Da Matta

Cristiano da Matta doesn't feel he is under any pressure to prove that CART drivers can make an impact in Formula One. Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya, he says, have already shown the world that CART drivers can beat the best F1 has to offer.

Having just won the 2002 CART championship, da Matta now follows former CART champs Montoya and Villeneuve into F1. Villeneuve won the F1 title in 1997. Montoya has won a grand prix and 10 poles in his two F1 seasons. So are people expecting da Matta to prove CART is as good as F1?

"For sure there is some expectations, but people coming from CART have nothing to prove anymore," da Matta said. "You have enough (proof). I think Jacques and Juan already did the job for us. It's known that the level of the drivers that race in CART is very good.

"Everybody knows how tough the (CART) series is over there, so I have nothing to prove from that series."

Da Matta was talking to the media at the Paul Ricard circuit in France during the official unveiling of the 2003 Toyota TF103 that he will campaign this year. He is under pressure to do well, but not because he is a former CART driver.

"I feel pressure because I want to do well," he said, "but not because Juan or Jacques did well. If they didn't do well I'd still want to do well. For me, it is what I believe I can do, and I want to prove it to myself more than to anybody else."

Da Matta is confident he will succeed in F1.

"I knew that when I took the decision I had to make it believing that I could do it," he said. "If I didn't believe that I could do it, I was going to stay in CART."

It's true that Villeneuve and Montoya have proved to be very quick F1 drivers. But as recently documented on ESPN.com, two other CART champions -- Michael Andretti and Alex Zanardi -- struggled in F1 and soon left the series.

Like many people in the racing world, da Matta can't fathom why Zanardi failed to make the grade in F1. He's been a Zanardi fan every since he was racing in Indy Lights and Zanardi was in the midst of a spectacular CART career that would net him two titles.

"It was possible for Zanardi to do it," da Matta said. "I have seen him driving, and I know for sure that he is a lot better than most of the drivers that are racing in F1 today. The reason why (Zanardi failed in F1) I will never know, and I think that no one will ever know. I am sure that there are a bunch of reasons, but I am sure he is a lot better driver than he showed here.

	Da Matta is one of several CART champions to make the move to Formula One.

"If you saw his performance in CART he was amazing. He was very fast, very technical, very aggressive, and I am sure he has the talent to do well here. It just didn't happen and I don't know why. Of course, I thought about this, but I decided to come because I think I can do it."

OK, what about Andretti?

"Zanardi and Andretti are very good drivers," da Matta said. "Zanardi is better than 90 percent of the drivers that are in CART... that are in F1 today. The reason he didn't do well is part of the charm of F1.

"It is the same with Michael. Michael is not as good a driver as Zanardi, but he is a good driver. You see everything he has won in America. He is quick. He is good, and I don't understand why he didn't do well here, too. F1 is unforgiving and that is what makes it so difficult. Maybe that is what the difference between F1 and CART. In CART if you have one season that is not so good you can still carry on next year."

As he said, da Matta never would have made the move to F1 if he didn't think he could succeed. But he postponed his decision to join Toyota's F1 team until he could wrap up the 2002 CART title.

"I was fighting for the CART championship," he said, "and I didn't want to think about any other thing because if I race in F1 for some years and I don't win anything, just because I raced in F1 doesn't mean much to me. But for me to win a championship means a lot to me and will mean a lot to me for the rest of my life.

"So I didn't want to let anything influence my performance. And because I was dealing with Toyota that had the same objective as me in America -- we were trying to win our first championship in CART -- I said 'OK, I'm interested in F1, but I don't want to think about this right now. I want to focus on the championship and focus on my races and after it is over then I will think about it.' They agreed."

Da Matta kept an eye on what Toyota was doing in its first season of F1 last year, but the intense CART schedule kept him so busy he didn't have a lot of time to keep track of what was happening.

"I followed it (Toyota's F1 effort) last year," he said, "but I didn't follow it very close because in America it is very difficult to follow F1, and in the CART series from June until the end of September you don't have time to do anything. From what I saw, I was happy to see the performance of Toyota. They had a down part of the season around mid-season. Overall I judged that their performance was quite good for a first year team."

So now da Matta is about to embark on the first season of his two-year contract with Toyota. His CART crown is now irrelevant. If he doesn't perform he will be shown the door. Toyota proved last year when it dismissed both Mika Salo and Allan McNish that it is uncompromising when it comes to assessing the performances of its drivers.

"If they think I am not doing a good enough job, well, what can I do?" da Matta said. "But I am going to do everything. So far we have been working very well together as a team. I think they have their own reasons for everything that they have done. Their own reasons for hiring me. I feel part of the team right now. I am with them."

Yes, the pressure is on da Matta. But not because he has to prove that CART drivers can succeed in F1, but rather he has to prove that he himself can succeed in this challenging arena.