Both Jenson and Rubens had very different fortunes in the British Grand Prix.  Listen to Jenson and Rubens British Grand Prix diaries and hear their view on the race.

Jenson laments his start as he was stuck behind the Toyota, he had well timed pit stops and the soft tyres at the end of the race meant he could catch up the cars in front but just wasn’t able to get past.  Jenson struggled to get the hard tyres up to temperature which meant he couldn’t take the speed round the corners.  Jenson ends with the comment that he hopes this will be the worst race of the year!

Rubens Barrichello had a solid race but was overtaken by Mark Webber in the pit stops.  Rubens suffered with tyres like Jenson which let Webber past and even pull away.  Rubens 3rd place is particularly spectacular as he suffered from chronic back pain throughout the weekend which he took pills and injections for.

Jenson’s You Tube Diary

Rubens You Tube Diary

Post from: Brawn GP News

Jenson & Rubens British GP Diaries

After a fantastic 1,2 win at the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix, Brawn GP have released the following statement.

Brawn GP achieved the team’s second one-two result of the 2009 Formula One season today with Jenson Button taking his fourth victory of the year at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and team-mate Rubens Barrichello securing second position.

Starting from third on the grid, Rubens had a fantastic start to the race as he passed Sebastian Vettel and Jenson, who started on pole, on the run down to the first corner. A multi-car collision brought out the safety car for the first four laps of the race with Rubens and Jenson heading the field in first and second positions.

With the racing underway on lap five, the two Brawn-Mercedes drivers concentrated on building a gap at the front. Jenson pitted first on lap 18 where his planned three-stop strategy was switched to a two-stop, followed by Rubens on lap 19. Rubens pitted for the second of his three stops on lap 31 and struggled with his tyres throughout his third stint which allowed Jenson to edge ahead on strategy by the time he came in for his final stop on lap 50.

Jenson took the chequered flag at the end of the 66-lap race to achieve his fourth victory and fifth consecutive podium of the season. Rubens’ second position and fastest lap of the race capped a fantastic start to Formula One’s European season for Brawn GP and engine partner Mercedes-Benz. The team has now extended its lead in the Constructors’ Championship with 68 points. Jenson leads the Drivers’ Championship on 41 points with Rubens in second place on 27 points.

RESULTS

Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Race Result / Fastest Lap
Jenson Button 22 BGP 001-02 P1 01:22.899
Rubens Barrichello 23 BGP 001-01 P2 01:22.762

Weather Warm and sunny
Temperatures Air: 23-24°C Track: 37-44°C

JENSON BUTTON
“We thought that three-stops would be the quicker strategy here and that was what we fuelled for in Q3 yesterday. I had a good start from pole but Rubens had an absolute flier and I couldn’t hold him off. Having lost the lead and with the prospect of being caught behind Rosberg, we made the decision to switch to a two-stop strategy. The car felt so heavy with the fuel on board after my first stop but I worked really hard on my final two stints to make the strategy work for me. To come away with the win is a little unexpected but it means so much to continue our run of success. Obviously Rubens is disappointed not to have got the win today and he has been a huge help over the weekend in helping me overcome the issues that I faced on Friday. His turn will certainly come. There’s a great feeling within our team and I am very proud of them for producing such a great car. A special thanks to all the guys back at the factory in Brackley and to Norbert Haug and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines. They supported our team through the difficult times and we couldn’t have achieved this without them.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“The race began really well for me and I had a great start overtaking Sebastian and Jenson to be leading the race coming out of turn one and through the safety car period. The car was feeling really good during the first stint and getting out from my first stop ahead of Nico on track set the race up nicely for me. I was quite surprised when Jenson’s strategy was switched and from then I knew that I had to go flat out to make my strategy work. However I suffered on my third set of tyres and was not able to get the lap times which would have kept me ahead of Jenson. It was a great result for Jenson and the team today but I am disappointed not to have won the race after having such a good weekend. I am a positive person however and I am confident that my victory will come soon.”

ROSS BRAWN
“A fantastic result for the team today after a great deal of hard work to maximise the performance of our new developments this weekend. Rubens had a great start to be leading the race from lap one and we asked both drivers to push as hard as possible to build a lead over the chasing pack. As we approached the window for the first pit stops, it became apparent that Jenson would come out directly behind Nico Rosberg if we went with his planned three-stop strategy. We therefore made the decision to switch Jenson onto a two-stop strategy to ensure that he could run in clean air. Rubens was going extremely quickly at the front at that time and his three-stop strategy was clearly the quickest option for him. Unfortunately his tyres did not perform well after his second stop which compromised his pace and ultimately cost him the race. Rubens has performed extremely well throughout this weekend and it has been largely thanks to his input that we have been able to maximise our pace and achieve the successes of today. Our second one-two finish is a fantastic way to start the European season and I am extremely proud of Jenson, Rubens and the team. Our thanks as always to Mercedes-Benz and all of our team partners for their continued support.”

Post from: Brawn GP News

Spanish Grand Prix – Official Brawn Statement

Q: Sebastian, a very incident packed race. Talk us through that pace car start and the conditions that faced you.
Sebastian Vettel: It was the right decision to start under the safety car. Basically it was okay at some points but at some corners on every lap you were having a lot of aquaplaning. Sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on the rain. It was very, very difficult throughout the whole race. I think we both knew, Mark and I, that we were on the short strategy, so we had to push at the beginning to get away from the pack which we succeeded. And yeah, it was a very difficult race. As I said, a lot of aquaplaning and sometimes you were just catching the car and just keeping it on the circuit. You tried to push and tried to get away from the car lap by lap. I think I had the best conditions because I had no car running in front of me more or less for the whole race, so that was quite comfortable but still it was really difficult with the aquaplaning especially in the last corner. It is going a bit uphill and the water goes down and there is some place where basically you have no control, so you just try not to touch the car there, don’t downshift, don’t brake too much and every lap you had to be cautious. But what should I say. I am extremely happy, second time now in the wet I have won a grand prix. Now we can have some more rain. The car was fantastic. It is definitely necessary to mention that the team did a really, really good job in preparing the car. Yesterday in qualifying we did a good job but nevertheless we were struggling a bit with the reliability but we were able to fix it overnight. We found the problem and that speaks for the quality of our team and everybody was just trying to fix it. We succeeded. Both cars just finished the race and even having a top two. A double win for Red Bull is incredible and I am extremely happy.

Q: Mark, you have been with this team for a long time. This must mean a lot to you to?
Mark Webber: A huge amount. Our team has been through a lot and a lot of results have slipped through our fingers. And today Sebastian and I could capitalize on a car that worked very well. We pushed each other quite hard in the race. It was very, very tough conditions for the whole grand prix. It got a little bit better in the middle of the race, then at the end again it got a little bit interesting. And also when you lose the edges off the wets they don’t cut the water as well. It was a very tough race, extremely rewarding to get this result. Personally for myself it is obviously the best result of my career. I hope to go one step better in the future and this is a long way towards it. I think it is an incredible result for Red Bull. If you think what Dietrich (Mateschitz) has done over the last five or six years in Formula One to get his first one-two is an absolute credit to him, so it is good.

Q: Jenson, a great race for you with lots going on. Obviously some problem with the car as the conditions worsened?
Jenson Button: Well, I think everyone was struggling with the aquaplaning out there. It was pretty crazy conditions into the last corner. As Sebastian said it was a just a lake and you couldn’t actually brake for the corner. A few other places were the same. I was just really struggling with the tyres. They were shuddering. They shudder because you can’t get temperature into them, front and rears. It was a difficult race and every lap you thought you were going to throw the car off. You really did, so to finish the race is an achievement and to come home on the podium is also great. We couldn’t challenge these two guys today, they were immensely quick. But it is great to get six points on the board and that’s important to keep the consistency.

Q: Sebastian, it was also an incredibly strong car. Let’s have a look at lap 19. Can you talk us through this incident on the back straight? I don’t know if Jarno Trulli was going slower than you but you got a nasty punt from the rear from Sébastien Buemi.
SV: Yeah, I mean I was surprised. I thought this car was Rubens (Barrichello) as I knew he was in front of me. I was just going off throttle to check if everything was alright, I passed him and I really didn’t see that Sébastien was coming. I am very sorry for what happened. To be honest I was just taking care. I didn’t want to run into the car in front of me. Obviously it is impossible to see anything in the mirrors as there is a lot of spray, so I moved to the right, checked if everything was alright and then I realised it was a Toyota and not Rubens and then I continued. And unfortunately Sébastien hit me already. It is a shame for his race but on the other hand I am very lucky to have finished mine.

