lot simpler and as a driver this is what I want - big cars, top level racing, I got everything here so I don't need to go back to F-1.
KM: You are a road racer pretty much all your life. Next week you are going to race on a superspeedway for the first time at Michigan, are you ready for the real-time racing there?
MW: I think this is just completely different for me. When you go to a new track and new everything, you need to digest everything at once. So far we are doing reasonably well in testing. Next week is going to be the first time for me to go to a superspeedway even though I have raced on a 1-mile oval and also have been in Texas, which was a mix of a short oval and a superspeedway, but I am looking forward to it.
KM: Your results are getting better and better in the past few races, what is you expectation for the remaining of the season and in the future?
MW: My expectation is to make things work. At this time we always try to catch up, but if we make things work we can be up there and score points, perhaps lead the race and finish on the podium. My target now is to make things well as much as I can, we can go from finishing in top 10 and score points and get the results from there.
KM: Finally are you happy with the good results you had this early in your rookie season?
MW: Yes. For sure we would love to win races but sometimes you have to be realistic especially a new team we have here, so I am reasonably happy with the results we had so far.
