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PHILLIPS: The Same Old Cristiano
Written by: David Phillips
SPEEDtv.com   http://www.speedtv.com
02/12/2007
Pittsburgh, Pa.
 
Damatta says he feels like his old self again. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos

Often the phrase "same old" describes a routine, even humdrum experience. But when you use "same old" to describe Cristiano da Matta – better yet, when the man who spent most of last August in a coma uses "same old" to describe himself – it's cause for thanksgiving.

"I've got all my muscles back, all my weight back, I feel ready again and that's a good thing," da Matta said on the phone from Brazil on Friday. "Even my hair has grown back. Oriol Servia came to visit last week and the first thing he said was, 'Cristiano, you're looking great. If I didn't know what had happened to you I'd never have thought you'd
been in the hospital.'

"That was one of the nicest compliments I've received in the last couple of months. I tell you, it's a pleasure just to be the same old Cristiano. At this moment, I'm still enjoying this a lot, you know?"

Fortunately, most of us don't know. Not really. We can only imagine what it's like to emerge from a coma to find a month of our lives has vanished, to barely recognize ourselves in the mirror and then, after months of physical and mental rehabilitation, to finally feel like our same old selves again.

On the other hand, Cristiano da Matta can't know – can only imagine – how thrilled his legions of friends, fans, colleagues and former teammates will be to celebrate his return to the Champ Car World Series. And it looks like they'll get the chance to do just that at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, April 6-8.

"Oriol spent the whole last weekend with me and he said, 'Hey, Cristiano, maybe we go to the first Champ Car race in Las Vegas.' "I liked his idea quite a lot. And another thing is that I found out my girlfriend, Vanessa, who I've been with for five years taking to all the races, she works here in Brazil and she's gonna be on vacation in April. So that's a another good reason why I should go to Las Vegas.

"I want to watch the race, because I have only been watching races on television. But if I go to Las Vegas it will be nice to see a lot of old friends, a lot of people I know, Even the drivers, I know pretty much all of them.

"The guys I worked with . . . of course I liked all the guys I worked with, but there's a very special feeling with the guys I worked with at Newman/Haas, especially on the car I was racing, which was Bruno's (Junqueira) car last year, but on Bourdais' car too – I like them a lot. To see Carl and Bernie (Haas) and Paul (Newman) and see the whole team again, see all the people in hospitality, it would be very nice.

"I want to see all my buddies. It's been six months since I've been to a race. For me, since I'm 16 years old – I'm 33 right now – I've never been away from the racetrack for 6 months in a row. It's weird for me, like I'm living on a different planet now. The good side is that I've been able to concentrate and focus on my recovery here."
The Brazilian among friends, fully recovered physically and mentally. ยป More Photos

While one might rightly assume the greatest part of that recovery focused on getting his mental faculties firing on all cylinders once more, all 5'5" of da Matta needed work in the aftermath of his accident and lengthy convalescence.

"When I was in the hospital I lost a lot of weight," he says. "I used to weigh, I don't remember in pounds, but I used to weigh 61 kilos (134lbs). When I left the hospital I was weighing 52 kilos (114lbs). I remember I used to look in the mirror and think, 'Wow! I never knew I was so skinny.' My legs looked like my arms and my arms looked like fingers. It was really, really weird.

"So I've been working a lot with the physiotherapist to regain the weight, and just keep on working to rebuild things again. It's been about a month since I got back to my weight. I weigh 61 kilos again. And I've been riding my bike to get my legs pretty fat again 'cause they were so skinny."

In fact, six month after bagging a deer the hard way at Road America, Cristiano da Matta is pretty much living a normal life: bicycling, working out, driving around Belo Horizonte, everything but driving a race car.

So far.

"My doctor already allows me to do everything, everything but drive the race car which is the same almost as nothing to me," says da Matta. "He even allows me to ride my mountain bike, my road bike, he tells me I can do everything.

