Ross Brawn Q&A
Over the years Ross Brawn has rightly received a lot of credit for the strategic decisions that have helped Michael Schumacher to four World Championships, and it was inevitable that on Sunday afternoon he faced the music. Like Jean Todt, he could not understand why the decision to swap the lead on the last lap created such a negative reaction, mainly because from Ferrari's point of view it never really was a race. The drivers were under orders not to overstress the machinery, and obviously at no point was Michael going to make an attempt to pass his team mate. The fact that an exchange of places much earlier in the race would have been less controversial seemed to completely escape the notice of the Ferrari management. For some 56 of the 71 laps the Ferraris ran first and second, not counting the safety car interludes or the short period that Ralf Schumacher got in between them, and at any point they could have swapped around. Indeed, if Michael had led the last 20 or so laps, even after being waved past, he might have been considered a more legitimate winner. The PR kudos to be gained by Ferrari and even Michael had Rubens won was sacrificed in a clumsy manner. Is this really the way Luca di Montezemolo wants his company to go racing, one wonders? Adam Cooper spoke to Brawn immediately after the finish.
"The decision was made several years ago to do the best that we can for Ferrari. I think what people can't understand is that we controlled the race. We were fortunate to have such an advantage that we didn't let the drivers race each other. At this stage of the season there's no point in us letting the drivers push the equipment to the limits. So we told both drivers they had to take it easy. And when you make that decision you can't say there's a race going on. Rubens was very quick today, and drove a fantastic race, and as a team we decided that we wanted Michael to take the points, which is important to us."
"He did a fantastic job. He qualified on pole, controlled the race, so he did everything perfectly. That's why we've given him a new contract. We've always had faith in him. This is not going to make any difference. Rubens knows the situation."
"You never know how temporary those things are. Remember 2000, when Michael had a 22 points lead, and then we had two crashes and an engine failure and we were behind in the championship. You have to take every opportunity to the maximum. Then if we're fortunate enough to win the championship mathematically of course it's a different situation. But today the situation was that we had to maximise our points for Michael. Ferrari had a one-two, and it was a fantastic day."
"I don't see how you make that distinction between the last lap and 20 laps from the end. What's the difference?"
"We're not into deceiving people about the real situation. The real situation is what you saw out there, it's not for us to deceive the people into thinking that something else is going on."
"I can understand it, but what people don't understand is that the drivers were told not to race because there was no need to push the cars. In that situation, who knows what would have happened if Michael had been racing Rubens. We didn't need to take that risk, and at this stage of the season we're not going to."
"Well, I could have done something strange on the race strategy. I could have fiddled it to put Michael ahead. That's not want we want to do. That for me would be a deception. We've been very clear about our policy, and that policy was enacted today."
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