Brawn Refusing to Make Predictions

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn has said that retaining the World Championship this year would be one of the team's greatest achievements.

But the Englishman is refusing to predict whether Ferrari will hold onto the constructors' title for a fifth successive season and help Michael Schumacher to a record sixth Drivers' Championship.

"I don't want to make predictions because this was supposed to be more of a Williams race in my view and it turned into a Ferrari race and people are saying Suzuka is a Ferrari race," Brawn said. "It might turn into being a Williams race."

The Italian team walked away with both the drivers' and constructors' titles last year in a season of domination which saw Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello win 15 of the 17 races between them.

But Brawn believes the increased fight of this year's Championship - with Schumacher three points ahead of Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya and Ferrari four points behind Williams - would make lifting the crown special.

"To win under these tough conditions will bring its own rewards," Brawn said. "Last year was a tremendous reward for the whole organisation and any Championship is fantastic experience. It would be special if we could do it this year.

"We have had this side issue (of tyres) for the last few weeks but I think generally the Championship has been great and whatever our views about the changes made over the winter you have to say it has created a wonderful Championship."

Brawn believes that after last season's domination Ferrari had forgot what it felt like to lose and failed to develop the recovery needed until Schumacher was victorious in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

"We came from a season when everything was relatively easy," he added. "When you get into these situations you have to remember how you did it. Maybe it took a few races before we remembered how to do it. I saw it this weekend and we had a great test here last week, our race team came to the track to help out because we had such a heavy programme and they all worked huge hours to put the programme together and we got the rewards."