Q: And it didn’t affect your car at all?
SV: No, it didn’t. After that I was quite happy that nothing happened. I could continue in a normal way, still it was difficult enough with the conditions, a lot of aquaplaning and I am just extremely proud and happy to sit here now.

Q: Mark and Jenson. Some fun and games mid-race. Quite a lot going on between you. Maybe I should let both of you now describe the action. You can fight amongst yourselves about who wants to do the commentary on the clips we are going to see next?
JB: For me I was pretty much just always out of control. I was just waiting for Mark to appear, well not appear in my mirrors, but appear in the front. I locked up the fronts in that corner. I was struggling there with locking up the tyres.
MW: I hit the river there and had to catch and straighten the car and open the steering and get onto the astroturf. Also I was worried about that. I didn’t have a clue where Jenson was as I had just come back on. I only looked at my pit board every few laps, so I knew he was somewhere there but I didn’t know how close.

Q: What is going on here Jenson?
JB: I was just trying to get some heat in the tyres. I am not trying to weave and keep people behind. I was really struggling with that. I don’t think they have shown Mark going past me around the outside at turn seven. I didn’t have a clue where he was and he was alongside at turn eight and it was such a shock as you can’t see anything when it is raining. Then he just cut across the front and made the move stick. For me it was impossible to do anything about it. As soon as these guys get near you or alongside you, you cannot challenge them and it would have been silly to have tried.

Q: It looks from that if you had more problems getting the tyres to work than the two Red Bull drivers?
JB: Well, I don’t know if everyone else did. Rubens and myself struggled quite a bit. I don’t know what the reason for that is. Obviously the car is working in a different way but I hope we will solve those problems in the future because we cannot let these guys be that far in front.

Q: Sebastian, let’s have a look at you crossing the line to win your second grand prix. A nice moment?
SV: Yeah, unbelievable. Some 10 laps from the end I obviously tried to observe the gap to the car behind, which was Mark, and was trying to adapt more or less to his pace. Just trying to have everything in control but it is extremely difficult. At some point I tried to bring the car home but then I realised ‘don’t do that as you lose the focus,’ so I tried to be really focussed corner by corner and not looking too far ahead. Then at the end, in the last two laps, I backed off a little bit as I didn’t want to risk going over the lakes in a stupid way anymore. So, just fantastic. Winning the second race having won one for Toro Rosso and now one for Red Bull is fantastic. I am extremely happy and hope we can continue working in this direction.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Sebastian, what a fantastic drive. Just give us some indication of what sort of concentration and mental effort is required.
SV: A lot. It was a long race. I don’t know how long it was. Basically we finished the 56 laps but in terms of time I don’t know. It felt quite long. I think first of all it was the right decision to start behind the safety car. There was a lot of water already on the lap to the grid. I was surprised at how much standing water there was in places and throughout the whole race I think everyone was struggling with some aquaplaning. In some places more and in some places less. I knew we had a short middle stint and an aggressive strategy, so every lap earlier the safety car pulled in would give us more chance to open a gap to the guys at the back. At the point the safety car came in I just tried to push and basically tried to get as much gap to the guys behind as possible which I think was the key to success in the end. Also in the second stint I think we did the right thing. Fantastic strategy, extremely good effort by the team to get both cars reliable after the trouble we had yesterday. To be honest we were quite confident going into the race that nothing should happen but obviously you never know and especially the last couple of laps when I was in the lead and quite comfortable I was just hoping and nursing the car back to the finish line but on the other hand you also always have to keep the focus and not to do any silly mistake as with these conditions having a lot of aquaplaning in some places, especially the last corner, it was absolutely necessary to keep your head up and watch out what the conditions were like. When it started to rain a bit more there was also more aquaplaning and the tyres basically had a peak at the beginning and then it was difficult to keep the tyres alive and towards the end of the stint it was always getting more difficult to get rid of all of the standing water and obviously to come back with the result I am extremely happy to have won the race. I think it is an enormous job by the whole of Red Bull. Greetings to Austria and we are both very happy and very pleased.

Q: You had the advantage of a clear track having started on pole but were there disadvantages as well?
SV: Yeah, when I was not in the lead, basically, especially when I was trying to catch Jenson. It is extremely difficult to see the car in front of you which we all know and that makes it so difficult to get the race started in wet conditions. Sometimes I knew I was behind him as I could see the spray but I did not exactly know where he was, so it is extremely difficult first of all to get close and then stay close and even pass. I think Mark and Jenson had a bit more exciting race in terms of overtaking each other. For me I was quite happy that I always had clear vision to the front similar to last year’s race in Monza, so for sure I had the best chance to do well and at the end it was close sometimes to keep the car on the track especially entering turn one. Sometimes there was kind of a river running down the track and you just lost the car on snap oversteer. You just caught it and you were hoping for the car and the tyres to stick again. In 100 per cent of the cases it did, so it doesn’t feel comfortable to have this kind of situation.

Q: You had the incident with Sébastien Buemi. Any other major moments we might have missed on television?
SV: There were a couple of moments I would say. But obviously that was extremely important that there was no damage to my car. Basically what happened I was going down the main straight, the safety car was already out, not yet in front of us, so you stay in your target time and try to catch up with the safety car. What happened is I saw a car slowing down all of a sudden on the left side and saw the spray and thought initially it was Rubens (Barrichello). I was not sure if he had a problem or was just slowing down because of the cars in front of him, maybe we had caught up and already there was a queue. You cannot see that far. I was slowing down and it turned out to be a Toyota, not Rubens, so I was just looking cautiously. He had a problem. He had no rear wing. Then I passed him and at the same moment I got a hit from behind by Sébastien. I am sorry to ruin his race but in these conditions you could basically run without mirrors because you cannot see a lot, you cannot see much because of all the spray. So sorry for him and extremely lucky to keep going in the race.

Q: Mark, as you said, your best ever result – and you were in the spray!
MW: Yeah, it was challenging at times. Of course, Sebastian deserved a clear gap because he got pole. Once Fernando rolled away in terms of pitting under the safety car, I thought OK, we knew we were quite short, we need to make the most of getting away from potential two-stoppers or people who had more flexibility with their strategy. The first few laps it was impossible to stay close to Seb, I could hardly see anything. I was in and out of the throttle in some of the blind crests, and having so many moments while trying to stay close. And then it started to settle a little bit and then I thought OK, I can start to come a little bit closer. I hit a river in turn one, went a bit wide, lost some time and then unfortunately it put me back into the clutches – a little bit of the gap after the next safety car. I then had to come back through Jenson which was a good scrap and then again, when Jenson slightly locked a front right into the hairpin, I had an opportunity to go past. And when it’s your first (clear) lap, it’s ‘my God, I can see everything, it’s beautiful.’ Then pushing like hell, again trying to put as much as I could into that part of the race. Another little mistake. Just playing with the rivers, you know, just playing with them, how aggressive you can be with the rivers and how much you can get away with. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. It was a fantastic challenge. Then when Jenson got back past me again, I knew it was… not do or die but I was still quite keen to try and win the race myself and I passed him around the outside of turn seven because I knew the car was quite good there and also he would not know I would be there as well, so he could not defend. It was one of the best moves of my career and that started to then build me for the next part of the race. And then it was basically a formality. I was just watching Jenson’s gap. Sebastian and I were just on the pace, bringing it to the end but it is an incredible day for the team. You’ve got no idea what the guys went through last night. We were absolutely sh*tting ourselves that the cars wouldn’t finish the race because every time we ran yesterday the cars stopped in three laps. Basically my driveshaft boot was destroyed as well after qualifying, so it was incredible to get the cars home. To get maximum points, for us, after the missed opportunities in Australia, and also with Sebastian’s and my missed opportunities in Malaysia, it’s a great day for the team, at Milton Keynes and also in Austria.

