Brawn Delighted with Bridgestone's Work

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn has praised their tyre manufacturer Bridgestone, and said the Italian team are benefitting from being able to enjoy a closer cooperation than last year.

World Champions Ferrari are now the only top team using the tyres from the Japanese manufacturer after McLaren decided to switch to Michelin for this season, joining the Williams squad, who were already running with the French rubber last year.

With Ferrari having won two of the first three races of the 2002 season, Brawn reckons the Italian team have now a closer relationship with Bridgestone from which they are benefitting, even if it means more work.

"Tyres are so important that working this closely (with Bridgestone) is extremely useful," said Brawn. "This level of work has been a great step forward as it is a very open relationship. Bridgestone reacts very quickly to our requests and that means we are always in a position to strive for maximum performance.

"Last year, if McLaren was testing in Barcelona and we were in Mugello, we could get the tyre data from both venues, but that is no longer the case. That is why we have increased the size of our test team and started to test at tracks we did not use in the past.

"An improvement in performance from our cars depends a lot on the tyres and that is how we managed to win in Brazil. We won't be resting on our laurels though, because one race doesn't mean the tyre will be the best everywhere."