Brawn admits to lucky win

"We were very fortunate to be able to continue," he said. "Juan Pablo [Montoya] gave Michael a fair old whack from behind. I don't see anything that Michael did wrong, although I understand Montoya says different. I just think everyone just needs to calm down a little through the first few corners and get the race started, because we're having too many incidents at the beginning of races."

Ferrari's win at Interlagos came against the odds. The general perception was that the Michelin tyres used by Williams were superior to Ferrari's Bridgestone and the much-vaunted horsepower produced by the BMW engines was supposed to give the FW24 drivers a significant top speed advantage. However, Brawn decided to run the F2002 with as little downforce as possible to allow the world champion to defend his position down the long straight and into Turn One. It proved to be an inspired decision.

"That was obviously pretty important," he admitted. "The thing that was encouraging was we had very good straightline speed, which is why Ralf had a problem getting near Michael at the crucial parts of the track. We set it up that way because we thought we knew what type of race we were going to have. I don't know whether Michael would have been able to get past Montoya if the race had developed, but a race is more than the first two corners, and drivers need to understand that."

Ferrari's next aim is to follow the Brazilian GP win up with victory in front of its home fans at the San Marino GP on April 14.

To read the full Ross Brawn Q&A click here.