Q: Jenson, tell us about your battle with Mark.
JB: I knew that the Red Bulls obviously had very good pace, we saw that in the first stint and when the safety car came in, they seemed to be very strong from the word go. Our pace could get closer to them but when we’re on cold tyres, they could really get their car working which is very impressive. But after the first stop, I was back in front of Mark, due to the difference in stop laps and really it was all going OK. I felt like I was really slow, because I was trying to miss every river, but the problem with that is that it changes every lap, the conditions are changing every lap and the position of the rivers is changing every lap, so it makes it very, very difficult and when I saw that myself and Mark were pulling away from the people behind, I was reasonably happy with the pace then, I could just sort of settle into a pace. And then I got to the second to last corner and locked up the fronts, Mark went through, I tried to stay with him but there was no chance and then he made a mistake in the last corner where I jumped back past him again. The problem was, for everyone who was racing, you can’t see the car in front, where he is and when you’re in front you can’t see the car behind. It makes it quite dangerous. You might say it’s more fun, but it’s not, it’s quite dangerous. Mark did a great move round turn seven, round the outside. It seemed that they could run on the really wet parts of the circuit and actually break through the water on the circuit, whereas we just seemed to float over the top. I don’t know if that was because we were running the car too low or what but that’s where he made the move, made it stick and from then on really it was just holding on and getting to the end of the race, because for all of us, however quick or slow you drive, it’s just as dangerous and it was so easy to throw the car off (the track) as we saw with Sutil, a pretty fast part of the circuit. It could have easily have happened to any of us. I’m very thankful that we got to the end of the race with both cars and I was able to get on the podium. It’s a great result for me but you’ve got to say ‘well done’ to these guys because they drove well and obviously their car is working well as well.

Q: To all three of you, to what extent were you expecting these conditions today, all the way through the race?
JB: I didn’t expect so much aquaplaning. If it’s wet, it’s wet. You can normally master the line and try and find an area on the circuit where it’s dry or where you’re not aquaplaning, but here it’s very, very difficult. You’re aquaplaning as you come onto the main straight, as you go down the dip across the start and finish line and in that condition there’s nothing you can do and it’s very, very scary in a way. So getting to the end of the race, in spite of being third and not being on the top step, it’s such a relief and such a great feeling that we’ve been able to come away with these points.

Q: Were you expecting these conditions though?
JB: We thought it would be raining today but it’s amazing the amount of water build-up considering it hasn’t been raining that hard, compared to Sepang.
MW: When I got out of bed this morning, driving to the track, I was thinking maybe intermediates today and if we’re unlucky a little bit of work on the extremes but to do a whole Grand Prix on a set of extremes is not often the case. I think there are a few sections of drainage on the track which definitely need to be improved because some sections are not bad and on other sections you really are aquaplaning, so you are totally on top of the water. I don’t know if Adrian (Sutil) was on inters but where he went off, through there we had several moments where you were just trying to keep the wheel straight and feather the throttle and wait for the movement because it was very, very treacherous. I must say, an incredibly challenging Grand Prix for the drivers and one that was right on the limit for safety. It was a massive challenge. We all want challenges as drivers, at this level we should be able to test ourselves to the maximum and that’s what Formula One is about, but that one was right up there with Fuji, right on the edge and we cannot take much more than that. Visibility is one thing but also aquaplaning is another, it’s not down to… Anyway, we got a great result, so that’s good.
SV: Basically on Friday they said that it might rain on Sunday night. Saturday they said maybe Sunday afternoon and I really started to believe this morning when it started to drizzle that we were going to have a wet race or some rain during the race. I was surprised that it kept going continuously, so there was rain throughout the whole race. At some stage it stopped raining, the rain got less and the circuit improved and I thought OK, maybe now we have to pit too early, maybe in a couple of laps after the stop the track will be ready for inters but then it started raining again and also a couple of guys tried to make the inters work but obviously there was so much water, as Mark said, especially in the last corner, also turn six, basically that’s just an easy right kink, but it’s a bit of a crest. For some reason there’s a lot of water and you never know if you can stay flat or not and every lap the car was very light, going sideways and you were hoping, ‘yeah, everything is OK,’ and the next lap it was the same again, so every lap you had the same kind of scenario. As Mark said, it was extremely challenging but also on the edge, so if it had just started to rain heavier at some point, then in some places it would have been impossible and the person who got there first possibly would have lost the car.
JB: The scary thing was that normally when you follow a car you see the two lines in the water and you know exactly where they’ve been and you can follow that line because there’s less water there but I never saw any lines on the circuit. That was the amazing thing. The water doesn’t seem to clear and that was the worst thing about it, I think.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Mike Doodson) Mark, you must have been very relieved to see the rain at the start from the driveshaft point of view. Were you able to modify the driveshafts to make them better or were you really worried that if it had been dry they might have only lasted for three laps at a time?
MW: Yes, we were able to modify the driveshafts, well, the small boot that contains the grease, to keep all the lubrication in there, so that was a spec change overnight, obviously within the regulations from parc ferme to be able to do that. There was some work done at the factory to understand the problem at this particular circuit. Of course, we might have been a bit more nervous in the dry with more loading and things like that but it turned out to be an inspired change from what the technical guys in that department had done. I must say that normally when I’m in that position, to gain positions, I like to see the guy in front have a problem and blow up but today of course, I would like to win but to get one-two, for us two, for the team… of course if it was Jenson, I would like to see him blow up but if it was Sebastian it was a bit different, so it was an incredible result for our team in the circumstances.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian and Mark, I know that Adrian Newey is projecting a new car with the diffuser. Do you believe you really need it as the one you are using proved to be very competitive?
SV: Well, first of all I didn’t know you are friends with Adrian. I think it’s the same for all the teams. We all have a diffuser, if you have this kind or this kind… As Fernando said yesterday, this is what is extremely interesting about this championship. I think these cars are new, they look different and you are just at the beginning of their development, so basically the curve continues to go up and you are able to find newer and newer bits, other than the diffuser, and an update here or there, smaller or bigger can make a huge difference because the championship is very tight. Three or four tenths up or down can have a big impact in terms of position in qualifying. You can be on top or midfield or at the back. I think every team is pushing. We are pushing extremely hard to make the car faster. I’m very happy that the car is fast already and able to compete with the best teams so far and yeah, hoping that it gets better and better throughout the season. Basically we will try and stay on top and make the final step to be the best team on the grid.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Jenson, you’ve been around for a little while already. When we have wet races, they seem to be started behind the safety car and you’ve mentioned the problems with visibility; what is different from the past, are the cars too fast for wet races, are they producing too much spray?
JB: That’s a difficult one. I haven’t been around that long, maybe longer than these two! There’s always been a lot of spray in Formula One. I don’t think that has changed. For some reason we seem to be having a lot of wet races over the last couple of years which I think stick in our memories more. The problem with getting temperature into the tyres is more of a new issue for me, anyway. You know we didn’t have that so much in the past. The tyres don’t seem to work as well as previously in the very wet conditions. We don’t seem to be able to break through the water. Obviously these guys could get it to work, so it wasn’t such a bad problem for them but it’s something that’s very strange, that we’re struggling so much with aquaplaning and tyre shuddering which we didn’t use to have four or five years ago. It’s very difficult to remember that far back but I don’t remember having such big issues. The wet is always difficult but this year and Fuji two years ago and a couple of wet races in between have for me been a lot more difficult and challenging for sure, because of the aquaplaning and just not getting heat in the tyres.
MW: If you look at the Spa race whatever it was, ten years ago or something, when one of the McLarens lost it on the exit of La Source, when you’ve got a car out of control – OK, it can happen from a rolling start as well – but I think we’ve seen the safety car work quite well on releasing the field in a much more controlled fashion. If you have different speeds off the start, the spray has always been high. I think that we’ve learned a lot in ten years in Formula One that there’s no real need to… today, to have a standing start is not really necessary. We can use the safety car and it works quite well. Once we’re under way, I think the conditions are the same as they were in ’93 or ’92 when the guys used to do it (conventionally). It’s the same thing but now we just have different methods to maybe make the race a bit safer to start.
SV: It also depends a lot on if you have guys running at the front all the time they might say yes, we could have started the race in the normal way but I think especially for the guys at the back it’s much more comfortable because you have no idea where you’re going – I’ve been there – and you can see, like today, I was extremely lucky to continue, you’re not braking, nothing, you just lift the throttle a little bit, I was cautious in case it was Rubens (Barrichello), in that case it was a Toyota. You know there were three cars involved and you can see that one hit the other and that shows how difficult it is and even starting in a normal way up to turn one there was no chance to see the car in front. We all have a flashing red light but you don’t see anything when you follow each other.

