Ross Brawn Q&A

"The difficulty at the moment is knowing where you're going to be in the race with the tyres, because you don't get the full picture in practice, and nobody really an opportunity to do a lot of running. It wasn't an easy choice, but it proved to be a good choice. Rubens was obviously on a different strategy from where he had started, but he was making great progress, and I'm sure he would have finished third today, at least. So that was frustrating."



"He had a hydraulic problem of some sort. He lost control of the throttle, and that normally indicates hydraulic failure. He was just going to sit there in seventh or eighth place, so we thought we try something. I think it would have worked, I think it would have come good. He wouldn't have won it, because he was on two and Michael was on one."



"Yes, we are very pleased. It was a race which we weren't predicted to be able to win. It's a great bonus or boost for everyone, Bridgestone and Ferrari, to win this race. The tyres actually were very good today. I don't know if their [Michelin's] tyres worked as well as they looked as though they were going to in practice. So it was very good."



"We were very fortunate to be able to continue. Juan Pablo gave Michael a fair old whack from behind. I don't see anything that Michael did wrong, although I understand Montoya says different. I just think everyone just needs to calm down a little through the first few corners and get the race started, because we're having too many incidents at the beginning of races."



"It won't get out of hand from our side. Michael is very relaxed about it, he recognises Juan Pablo is a very good driver, a very competitive driver, so Michael doesn't have any problem with Juan Pablo. I guess if you get the same two drivers at the front of the grid all the time, it's inevitable that the two are going to have hard battles. I think it needs a bit of reflection on what's happened to try and avoid it destroying races in the future. We lost our race in Malaysia because of it with Michael, and they've lost their race with Montoya because of it today. It doesn't really help anyone in the long term."



"Not really, no! We don't truly know the difference between the two cars. We know the new car is better. Its advantage would differ from track to track, and I'm not sure what it would be here. It handles better, so obviously on the infield section it's better. We have a better engine in the new car than we have in the old car, and it's a power circuit. What's pleasing about today is that it's a track that was perceived to favour Michelin, and particularly Williams. It's almost like an away win! Hopefully we can still win our home races as well."



"Of course. To bring it here and win with it is just a perfect result. We were very anxious on the pit wall those last few laps, but in fact the dice that was going on tends to distract you from those things. Michael was very keen that we kept him informed where Ralf was, because it's not so easy to judge form inside the car exactly how close the car behind is. We had a lot of radio conversation. That keeps you occupied, so the end of the race comes fairly quickly."



"Williams was very strong at Imola last year, remember, and we didn't have such a good race. Historically the next race is theirs, but I was very pleased with the Barcelona test, and the car was very good there. I think it's going to go up and down the next few races. I think it will be a tough season."

For the full inside story of the F2002's debut, see this week's Autosport magazine, which goes on sale on Thursday