Ross Brawn Q&A

"Just that the key today was to try and get Rubens to finish in front of David, and also to try and win the race. But that was what we were really keen to do. Michael wasn't going to act as a rear guard, but with Rubens in fifth place we thought on two stops he might have a chance to attack, and he did a very good job again. I think the second set didn't seem to work as well as the first set, so he wasn't able to build the time in the second stint that he should have done. So we had a half hour where it started to become a little bit more difficult."



"We found them much more consistent on Friday. We were worried about the consistency for a race distance. Bridgestone had gone very soft, and we were worried that the soft tyre might suffer in the race. In fact it didn't, and McLaren kept it together, so that's something we need to consider."



"It's difficult to say. Obviously in the race we weren't able to judge, but I think the thing was that the soft tyre stayed together, which was not what we expected. It looked like it would have a high degradation, but in fact in the race it didn't. It's hard to recall a soft tyre coming together by race day, so we didn't quite get that right. Having said all that Michael was still in a strong position, but he had some pretty difficult laps when he first went out. He got caught in traffic. There was a bit of a mess in the middle of the race, so there were five or six critical laps when Mika was able to put the hammer down, and he did a great job. Michael had a couple of bad laps where he lost 1.5s-2.0s, on each lap, and I think he came into the pits 2s down on Mika. But motor racing is full of ifs and buts, so we've got no excuses!"



"Yes. At the beginning of the race it was good, and seeing what Williams were doing strategy wise, I think we would have been in a pretty good position. McLaren had a good strategy. They just sat behind us quietly, looked after their tyres at the beginning of the race, and particularly for Mika it all came together in those five or six laps in the middle of the race. It's always frustrating to lose a race which we could have won, but they did a good job."



"I don't think there was a big difference, really. Michael and Rubens came out almost together after the second stint."



"I don't know. It looked like he was driving pretty hard, but there were just some laps in traffic where we lost a lot of time. I think Michael was driving pretty hard."



"Yes, I think so. I see no signs of any difference. He put the car on pole, and if we'd kept the race together for five laps in the middle, we would have won the race. So you can't criticise him, for sure."



"Yeah. He's generally been a much better race driver than qualifier, and it's qualifying again that we need to try and improve. It wasn't such a good qualifying here, but he showed again in the race that he's a very good driver. He likes to have a lighter car, he likes to attack, so quite often he's on a lighter fuel load because he feels he needs to run a race like that. When the numbers show the strategies are very similar, he much prefers to drive that sort of race. So we encourage him. I think he's doing a good job. We just need to win in Suzuka, and David needs to not score any points."



"Yes, it's a long shot. But I think Rubens deserves a race win this year. He's driven well enough to win races."



"Well, I have a feeling that we should be very strong on Bridgestones at Suzuka. They know the track better than anyone, so I'll be a bit disappointed if we're not where we expect in Suzuka. It's got a combination of medium/high speed corners which Michelin seem to struggle a bit on, so I have a feeling that it will be more towards McLaren and Ferrari. But it won't be very far off."