Post from: Brawn GP News

FIA Post race Press Conference Chinese Grand Prix

Brawn GP have released the following statement in the run up to this weekends Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

Just six months after Formula One’s last visit to China, the sport’s calendar returns to Shanghai this week for Round Three of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship. Earlier in the season than its traditional autumn date, this year’s Chinese Grand Prix will take place on Sunday 19 April at the Shanghai International Circuit, located 40kms from the city.

The spectacular venue which hosts the 5.451km 3.387 mile race track was designed by renowned Formula One architect Hermann Tilke and hosted its first Grand Prix in September 2004. The inaugural race was dominated by Brawn GP’s current drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button who finished first and second respectively.

The circuit layout follows the shape of the Chinese character ‘shang’ and is technically challenging with a combination of straights, including the long 1.1km back straight, and a range of differing speed corners from the long and tightening turns one to three to the fast left-right chicane at turns seven and eight. The layout of the circuit offers excellent overtaking opportunities which combined with unpredictable weather frequently creates an exciting race.

ROSS BRAWN, TEAM PRINCIPAL

Q. Following such an exciting start to the season, what has been the focus for the team during the short break

“It has been an incredible five weeks for the Brawn GP team which began with the first running of our new car at Silverstone on 6 March and concluded with the two successive victories in Australia and Malaysia. Without doubt it has been an intense and hard-working period for everyone involved with the team and they deserve all credit for their commitment. The short break between the two sets of back-to-back flyaway races has been a welcome opportunity for the team to regroup at the factory in Brackley, to assess our performance and to plan ahead for the forthcoming races. Whilst there have been no developments to the car, we have taken the opportunity to address a few small issues which arose over the first two races and we are in good shape for the next race in China. We are expecting temperatures will be cooler and less humid this year with the race taking place six months earlier. Therefore as was the case in Malaysia, we will need to be prepared for the unexpected as rain has played its part in recent races at the Shanghai International Circuit.”

JENSON BUTTON

Q. What are your thoughts ahead of the third race of the season in China

“After the excitement of the first two races, it has been great to have the chance to relax and reflect for a few days since the dramatic race in Malaysia. I am understandably delighted with how our season has begun however we are only two races in and everyone at the team is aware that our competitors will not stand still. We fully expect a tough fight from here if we want to continue our early successes. Looking ahead to next weekend, the Shanghai International Circuit is an enjoyable one for the drivers and a good technical challenge to find the right set-up. I particularly enjoy the high-speed sections and the overtaking opportunities going into the tight right-hander at turn five and at the end of the back straight.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO

Q. How do you expect the BGP 001 to perform around the Shanghai International Circuit

“It seems strange to be returning to China already but I’m looking forward to the weekend as Shanghai is an impressive facility and the circuit provides an interesting challenge for the drivers. The track holds some good memories for me as I won the first race here in 2004. With the car that we have this year, it is so exciting to be able to return with the opportunity to compete at the front again. The BGP 001 has gone well at the two very different race tracks in Australia and Malaysia so it will be interesting to see how the car performs in Shanghai which is quite a unique circuit. You need to have a very good aerodynamic balance combined with a stable car and good straightline speed to take advantage of the long straights.”

Shanghai International Circuit Stats

Circuit Length: 5.451km
Race Distance: 305.066km
Number of Laps: 56

Full Throttle: 55
Brake Wear: Medium
Tyre Compounds: Super Soft / Medium
Downforce Level: Medium 7/10
Tyre Usage: Medium
Average Speed: 203kph 126mph

Post from: Brawn GP News

2009 Chinese Grand Prix – Brawn GP Preview statement

Below is the transcript from the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix post race press conference in which the first 3 drivers are interviewed by the FIA and Press.

1st Jenson Button (Brawn GP), 55m30.622s; 2nd Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber), 55m53.344s; 3rd Timo Glock (Toyota), 55m54.135s

Q: Jenson, it is never easy. Very difficult at the start and what calls you had to make with changing weather conditions as your pit stop approached.
Jenson Button: What a crazy race. It really was. My start was pretty bad. I had a lot of oversteer in the car. I don’t think I got heat into the rear tyres and went back to fourth, got up to third and eventually got back to the front and I was pretty happy with that. Our pace was good and then the rain started but choosing the tyres was very difficult. Normally here when it rains it pours but it didn’t to start with. We went for the full wet tyre and it just destroyed itself and we saw Timo flying up behind us on the inter, so we put the inter on. Then just as he came by I saw his tyres were bald and it was raining out the back and he was struggling quite a bit on it and had to pit. I got one lap in on the inter with reasonable pace and I was able to get in and put the wet tyre on and come out in front. A very interesting race and I still haven’t seen the chequered flag without a safety car in front.

Q: Nick, in 2005 from 10th to third and now from 10th to second. Great use of the conditions with a long fuel strategy. You came in on lap 22, a little bit earlier than you needed to, and it worked out perfectly for you.
Nick Heidfeld: Yeah, I think it was a very difficult race obviously in these conditions. I took the right tyre choice, well, not the perfect tyre choice as I went straight to extremes. As Jenson said there is normally heavy rainfall here. Then the team told me there is heavy rain expected and I told them inters would be a lot quicker now. Then just when they told me to pit it started to rain heavier and actually it was just 200 metres from the pit entry and I said ‘no, no I stay out as it starts to rain more heavy.’ I tried to preserve my tyres at the beginning and some other guys were quicker than me on the extreme wets and I knew if the rain starts then hopefully I can stay out. But still my rear tyres were destroyed completely and were slicks basically. When it started to rain I just tried to stay on the circuit.

Q: Timo, a great call to go onto the intermediates as Jenson just said. Talk us through that.
Timo Glock: Yes, it was a tricky race I have to say but in the end I have to say one of the best races I could ever do. We struggled a bit at the start. I don’t know why we lost so many places. I couldn’t believe Fernando and Kimi were in front of me at the first corner. I didn’t know where they came from and I struggled and I was only, I think, P8 after the first lap and the traffic was really tricky and after five or six laps I saw already the clouds were coming and I was asking ‘when is the rain coming, when is the rain coming’ and they said you know it should come in the next couple of minutes and then I thought it takes so long as you saw the big clouds coming definitely. It took just so long and we were so close to the first pit stop, so I said ‘okay I will take the risk and we will go for it and go to inters and then we will see.’ I saw already Felipe Massa was on heavy wets quite early and I knew that will destroy the tyres as well, so I said ‘come on, we go for it and take the risk’ and in the end it paid off. But the last two laps behind the safety car it was so confusing. My engineer told me when I did the pit stop ‘you are leading the race,’ so I said ‘okay, I don’t push because I want to save the tyres.’ Then I saw Jenson coming out just ahead of me, so I was P2. Then I jumped out of the car and now I am here I am P3. So hopefully when I come back down I will still be in P3. That’s what I am hoping for.

Q: Jenson, in those closing laps just before the safety car came out you were racing with Timo in dreadful conditions.
JB: It was really bad conditions and you could not actually see the circuit. I mean it was that bad. We were behind the safety car and my team, who did a fantastic job, said all you have got to do is drive around and that was difficult enough. A few moments I was almost off the circuit. We are going around at running pace, that slow. The safety car was pulling away from us. All I had to do was drive around and stay on the circuit. But how slow it looks. It is embarrassing but that was as quick as we needed to go and if I’d gone any quicker I’d think I would have ended up in the gravel.

Q: Nick, talk us through the atmosphere on the grid when you were just sitting there?
NH: Well, actually I thought I was second if the race was stopped now as I knew that the race is counted not at this lap but one or two laps before that. But there was a lot of confusion and we were told to be in first position if the race resumes because apparently (Mark) Webber would have been at the front. There was a lot of mess and it took a lot of time standing there but in this maybe half an hour there was a lot of conversation and a lot of confusion going on.

Q: What was your feeling and the feeling amongst the drivers in terms of the conditions and a possible restart?
NH: Well, it was very clearly impossible to drive if the rain would have kept as strong as it was when the race was quite rightly stopped. As Jenson and Timo just said it felt like walking speed we were driving and still spinning off, so it was the right decision. And I think now outside it’s dark already, so no chance to carry on.

