Brawn's 2005 tyre prophecy

Brawn explained at Hockenheim how Michael Schumacher had laid the foundations of his 11th 2004 race win by securing pole position with intelligent use of his tyres, to be quick through sector three.

He then added: "Every driver has to have sympathy with tyre use and it's going to be particularly interesting next year because we've got one tyre for the whole race. It means that a driver will have to think about the tyre from the time he starts qualifying to the time he finishes the race.

"It will be interesting to see how that evolves. Some drivers will use the tyres at the beginning of the race and have nothing left, while some will be more conservative and then come back.

"If you remember the days of Alain Prost, he would spend half the race looking as if he was nowhere and then come back and destroy everybody. That's what will happen next year. I think you'll see some interesting racing because towards the last third of the race some guys will be running out of tyres and we might actually see some overtaking."

Before anyone gets optimistic about potential wholesale changes to the shape of things, Brawn went on: "Michael is very good at that and Rubens is very good at it. I don't know if this year's softer tyre compounds have particularly worked in Michael's favour, but I'm sure that next year the driver's feeling for the tyre and getting the most out of it over 60-70 laps, is going to be crucial."