Even though the Circuit de Catalunya is not heavy on brakes going down this path was a gamble, which for both drivers would be a costly mistake. Juan Pablo would retire from the race on the 46th lap with brake failure and Ralf would struggle with brakes during the race.

Michael said: "We just stepped over the limit here really. We decided to go for smaller brake ducts to get more aerodynamic performance out of the car and clearly it was the wrong decision. We knew what we did was very risky but we took the risk because we wanted the performance.

"We thought we could manage it in the race but it turned out that we couldn't on Juan's car."

As a result of this error the WilliamsF1 team would only come away with three points from Spain and they would see their rivals, now including Renault and BAR not just Ferrari, draw away in the points.

Technical Director Patrick Head added: "Obviously we were not racing in the form in which we were testing but that is part of the development. We will correct our mistake and go out and race at the next race. In the recent past its not been brilliant for us here but not as poor as today.

"But one of the good things about Formula One is that providing you do the right things you get the chance to put it in two weeks time. I think different teams have done better or worse jobs at different tracks and here we are looking at a poor performance from the team and we will be better next time."