Q: Timo, how was your start? Talk us through that.
TG: I mean you can see already I had massive wheel spin and I just could not pull away and then suddenly on the left side there is Fernando and Kimi coming and it was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it that Fernando was on the inside. We struggled quite a lot at the start as it was just really, really tricky, so at the end I was happy to keep my front wing in one piece. But that destroyed a little bit the race as we could not go the speed we should have done as Fernando was holding us up and Mark a little bit. Every time I was close enough I couldn’t just attempt. One time I tried and damaged a bit the front wing. But the biggest problem was just traction. I could not get close enough to overtake.

Q: Jenson, you had a bit of a moment on the outside of turn one?
JB: I mean all weekend the circuit has been quite similar but there was such little grip I was really, really surprised and I went a little bit deep into turn one and got a big snap of oversteer and that carried throughout the first lap. I was really, really struggling with the rear end as (Fernando) Alonso was in front of me. I have never seen a car so sideways before. But I eventually got past Alonso coming into the second to last corner and then I had to chase down Jarno (Trulli) and Nico (Rosberg). An exciting race. I would rather have a boring race but we had an exciting one today and I came out on top, so I am happy.
One final thing. Can I just say a massive thank you to my engineer who was on the podium with me today. We have been through a lot of tough times but he has been wicked and today as we saw we came out on top and a lot of it was down to him, so ‘thank you very much.’

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Jenson, this could become a habit.
JB: Finishing behind the safety car you mean. Wow, what a race. We had everything in that race. It was very enjoyable. It was not the easiest start for me and I had a big snap of oversteer, pretty much at every corner on the first lap from the grid. I really struggled with the rear end. But then I closed up to Jarno and Nico and knew I was going longer and when they pitted I could put in a couple of quick laps. It got me in front and it was looking like it was going to be fine until I looked up and saw the clouds come over and it started raining. Unusual for Sepang it just started spitting and we went for the full wets thinking it is going to chuck it down. But it didn’t to start with. A few other people made the correct choice but we had a 16-18 second lead at that point. So I carried on and it started chewing itself up, so I pitted for inters as this guy (Timo) was flying. I came out just behind him but my inter was obviously new and his was very old and I was able to get past him on the wetter part of the circuit just before he pitted. I got one good lap on the inter but then it started chucking it down, so I came in for the full went but then it was the safety car. It was a tough race and it was tough keeping it on the circuit. We were driving around it as if it was walking pace and you are still scared that you are going to chuck it off because you could not see the circuit to start with. It was not like it was rivers, it was a lake.

Q: You were worried about going off the grid anyway because you were on the dirty side of the grid?
JB: Yeah, it was true. Timo also suffered from the grid. I didn’t get a bad start. The start was reasonable but the right hand side just shot past and the KERS cars came up, so I lost time there and turn one was messy really. I got a massive snap of oversteer at the exit and I couldn’t get back from there.

Q: And you have never driven on the wets before?
JB: No, and the balance was definitely not right on the full wet. The circuit was reasonably dry, so it was difficult to get a balance. But I had massive oversteer on the first couple of laps and then the front started graining. There is a lot of work we need to do to sort our pace and balance out on the wet tyres but as I said it is just nice to get to the end of the race and we ended up on the top because, I think, of a good strategy and also looking at what other people were doing on the different types of tyres and we ended up on top. Congratulations to all the guys who work on the car but also the engineers and the strategy guys who got us here really.

Q: As I was saying just now Nick, you’re eighth second place, but I’m sure you’re happy with it today.
NH: Yes, exactly, I’m more than happy with that position. I started tenth and I couldn’t have wished for more, basically.

Q: Amazing that you had one pit stop whereas these guys had three or four.
NH: It started to rain and as Jenson said, it was clear that it would rain heavily, so we went on the extra wets and as it was pretty dry still, I tried to preserve my tyres, especially the rear tyres and therefore at the beginning there were a couple of cars quicker than me. I was even overtaken by one guy, some people were driving away from me, but I knew that they would kill their tyres and if it would start drizzling or raining a bit more, I would then have the tyre and I would be able to stay out. After that, the team told me all the time ‘OK, heavy rain expected in the next two minutes’ but it just didn’t happen, didn’t happen, didn’t happen. Just when they called me in, it started to rain heavily and just 300 metres before the pit entry I said ‘no, no, I will stay out, now it starts raining.’ That was the right call, a bit lucky, obviously, but stopping once they told me to.

Q: And you got away with a spin right at the end as well, a very slow spin…
NH: Yes, it was. The safety car was out already, I had contact with the pits, they told me that I should observe the safety car’s speed which we have on the dash and not go quicker than that. And I was laughing, telling them that I would be happy if I could go that quick. There was already a car which had spun there, so I thought ‘OK, I will go as slow as possible’ but it was aquaplaning not only on the tyres but also on the plank. I spun and I was happy that I didn’t go into the gravel. I don’t think it would have mattered in the end anyway, because the result was taken from a lap earlier but that shows that it was the right thing to stop the race because it was just undriveable.

Q: Timo, that was an extraordinary race. You were basically part of the group bottled up behind Alonso before your first stop.
TG: Yeah, it was a bit disappointing at the start, I have to say. I went from third to eighth after the start, I think. I couldn’t believe that Kimi passed me on the outside in turn one and Fernando on the inside, so I thought again that the KERS cars were in front of me. I struggled behind Mark Webber especially to get close enough to really go for it. One time I tried it and damaged the front wing a bit and that was it really, so I had to stay behind. In the middle of the race I saw the rain was coming, the rain was coming but it took so long that I thought OK, when it takes so long then I go for intermediates because everybody else was already on heavy wets and I saw they struggled really and destroyed them, so I said ‘we go for inters and take the risk’. I was driving around, driving around, overtaking cars, overtaking cars, and found that my tyres were going off as well, but my engineer told me ‘you’re still the quickest on the track, you’re still the quickest.’ I think it was worse in turns seven and eight and that was the direction that the rain was coming from. It came to the point where I had to pit because my tyres were going off completely and I said ‘OK, I have to come in.’ It was just at that moment that Jenson overtook me again. Then we stayed on heavy wets and tried to follow the safety car and that was difficult, I was swimming around. I couldn’t believe it because Jenson was sometimes going quite quickly and I was just swimming around. This morning we were joking around that hopefully everybody knows how to swim in those weather conditions, and I have to say that in the end it was like this, it was just unbelievable and impossible for me to drive at the end. I think it was the right call to stop the race.

Q: Sorry about the second place…
TG: Yeah, it was a bit tricky. My engineer told me ‘you’re P2, P2’. Then I came up here and now I’m P3.
JB: You’re behind me.
NH: I’m fine with second.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Do you think the decision to stop the race came a little bit too late? Do you think that a five o’ clock start is still a good idea?
JB: We thought it was a fantastic idea before. The reason for it in Melbourne was because of the light and the poor light and the reflection you get on the visor, I found it very difficult to see the corner exits. But here, it obviously gets dark very quickly and as we all know, there’s normally rain storms here at five or six o’ clock in the evening and that proved to be correct. The race was way too wet and I think that the call was correct. It rained so hard so quickly that I think they did the right thing. It was very difficult for them to judge how wet the circuit is and in Fuji, for me, two years ago it was too wet but this year I think they made the right call to stop it at the right time.
NH: I think it was roughly at the right time. It was also not easy for me to judge because my tyres were worn down completely, so for me it was obviously difficult to drive. Maybe other drivers on fresh tyres would say we could have driven half a lap more but I think it was a good call. The safety car was just out for 20 seconds, that’s when I saw the board, and then they put out the red flag, so I thought it was very well done.
JB: When the safety car is pulling away at 20 seconds a lap, you know that it’s too wet for an F1 car.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Two wins in a row, is it more than you expected?
JB: For me I think it’s more amazing that we’ve done it in these conditions, because Australia wasn’t easy with the safety cars and here with the changing weather conditions it made it a lot more difficult. These two here were not the guys that were fighting me at the start of the race, so the great thing is that we could see what was going on behind us and we could react to it and react to it quickly and that’s why we’re sat here at the moment. I’m very happy and it would be nice going to Shanghai leading by a few points, I think five points, and hopefully we can have a straightforward race and we can see where we stand.