"He says everything is normal, physically and psychologically, no problems. But he is still a little bit concerned that even if I have a small crash in a race car he doesn't know how the places I've been
injured, how they are going to recover. Mainly my head, the other parts of my body are fine. Of course, what I told the doctor is, 'Hey I'm not planning to crash again. Don't worry about that! Especially run over another deer. I guess there are zero deers running around in Las Vegas, Houston and Long Beach.'"

Da Matta had never suffered a serious injury in career before his fateful encounter with the Wisconsin fauna, and says he carries no psychological scars from his accident.

"The funny thing is, before the accident, one thing I was never, ever afraid, never concerned of what it was like to run over an animal like that," he says. "It was strange. I tell you, it was a big moment for me just when I saw the deer crossing the racetrack. I thought I was going crazy. But I was coming out of a blind spot so there was no way to avoid the deer. I was too close.

"The good thing is I got lucky. I'm 100%. You have to look at this side, too."

Indeed, he says he feels ready to pick up where he left off after finishing on the podium at the San Jose Champ Car race days before his crash while testing at Road America. Well, almost ready.

"I feel like I'm capable of driving a race car. I think if I sit down in a race car I think, of course I will have to get used to it after not driving for so long. So I'm definitely going to need at least a half a day to get back to my normal pace," he says, blissfully unaware of how audacious he sounds. "I hope it's only half a day! I don't know for sure because I've never had this experience before, so it's kind of weird."

The one form of motorsports doctors have given da Matta the green light to sample is karting. Unfortunately, he's been battling an even higher authority than the medical profession on that front.

"Two weeks ago my doctor allowed me to drive a go-kart," he says. "But he was very, very insistent on one thing: not to share the track with anyone, to drive by myself on the racetrack so I don't try to race anyone, try to go quicker, don't try to do anything different, just to practice.

"The problem is, here in Brazil, it has been raining so much that I haven't even been able to go back to the go kart racetrack to do what I have been waiting a long time to do again. In the rain it's not going to help me much because I want to give my arms and my muscles and everything a try; see if it is going to work, feel a little bit the weight of the steering wheel, when it gets heavy after a few laps.

"I just want to test if physically I'm gonna feel fine. On the wet, there is so little grip in a go-kart the steering wheel lets light, there is no g-force, and the heartbeat probably doesn't go over 120. So for that, I know for sure I (already) have enough fitness."
Servia hopes to be able to race in front of his friend in Las Vegas. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos

Come the first weekend in April then, the Champ Car World Series can welcome the return of Cristiano da Matta the man, rather than Cristiano da Matta the race driver who, if all goes to plan, will be rooting for Servia rather than competing himself.

"Oriol and I have this joke, cause we've been teammates, that he only goes fast when he has the pressure of Mr. Da Matta on him." says da Matta. "He came to visit me after he set the fastest time in the test at Sebring and I told him, 'Servia! Good job man. First time I see you going fast without the pressure of Mr. Da Matta. What's going on?' He started laughing right away. Because whenever I go fast and he's not around he says, 'Cristiano, I only thought you went fast when Mr. Servia is around.'"

All the more reason for a Champ Car team owner to hire Mr. Servia... and all the more reason for Mr. Da Matta to come to the Champ Car race in Las Vegas. Until then, we can only hope for sunny weather in Belo Horizonte.


* * * *

In last week's column regarding the plans of the American Le Mans Series to use Ethanol E10 this season, I noted that "at this year's St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio and Detroit IndyCar/ALMS doubleheaders, not a single car in the headline events will run on pure gasoline."

Several people noted the same could be said of the Champ Car/ALMS doubleheaders at Long Beach, Houston and Road America, which will feature the methanol-fueled Champ Car World Series along with the E10-fueled American Le Mans Series. They are absolutely correct, of course, although when it comes to relevance to leading-edge automotive technology, pure ethanol or ethanol/gasoline blends would appear to be the preferred fuel over methanol.