Ross Brawn Q&A

"It was certainly very good. He kept in touch at the beginning. You had Rubens and Juan Pablo on two stops, and Michael on one, so it was very impressive that he was keeping in touch with them. That was important. And when it all got started again he kept up a very good pace considering the amount of fuel he had."



"I don't honestly know. All our measurements were saying OK, but it is a very hard track on brakes, and he had a very hard first half of the race. He wasn't able to rest for a moment, so he was using his brakes and tyres extremely hard. That's why we were having a look at brakes in the pits. We have measurements, but there's nothing like having a look with your eyes to see what's going on. We were OK, but right on the limit, which is what a racing car is."



"What's happened is the pitlane's a little bit shorter and the tyres are getting softer. The tyres wouldn't really do a long one stop, so an even one or a two-stopper were the two choices. We split it because we thought Rubens would have a go, and he's very good at overtaking. That's what he did, he just got destroyed by the safety car. If the safety car hadn't come out, then I'm sure Rubens would have finished second."



"It was a close call. The difficulty in that corner is that the driver can overcommit, knowing that he can run off. It's a difficult call, and we weren't completely happy with it, but that happens."



"No. You run as fast as you need to, and there was still quite a lot left. Michael was aware that the rear tyres could be marginal, so he just didn't want to push when he had a full tank. He didn't want to push when he didn't need to. Who knows, but I think we had it under control."



"Michael was a bit more comfortable on the harder tyre, and we just had a more consistent balance. Michael uses the tyre a little bit more than Rubens sometimes, and Rubens preferred the softer tyre, but there's a very small difference between the two. It's not like a couple of years ago where we had a soft tyre and a hard tyre, we've really got two soft tyres, and there's a small difference between the two of them. It's down to driver preference."



"He didn't have to, but it was more marginal. Wear rate on that tyre was more than the other one, so it was something that we were mindful of. And of course Rubens is very good at overtaking. He made a great move at the beginning, so it's something that we were keen to do, and without the safety car he could have won the race or finished second."



"I'm never confident, and that's really was really difficult for people to understand about Austria. We're never confident and we're always paranoid that something's going to go wrong. It was a good day, but we need a few more good days before the championship is finished."



"It was a great result. We don't wish Juan Pablo to have failed, but for Michael to have won and Juan Pablo to have failed is a great result. Of course we got the constructors' points as well, so we're very happy. But we are paranoid. To think that the championship is won is complacent, and the last thing we are is complacent. We won't be enjoying it until it's done. We're hoping these things can happen as soon as possible, but we're also aware that events can overtake us. It was a very tough race, one of the toughest races we've had for a long time, because there was a lot going on. We had to be very careful on brakes, we had to be careful on the tyres, we had to manage everything. We had a very close call with Rubens on the safety car, and I'm not entirely happy that I got that right, so we need to look at that and see whether I got that right and we could have made a better decision."



"I'm a little surprised, actually. Williams were so strong last year, particularly towards the end of the year, and they started this year in a very strong position. We're both pushing each other very hard. They've increased the revs of their engine recently, and maybe that's gone a little bit too far, but you have to run these things on the limit. So I'm a little bit surprised that they're having the problems they're having."



"In theory it should be a reasonable track for us. Our tyre qualities should be strong there. We've got some developments coming on the tyres, and maybe a couple of things on the car as well for there, so I'm reasonably hopeful. Of course you never know what Michelin are going to do."