Q: Nick, how was the KERS during the race, did you use it in the wet?
NH: You can use it, just a bit later than in the dry and I have to say that I was happy that it did work because it was the very first time that we had it on the car in the wet conditions, because it has to pass some tests first obviously in the wet and we were not ready in testing, so it was the very first time on the car and it worked OK.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all of you, when you stopped the cars on the straight after the red flag, did they listen to you regarding the possibility of continuing the race? JB: Yes, that was always a possibility and as far as I knew we were always planning for a restart, that’s why all the cars were moved around, but the problem was that so many cars span off on the last lap that I think it was very difficult understanding who was in what position. So that was why we were all moving around a lot on the grid, but we were all planning to start the race again. I am happy it didn’t start again because we would have spent ten laps behind a safety car and every lap, every corner you got to you would be scared that you were going to throw it off the road, it’s out of your control, it matters what position the river is in on the apex, you can’t see it. So I think it was the right thing to do for sure. But we were planning for a restart.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) If it was up to you, would you want to start again?
JB: No, I would obviously love to have the ten points, but this is the best we could have done, I think, and realistically it was the right thing to do. I’m sure some people will say ‘we didn’t see the whole race and it’s disappointing’ but you have to think about the safety sometimes. I am here to race, as we all are but there are limits to what we can do with the cars that we have.
NH: I used the time to change my visor because it was getting dark and I put on a lighter visor because I thought I would not see anything otherwise. And I was on the radio telling our team manager and Charlie (Whiting) and the guys who normally listen anyway that I think it was undriveable in these conditions and I’m sure they listened to all the conversations that were going on.
TG: For me it was the same. I said to the engineers there was no way to drive anymore and then I was ready to jump out of the car but they said we had to prepare (for a restart) again and we would go behind the safety car, so I just put my helmet on and got ready and then they said ‘no, that’s it, it’s over.’ At the end, you have to understand what Jenson said, it gets dark quite quickly and I think running around behind the safety car is not the best show and we have to stop at the right moment, I think.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Jenson, if I’m not wrong, I think it’s the first time you drove the Brawn in wet conditions. How was the behaviour of the car and can we say that the Brawn is suitable for every situation?
JB: Yeah, I’m sure it is but the conditions that we were running in today was a very unusual situation to have: full wets, or the extremes as they were, in slightly greasy conditions. We had to go for that option because we thought it was going to rain. There was no use taking a gamble being in the lead, so we took that tyre and obviously it felt pretty terrible. At high speed, you were slowing the car down to third gear because you just couldn’t carry any speed because the rear was always trying to break away. So the balance felt pretty awful but I think that’s more down to the conditions we ran the tyres in, it was not the correct conditions. When we put the intermediates on for one lap, the car felt reasonably good. I had a good balance, because that was the correct conditions for that tyre until it started raining hard and then obviously no tyre was useable.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Timo, you said it was a risk to go onto the inters. Was it a long conversation with the race engineer, did you have to convince them that you wanted to take them or did they want to convince you that it was better to go onto wets?
TG: No, no, they just said ‘Timo, it’s up to you, just take a look at the conditions’ and I said ‘let’s take the risk, we’ll go for inters,’ so at the end it was my call and it was the right one, I have to say, because like I said, it took a long time before the rain came down really hard. It was just the right call. Sometimes you have to have some luck and this time it was the right decision at the right moment. Unfortunately at the end, we had the late pit stop, we lost a little bit of position but in the end we have to be happy about this.

Post from: Brawn GP News

Malaysian Grand Prix – Post race Press Conference

Here is the Brawn GP Post Malaysian Grand Prix Press release.

Brawn GP’s Jenson Button continued his perfect start to the 2009 Formula One season as he took his second successive Grand Prix victory today when the Malaysian Grand Prix was stopped after 31 laps following a torrential downpour. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello also had a strong race to bring his Brawn-Mercedes car home in fifth position.

Jenson had a good start from pole but was unable to prevent the cars on the other side of the grid overtaking down into the first corner and was running third by the end of lap one. He took full advantage of his heavier fuel load to put in some quick laps when the cars ahead pitted and took the lead on emerging from his first pit stop on lap 19. Rubens had a good start from eighth on the grid, battling through to make up six places and to be running in second position by his first stop on lap 20.

The race became increasingly hectic as rain threatened and the field dived into the pits. Jenson and Rubens pitted on lap 22 for wet tyres but the downpour was less than expected and they came back in for intermediates on lap 28 for Rubens and lap 29 for Jenson.

When the rain did arrive, it was so torrential that the wet weather tyres which the drivers fitted on lap 31 were not enough to allow the race to safely continue. After a lengthy delay on the grid, the race was declared over and half-points awarded.

After two rounds, Brawn GP lead the Constructors’ Championship with 25 points and Jenson leads the Drivers’ Championship with 15 points with Rubens in second position with 10 points.

JENSON BUTTON
“What a crazy race It was really exciting out there and I’m delighted that we came out on top today. I didn’t have the best of starts and was surprised at the lack of grip on my side of the grid. I went in deep at turn one and got a big snap of oversteer which dropped me to fourth but I was able to get past Alonso at the end of lap one and overtake Trulli and Rosberg at the first pit stops. I was happy with the car and our pace was good but the weather really threw the race wide open. Choosing the tyres was difficult but we made the right calls at the right time, particularly when it started raining so hard and so quickly. I have to say a massive thank you to my engineer Andrew Shovlin who was on the podium with me today and the whole team for their work on the strategy and in the pits. Last weekend we said that we had a fairytale start to the season and I am so proud that has continued here.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“It was a great race today and I was really happy with how the car was performing in the dry in the first stint of the race. After a good start, I felt that I had the pace to catch up with the front-runners and score some good points. Unfortunately once the conditions started to deteriorate, we lost a little too much time on my side of the garage with the pit stops which cost me a few places. However the important thing is that the car is going great and we have proved that it is competitive at different types of track. Congratulations to Jenson and the team for maintaining our fantastic start to the season and I look forward to continuing the challenge in Shanghai.”

ROSS BRAWN
“A fantastic team performance today and a thoroughly deserved second victory of the season for Jenson and the team. It was an eventful race to say the least and I am pleased with how quickly we were able to react to the changing conditions to maintain the lead that Jenson had achieved in the first stint of the race. However it was not perfect as we could have had both cars in the top three if we had been a little bolder in bringing the drivers in for their third stops for intermediate tyres. We are delighted to have had such a successful start to the season with two pole positions and two victories in the opening races. You can’t ask for more than that and it is a credit to the talent, attitude and dedication of our team that we have been able to achieve such results.”

Post from: Brawn GP News

Malaysian Grand Prix – Official Brawn GP Race Report

This is the Brawn GP official press release following the qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix where Jenson Button has qualified on pole.

Jenson Button took his second successive pole position today in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit maintaining his and the Brawn GP team’s perfect start to the 2009 Formula One season.

Team-mate Rubens Barrichello qualified in fourth having battled with understeer with his car throughout qualifying. Rubens will incur a five-place grid penalty ahead of tomorrow’s 56-lap race after a gearbox change.

The Brawn-Mercedes drivers topped the times in all three qualifying sessions with Rubens going quickest at the end of Q1 on the soft option tyre and Jenson posting the fastest lap of Q2 on his first set of options having used the harder prime tyre for his previous runs. Both drivers completed two runs in Q3 with Jenson coming out on top to secure his second pole of the season.

JENSON BUTTON
“Achieving pole position today in Malaysia is possibly even more special than last week in Australia. It’s not easy to get one pole but two successive poles is just fantastic and it’s a first for me in my Formula One career. It’s a great feeling and proves that our car works well on different types of circuit. We were really struggling with the balance yesterday and I had a lot of rear locking however we made some changes to the car overnight which really improved it for today and it felt really good throughout qualifying. It’s a big turnaround and I have to say thank you to the team for their hard work in such tough conditions. They did a fantastic job. We are hoping that the rain stays away tomorrow but you just never know at this circuit and we will be working hard tonight to make sure we are prepared for all eventualities.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“It was a good qualifying session for the team today and well done to Jenson once again as he had the pace to put the car on pole. Unfortunately on my side of the garage, the car developed understeer in qualifying and we were not able to resolve the problem. However we know the performance of the car in race conditions is strong and I will be aiming to score as many points as possible tomorrow before I can start chasing for my own pole position and wins.”

