Brawn: Car performing as expected

Ross Brawn insists his team's BGP 001 car is performing as expected following a successful week of testing at the Barcelona circuit

The team unveiled its car at the weekend and started testing it publicly this week following an 11th hour effort to rescue the former Honda squad.

Despite it being its first test, the team performed strongly throughout all week, with the car showing both reliability and pace.

Drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ended on top of the times on Thursday and Friday, clearly ahead of their rivals.

The team has been working on the 2009 car since very early last season, having switched its focus soon in order to have a strong campaign this year.

A delighted Brawn says the pace and reliability showed this week is proof that its efforts during the past year are paying off.

"We are extremely pleased with the inaugural test of the BGP 001 car in Barcelona this week," said Brawn at the end of the test in Spain.

"The team made a very late start to our pre-season testing programme with only seven days in which to run the car before the first race in Melbourne, therefore our focus has been on reliability and achieving as much mileage as possible.

"Both of these aims have been successfully achieved this week. That the car has run so reliably 'out of the box' is a tribute to the strong team that we have at our factory in Brackley and they have done a great job during a very difficult period.

"The car is performing to our expectations and the feedback from Jenson and Rubens has been positive with both drivers completing full race distances.

"We have three further days of testing in Jerez next week to complete our preparations for the first race and I look forward to seeing how the car progresses from here."