Brawn rubbishes Massa stories

With Bridgestone under pressure due to the recent performance gains made by Michelin, tyres have obviously become a hot topic of late. Michael Schumacher felt moved yesterday to take some of the heat away from Bridgestone by alluding to the importance of the 'total package,' while Jean Todt pointed out in France that Bridgestone had been a big factor in Ferrari's 2002 superiority.

Speaking about the Massa rumour, however, Brawn said: "That is, if you will excuse my language, total bullshit. Felipe is a very good test driver and we are lucky to have four like that (Schumacher, Barrichello, Massa and Luca Badoer) and we actually have very little preference."

Brawn did concede, however, that picking a final tyre for a race will often fall to a race driver - "that's what we did last week," he said.

On the subject of what is perceived by many to be a fall-off in performance by Barrichello, Brawn said: "Rubens has had a few unfortunate circumstances and it's a fine line between success and failure in this business.

"There are far more people filling the top six in a race this year and if you make a little error you lose it. Last year, Rubens started the British GP last and finished second. You can't do that now. Rubens is very good but he's obviously being compared to Michael, who is exceptional.

"We are happy with his performance and if we get our package better, he will be doing the same kind of performances as last year."