ROSS BRAWN
“It was a great qualifying performance from Jenson and the team today particularly as we had some issues with the balance of the car in yesterday’s practice sessions. At the start of qualifying, there was a distinct possibility of rain so we went out early in Q1 to bank some dry running and from there it was a busy session with the track evolving incredibly quickly. Rubens was struggling for grip under braking which resulted in understeer and he was never completely happy with the balance of his car. With the replacement of his gearbox, this puts him further back on the grid than we would have hoped, however his experience will stand him in good stead in the race. Jenson was much happier with the balance which reflects in his second pole of the season after an excellent lap. It was an incredibly close session and with the prospect of rain in the race tomorrow, we should be in for a very eventful and exciting Malaysian Grand Prix.”

Post from: Brawn GP News

2009 Malaysian Grand Prix – Qualifying, Brawn Official Statement

Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli and Sebastian Vettel finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.  Sebastian Vettel will take a 10 place penalty on the race grid for the crash at the Australian Grand Prix last week.  Here is the post qualifying press conference transcript.

Drivers: 1. Jenson Button (Brawn GP), 1m 35.181s; 2. Jarno Trulli (Toyota), 1m 35.273s; 3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1m 35.518s

Q: Jenson, barely time to catch your breath from that great win in the Australian Grand Prix and here you are on the pole again. The momentum continues and fastest in Q2 here in Malaysia.
Jenson Button: This one is probably more special than in Melbourne because it is not easy to get one pole position but to have two on the trot I have never achieved that in my F1 career. This is a great feeling and it shows that the car works on different types of circuit. I expected the competition to be pretty tough here but qualifying was okay for us.

Q: Try to put into words what it feels like to be working on the same things – oversteer, understeer, the balance of the car – but knowing that you have now got a taste of the pole and a win rather than the midfield or dare I say it the back of the grid.
JB: Well, with the car you still have the same sort of issues as when the car is slow but you are going quicker. You still have issues of understeer, oversteer and yesterday I was really struggling with the balance of the car. I had a lot of rear locking and instability and when I have that it is not my forte really. I find it difficult to drive round, so we changed the car overnight and it has improved it a lot and I feel very comfortable in the car, so it makes it exciting for tomorrow.

Q: Jarno, a perfectly timed Q3. Out right at the end there and the soft Bridgestone looks a good tyre here. You can all get a lot of laps on that tyre. And very, very close that fight between you and Jenson.
Jarno Trulli: Yeah, I hope to do a very good race and a good fight because it is what we are looking for. It could be a nice race hopefully. I did not expect to be here today as yesterday I was struggling, as Jenson was saying. It was probably the track but I really wasn’t comfortable. But we worked out some good set up, analysing the data, and making a good job with the whole team and engineers and today we got it right. In qualifying the car was spot on. It is a shame to lose a pole for a few hundredths but that’s the way it is at the moment. Let’s think about tomorrow.

Q: The race starting later and qualifying later today. Talk about the conditions here. You are sweating a bit now, what is it like in the car?
JT: I tell you it is much more comfortable than it used to be. It is later in the afternoon, so some showers might occur tomorrow, so it won’t be nice on that side. But on the other hand it is cooler, so it is easier for us. In general it is a technical, hard circuit and physically demanding but statistically I have always done very well here, so I am waiting to see what is the outcome of the race tomorrow. But I am very confident and I would like to thank the Panasonic Toyota team because this year so far they are doing a great job and I just hope we can carry on doing this.

Q: Sebastian, the pace of the Red Bull continues. A fantastic qualifying performance. But going into this weekend you know you have that 10 place grid penalty given to you by the stewards after the Australian Grand Prix. How does that affect your mindset coming into this weekend?
Sebastian Vettel: I think the secret is I have the penalty, there is nothing I can do, so the secret is just to focus on what we are here for. We are here to race, so that is what we do. Of course it is a shame to see the car is performing at a good level throughout Q1, Q2 and Q3. We were more or less up there in the top five. It is good to see that but it is shame to have plus 10 tomorrow, so I think it will be a very tough day for me tomorrow but I’m looking forward. Nothing is impossible. I personally hope for some rain as it can mix it up quite a lot.

Q: Can I ask you about the conditions here in Malaysia. How you are faring? You look pretty good right now?
SV: Yeah, thanks. I am still young. It is quite tough but the sun I have to say wasn’t a big problem as it was quite cloudy rather than in Melbourne where the sun was quite low. Here we simply could not see that much and as Jarno says it is at least a little bit colder than in the mid-day heat, so I am looking forward to tomorrow. Usually the rain here comes a bit later in the day, so anything can happen here.

Q: Jenson, it is going to be a long hot race here. We have seen you in your cool suit. Talk us a little bit about your preparation for the race tomorrow and also the feeling of being a second quicker than the fastest Ferrari and neither McLaren made it through Q2. What a change in Formula One this year.
JB: It is and it is also a big change for what we expected. Looking at yesterday’s times the Ferrari to us seemed the quickest car. So it is a big turnaround today and I am obviously very happy with that. Tomorrow as it always is here is going to be hot race. It is not just the sun, it is the humidity here and you are just pouring with sweat. I have got a cool jacket which has been helping me but obviously I can’t wear it in the race as it is too heavy. But I feel pretty good actually in the car. I don’t feel like I am struggling too much in the heat.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Jenson, yesterday Ross sat up there and told us ‘don’t let anyone say we’re dominant’; well, a win and two poles isn’t too bad is it?
JB: Well, it looks that way, doesn’t it, and you’re not going to believe me if I say that I didn’t think we’d be here but yesterday we were surprised at the pace of some of the cars, one being the Red Bulls and one being the Ferraris. We didn’t think we could do those times. I actually told Sebastian but he doesn’t believe me.
SV: Look where you are now!
JB: Yeah. We just turned it around I suppose. So last night we had to work on the car a lot because I wasn’t happy with the balance. Obviously we had good pace but it wasn’t to my liking and we worked really well overnight, actually, and we came to the circuit this morning and had a good car, just tweaking it for qualifying and all the way through qualifying the car was working well.

Q: You qualified second in 2006 and twice finished third here; a good circuit for you, looking back?
JB: Yeah, it’s a circuit I really enjoy and this was where I scored the first podium of my F1 career, here in Sepang, so I’ve got good memories of this place, and I’ve also had some very interesting races here in the past, in the closing stages. So yeah, I enjoy it, for sure I would rather it to be dry tomorrow but with the weather here you never know. We thought it was going to rain for qualifying, so we will wait and see. We’ve got to do a lot of thinking overnight to put a plan together if it is wet because we obviously haven’t run this car yet in the wet, so yeah, it’s going to be interesting.

Q: What about the tyre wear this time? We saw that the softer tyres lost a lot of pace in Melbourne; is it very different this time?
JB: Yeah, the softer tyre seems to be the tyre that I think everybody prefers. In qualifying I was able to get the prime, the harder tyre to work which I don’t think many people did, so yeah, the option, softer tyre is the one I think that people will enjoy in the race more than the hard and especially if it’s cool. If the conditions are cooling down, you’re going to have a lot of shuddering on the harder tyre. It’s tyre management again and it’s not frustrating but it brings something very different to racing when you have to control your pace by what tyres you are running and at what stage of the race you use them.

Q: Jarno, it was something you mentioned yesterday, about the hard tyre being very hard. Are you still having trouble with that?
JT: Yesterday was not an easy day for us. We had to analyse the data a lot because I didn’t feel comfortable and we didn’t look competitive at all, so I must praise the team and all the engineers because they have really been sitting down and analysing everything and today we changed quite a lot, especially this morning. We’ve done a very good job in order to make both compounds work and in qualifying the hard tyres weren’t too bad. Obviously the gap between hard and soft is still big but we managed to get them in.

Q: Disappointed not to be on pole?
JT: When it’s by such little margin yes, especially because I believe I’ve done a very good job but he deserved it. He’s been quicker, even in Q2, but I’m happy anyway.

Q: But then again, last weekend you drove from pit lane to third place and this time you start on the front row.
JT: Yeah, but last weekend is over and now I just hope to have a good race. Obviously tomorrow is going to be a strange race probably because we are all expecting bad weather and that can mix up the grid a lot and the results.

