Brawn salutes his six-time champion
Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn has praised six-time world champion Michael Schumacher for his gritty performance in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, which saw him salvage a point despite an emergency pitstop after an early collision
Schumacher achieved his required goal of scoring eighth place in Suzuka, but made life hard for himself by clipping Takuma Sato's BAR-Honda at the final chicane on lap six which removed his front wing.
"It was typical Michael, he always has to make an event out of it!" quipped Brawn. "We wanted to make sure that he scored a point today, even though we knew Rubens was in a position to win and prevent Kimi from doing so.
"Michael thought Sato had opened the door for him, but it became clear that he hadn't. Michael was exposed after that collision, so he had to be aggressive to get back into the points. He was mixing it with people which, with all due respect, we don't normally mix with."
Brawn also saluted Schumacher's achievement of eclipsing Fangio's record of five world championships, as well as the team effort behind its star turn.
"It's a dream end to the season," he said. "It's a beautiful team and great to be a part of it. I feel a bit numb at the moment - it was an amazing race and I need to come down! I haven't quite believed it yet."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments