Q & A with Ross Brawn

source : www.autosport.com
By Jonathan Noble
Monday, May 25th 2009

Sunday's race also marked the second consecutive one-two finish for the Brawn team, who is steamrolling towards the championship.

AUTOSPORT caught up with Ross Brawn after the Monaco success.

Q. It keeps on getting better and better, doesn't it?

Ross Brawn: Well, this is always an incredibly tough race, the whole weekend is a difficult weekend. One small mistake from the drivers and it's al over. So to have a one-two in such difficult circumstances is quite exceptional. The team just ran very, very well all weekend, we had a bit of a tough first stint in the race, the tyres went away a bit quicker than we anticipated but we managed to keep it together and recover. So I'm lost for words really.

Q. Jenson's starts haven't been so good in the past but he did brilliantly in Monaco?

RB: There's obviously a certain amount of technology in it, there are limitations on what you can do with the rules but the guys have been working on developing the start techniques and developing the clutch and all the things you can do, and they've been doing a great job. We had a difficult start in one race but apart from that they're doing a great job.

Q. The last person to win five of the first six races was Michael Schumacher at Ferrari..

RB: Was it? There was a bit in the race where Jenson was coming up to a group that were racing each other and we were talking on the pit wall and saying maybe he should ease the pace back a bit and not get mixed up in it and he came on the radio almost simultaneously and said 'look guys, I don't want to get involved in that, what's going on in front, I'm going to ease back a bit'. So he's gaining in that mental capacity to do things as well as driving the car.

Q. Would you rate him up there with the great drivers?

RB: You have to remember that Rubens is a tremendous reference. Rubens had his occasions when he beat Michael and Michael was a pretty strong reference so the fact that Jenson has won these races with Rubens in the team sets the standard. I think he is doing exceptionally well. It's early days but I'm obviously delighted with both drivers' performance. But Jenson is doing exceptionally well.

Q. Turkey is next up. Can you win that too?

RB: You always hope, but Turkey is a very aerodynamic circuit and I think if you look at the balance of the cars properties or strengths, low speed, medium speed, very good chassis performance, the aerodynamics are strong and they are getting stronger.

We've got a new front wing there but perhaps that's the area of the high speed performance where we know we are not quite as good as Red Bull for instance, so we've got some ideas about how to fix that and hope to have them in place by Turkey. It's going to be fighting tooth and nail in every race.

Q. You have a British driver in a British team, and it looks guaranteed to be leading into British GP.

RB: I hadn't thought of that but we are really looking forward to seeing our fans. We seem to have built up a tremendous group of fans even in the short time we have been together so we are really looking forward to seeing them all at Silverstone and hopefully having a special time.

Q. That's going to be a big one to tick off, the British GP?

RB: They are all very special but of course your home grand prix has an extra element so it would be pretty special. It would almost complete the set.

Q. Winning this one with a team with your own name must be pretty amazing?

RB: It is and it hasn't sunk in. It has my name on it but the team is a team, a group of people who are all doing a fantastic job and I'm trying to be a bit of a catalyst and help things along. It carries my name but is a fantastic group of people.

Q. How does it compare to winning with Ferrari?

RB: We are obviously doing it with a lot less resource than Ferrari, so it's a different approach. This is a small boutique team as opposed to what Ferrari was. It will be probably more difficult for us to keep it going in some ways but everybody is achieving more than you might expect. We've got the heart of a big team, even if we are a small team.