Brawn: Ferrari not given special treatment

Defending Ferrari against suggestions that changes by governing body, the FIA, to technical regulation tend to favour the team, he said all competitors were consulted before any changes were made.

"The FIA don't make these rules up in isolation," Brawn said in an interview in this week's Autosport magazine. "They consult all the important players before they reach a decision and Ferrari is one of those teams that try to work with the FIA.

"I don't think we have any unjust influence or unfair influence over the regulations."

Several rival teams have privately suggested that the return this year to tyre changes during races was made specifically to favour Ferrari and Bridgestone, after the difficulties they experienced in 2005 with the 'one-race' tyre rule.

But Brawn said the 2005 tyre regulations proved Ferrari received no special treatment.

"The worst thing that could have happened to us at the end of 2004 was that the tyre rules changed," he said, "and we told the FIA behind closed doors that we didn't agree with those rules, but they were the rules and we had to work with them."

Brawn suggested rivals could learn from Ferrari's 'non-confrontational' approach to governing body the FIA.

He said: "The FIA are always willing to discuss the situation before they come to a decision. I've never found in any of the teams I've been in unwilling to discuss the situation if you approach them in a constructive and positive way. If you attack them they are going to defend themselves and that's human nature and that's the character of everybody.

"But if you go to them as an organisation and try to work with them to resolve the problems then it's a much more constructive situation.

"There are one or two teams in the pitlane who choose to take a very aggressive and negative approach to the FIA and of course perhaps their opinions are not held in such high esteem as those teams who try and solve the problems with he FIA."

Anthony Rowlinson's in-depth interview with Ross Brawn appears in this week's issue of Autosport magazine.