Brawn: We Just Had a Bad Day

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn thought the Australian Grand Prix was 'entertaining' but admitted nonetheless that for once, the master strategist had it wrong.

"The race did not work out for us, especially as the safety car did not fit in with what we were trying to do," the Briton said. "I think we made the wrong call in terms of the tyres we started on. We were on intermediates and the track dried up much faster than we expected.

"We made the wrong choice, but once we had fitted the dry weather tyres they were fine, but we did not get a good opportunity to use them properly.

"We had a problem during the first pitstop and then Michael went off the track at Turn 12 and damaged the car. After that, Michael drove really well, because the car was no longer handling properly."

Ferrari ended outside the podium today for the first time since 1999 - ending an unprecedented streak of 53 podiums. Nevertheless, Brawn said the result does not reflect on the performance of the F2002 car.

"I don't think performance was causing our problems today and the new car would not have solved any of these problems," he said. "We just had a bad day and McLaren and Williams had a good one."