Spain: Ross Brawn Q&A


By Phil Huff
May 8 2009

Ross Brawn, Brawn GP's team principal, sat in the 'Friday Five' press conference today, talking to the media about many things, including the future of the sport, Rubens' troubles, and how there'll never be driver equality. Here's a complete transcript of what he had to say.

Ross, would you like to start on the overtaking situation as you and Pat were on the overtaking working group I think.

No, I wasn't. Pat was. Our drivers are reporting that the cars are easier to follow. They have still got an imbalance when they follow other cars. But the cars are easier to follow. At the moment we have got the situation that some cars have KERS and some are without KERS. We have had several occasions where we have managed to get on the back of a car with KERS and we can't overtake it as it uses KERS to pull away, so we have got a little bit of an odd situation at the moment but the general impression from our guys is that the cars are better and because they have got this adjustable front wing it also helps to get the car set up when you are coming up behind someone.

Do you feel it is going to be difficult for you to stay ahead development-wise?

It is always very difficult to even maintain your position wherever it is in Formula One as it moves forward so quickly. The big challenge we all have is that with no testing you are effectively on a Friday trying to work out what you have got and where you are. It is not such a straightforward process as it used to be. Testing itself was always very difficult anyway but it is extremely difficult now. We have brought a new package here which seems to be working very well with Rubens but we have got a problem with it with Jenson and we have to understand what is going on. It is quite a difficult year for everybody and it will continue to be difficult with the testing rules that we have. We have a reasonable sized team now and we are not budget limited in what we can do, we are just being careful in how we spend that money. Perhaps we bring three or four sets of parts to a race whereas last year we might have brought six or seven. We make those sorts of judgement calls but we are certainly not holding back on doing any performance improvements that we can. There is a package here, there are some modifications for Monaco and there is another update for the Nürburgring, so we are working hard.

When you say a package, what does that comprise?

Well, it is a new floor, new engine cover, new bodywork around the rear suspension, so that's what we have brought here.

As I understand it, you don't know the full technical regulations for next year, especially the tank size. I wondered if since this impinges on costs that if you each think it is realistic for the President of the FIA to be imposing a budget cut before you even know the rules.

We don't want to see a two tier Formula One. We think that would confuse the public, we think that if there's a big disparity in the regulations there will be no merit for those teams that succeed using the most advantageous regulation, so we don't want a two tier Formula One. It's a fact that stability – when the rules are right – is the cheapest way of going forward in many ways because you can plan, you can organise yourself but one of the difficulties of Formula One is that we're turning into Swiss watchmakers. We're just refining everything to the nth degree instead of being able to make conceptual changes or innovative changes because the rules are becoming more and more restrictive. In order to try and contain the costs, we're just closing everything down so much that I'm not sure that that's what Formula One should be. We, as a team, both in Honda days and now, support the idea of a constraint on resources of some sort, be it financial, be it people, be it some constraint where everything is enclosed and within that enclosure there is more freedom because most of the technical changes we're doing are to save cost, so if we can save cost by saying 'that's all you're allowed to spend' and have more freedom, for me that's a more exciting Formula One, for us, for the public and we've always supported that concept. What we want to do as a team is find a solution to that with all the other teams. We don't want difficulties in Formula One, we want to work with the FIA, we want to work with all the teams and find a solution that fits with that. But for me, we're going down the Swiss watchmaking route with Formula One and it's not what I believe Formula One should be.

We're obviously talking about transition and how you manage it but if it's difficult to negotiate in the next few weeks with Max Mosley on this, is it not possible that you would all run uncost-capped, all the teams, for next year and then try to work it out and negotiate it from that point onwards?

I think all the teams within FOTA don't want to have a two tier system and I think there will be discussions over the next week or so. It's very unfortunate what has happened with Max, a terrible thing, so we've got to be sympathetic in that respect but as soon as it's possible, we would like to meet with Max and try and find if there's another way forward, where all the teams can be united and consistent in the solution. For us, there has to be some constraint on resources, not a constraint on the technical regulations.

The weight limit has been raised for next year but it's a general overall increase, so the taller heavier drivers are penalised. Would you support a system where you weigh the drivers, seat and helmet together, so that it's a level playing field no matter what size your driver is?

I don't think you will get total equality. A big driver should be stronger, he should have more stamina, he should be able to drive the car over a longer period more consistently, so I don't think you will ever get total equality. Possibly the weight limit now, particularly with the introduction of KERS, is making it quite difficult for teams who want to run KERS to find the weight distribution they want and accommodate the heavier drivers. I think there are two important things next year: one is the weight and the other is the smaller front tyre size which is going to push the weight distribution, let's say, to a more natural position in the car. The ratio size of tyres at the moment is forcing everybody to run very forward weight distributions and that's where people with KERS and bigger drivers also run into problems, so I think it's a sensible change. I think with those changes, I don't believe bigger drivers are penalised. Bigger drivers are stronger and they take those advantages.

I wondered if you could perhaps give us a review of Rubens's performances this season, because while Jenson has won three of the four races, Rubens has been on the podium once and that was somewhat fortuitous. Is he doing something different to Jenson or is Jenson just performing exceptionally?

I think Rubens has had a little bit of bad luck. I know luck shouldn't come into it but I think in China he was looking very strong, in fact probably for a dry race he was in better shape than Jenson but then in the wet he had a problem with the brakes, one of the brakes glazed over on the rear which made life very interesting for him. In the last race, in Bahrain, the front wing adjustor failed during his qualifying lap and the front wing flap dropped down as he was in the middle of his qualifying lap. We'd gone for a pretty aggressive strategy and that meant being at the front and he didn't achieve it because we had a problem with the car. I'm pleased with Rubens's performance this year. He's contributed an awful lot to the team, helping sort the car out. He gives very valuable technical information and I think it just hasn't quite fallen for him this season. Jenson's doing a superb job, so that's the reference but I'm very happy with Rubens's performance and I'm sure that if we get a smooth weekend he'll be up there.

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