Q: Have you tested on the wet tyres?
JT: Not really because the only time I went out was the first test we did in Portugal but it was way too cold, so the tyres were not working, so basically it was impossible to judge anything. At that stage, I remember that I thought that the tyres were not good enough with this new aero package and downforce because they were just not biting and gripping up. Here, normally when it rains it’s not normal rain, it just pours down.

Q: Sebastian, have you been out on the wet tyres, have you used the wets?
SV: Yes, we did. We had a test in Jerez and actually it was raining the whole day, I think, so it was quite good. We even did a race simulation in wet conditions, so if it rains, hopefully that will help us tomorrow. I think the whole team did a good job again putting the car quite far towards the front but obviously with the penalty it’s a shame, so I have to start 13th tomorrow, I guess. So I’m hoping for some rain.

Q: How were the track conditions this evening looking forward to tomorrow evening? Is there much difference to daytime running?
SV: It’s always hot here, even at night, so temperatures will be OK, but other than Melbourne, the light here was… driving the car in the twilight was no problem really because the sun isn’t that low and it was also quite cloudy today, so we couldn’t always see the sun, so I don’t expect problems there for tomorrow, but you never know. When it starts raining, as Jarno said, it’s not just a bit of rain, it’s quite heavy and it gets even darker than it is already at five o’ clock, so we will see how it is tomorrow.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Do we have to get used to seeing a very different grid from what we’ve seen so far in Melbourne and here with Ferrari and McLaren struggling? Brawn, Toyota and Red Bull seem to be very good cars.
JT: I think we are all here to win, everybody in the paddock, so things can mix up. They cannot always be the same teams every year. We are here working and investing and pushing a lot, so sometimes teams do a better job, sometimes, like now it seems that other teams are a bit on the up like us, Brawn and Red Bull, but things can change during the season because this is just the beginning, just the second race, so it’s still not representative in my opinion.
JB: Yeah, I agree. A lot can change throughout the season, especially with the new regulations. It’s thrown everything up in the air and I’m sure a lot is going to change over the next few races, which is exciting for all of you but not so exciting for us sat here because we want to be at the front all season. But it’s going to be a tough season for whoever’s quick at the moment to stay there, because the Ferrari is not going to be slow for long, they are going to sort themselves out and they will be competitive. That is the team, I think, that will start challenging for the front after Toyota and Red Bull.
SV: I think it’s different to what most people expected. The picture is looking different at the start of the season, but again, it’s a very long season, so everybody has to keep working very hard. In the past, especially teams like you were mentioning, Ferrari and McLaren, I think that they have proven more than once that even if they start the season struggling a little bit, they definitely have the ability to fight back. Maybe we are in a good situation now, but we have to keep working very, very, hard to stay there. It’s one thing to be in the front, but another thing to stay at the front.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Jenson, you mentioned a couple of times how important it was to get some wet running in the build-up on Friday or Saturday morning and obviously that hasn’t happened. How likely is it that the teams are going to get the settings just about dead on in the middle of the race if you suddenly are driving in the wet, or that your whole strategy could go haywire because the car just suddenly loses its competitiveness?
JB: I think when we work with the balance of this car we can get it to be competitive in the wet as it is in the dry. I think that goes for any car on the grid. But when you don’t have any practice with the car it’s very difficult to know how it’s going to react to the wet conditions, the slower pace in the corners. The biggest difficulty is the aero balance, trying to get the aero balance right, because with last year’s car we had to take ten turns of the front wing out of it to balance it in the wet compared to the dry, so it’s going to be different and we don’t know how different. It’s going to be tough but we will make the best of it, I’m sure.

Q: Jenson, considering the difficulties that Lewis Hamilton is facing now, especially from a technical point of view, do you think you have already replaced him as the number one idol of the British fans?
JB: Don’t you love that question? I’m here not just to be the best British driver. We are all here to be the best in F1, we are all here to win the World Championship. That is everyone’s aim. At the moment I’m in a good position. I’ve had two pole positions and a win, but we’re only one race down and two qualifiers down. That’s not my aim in life, my aim is to challenge all of these guys for the championship.

Q: (Azrul Ananda – Jawa Pos) Jarno, obviously tomorrow two Toyotas will be behind Jenson. Will you guys help each other, try to beat the Brawn and get the first win?
JB: What he’s trying to say is ‘are you going to push me off at the…’
JT: I think the most important thing is to get out of the first corner safe and clear and then we will race from there. I will see if there’s a way to help each other. I think the best way to help each other is to be clean and race ourselves.

Q: (Ingo Rorsch – Sport Bild) Could all of you say a few words comparing driving the new cars to last year’s?
JB: I’m comparing two very different cars, personally. Wow! I think this car backwards would be almost as good as last year’s car forwards. This car is much nicer to drive, it’s still not easy, don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t go rounds on rails. You still have the same moments with the rear end with the oversteer and the understeer. It’s still never quite perfect, but the good thing is that it reacts to changes and that’s something we didn’t have with last year’s car. When you have a bad Friday you can adjust the car and come out on Saturday with a competitive car. That’s something we couldn’t do last year because it didn’t really react to what we did with it.
JT: It’s impossible to compare last year’s car, but all I can say is that our competitiveness has definitely increased, so we have raised our game and now instead of challenging the top six or eight we are challenging the top five so far or top three. So we’re pretty happy about that. The Toyota engine is always improving, so we are happy about that.
SV: Well, I think it’s a surprise, very different to what people expected – the cars being much slower – even though the cars look a bit weird, still, compared to last year’s. If you look at the lap times, obviously the slick tyres are stronger than they proved last year, but if you look at the lap times, I think it says it all. In Australia we were very quick, quicker than last year and here again. I think it’s a bit of a surprise. You would expect us to be much slower with these kind of cars but we’re not. It’s always a bit funny to see that even if you take away here, you take away here and you take away here, lap times still go down, so imagine where maybe you could be if you were allowed to do certain things. Let’s see how it develops throughout the season.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jarno, you started last, you made it to the podium in Australia. Do you believe that you can make it this time, that it could be the day for Toyota’s first win?
JT: I don’t know, we’re all here to win, as I say. I don’t think whether I can make it or not. Every time I go out on the track I try to do my best and obviously tomorrow can be a different race. It doesn’t mean that if starting from pit lane I finish third, tomorrow I can win the race easily. Every race, each race is a different story, so we just have to wait and see. We have a car to fight for podiums and then our aim will eventually be to win a race during the season, no matter if it’s me or Timo (Glock), who has got exactly the same chance as me but it’s important for the Toyota team.

Post from: Brawn GP News

FIA post-qualifying press conference – Malaysia

It has been reported that Virgin and Brawn GP are on the verge of signing a $30 million sponsorship deal.  At the race opener in Australia it was announced that Virgin would had signed as a sponsor of Brawn GP.  This was understood to be $500,000 for two races.

Brawn GP Win in Australia

Now it is reported that Virgin have paid $30 million for title sponsorship for 2010.  This would mean that Brawn would receive $30 million as their entire sponsorship but Virgin could sell on sponsorship space on the car and clothing.  As one F1 insider remarked “If it gets $80 million, which it might, Virgin will keep $50 million – it’s a good deal.”

If this deal is indeed confirmed by Brawn and Virgin this could be a very smart deal for both.  It guarantees Brawn a stable cash flow, but also gives Virgin the opportunity to make money on their sponsorship – you would expect nothing less from businessman and entrepreneur Richard Branson.

It is understood that Brawn GP are receiving funding for 2009 from Honda (Their ex owners) and are focusing their sponsorship search on long term contracts.  For 2009 it is reported that Virgin will continue to pay $250,000 per race.

Check back regularly to Brawngpnews to stay up-to-date with Brawn GP News – or use the buttons on the top right column to subscribe by RSS or Email.

Post from: Brawn GP News

Virgin and Brawn to sign $30 million sponsorship deal

Across each Formula One weekend the FIA hold several press conferences with Drivers, Teams etc.  This time it was the turn of three team principles to comment on their chances for Malaysia, and their thoughts on the 2009 Formula one season.

Team principals: Ross Brawn (Brawn GP), John Howett (Toyota), Adam Parr (Williams) and Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren)

Q: A question to you all. Could you give us an update on how you feel your teams have done so far looking at Australia and today. Adam?
Adam Parr: Well, if you got points for practice we would be doing very well but obviously we need to do better than we did in Australia, that’s for sure.

Q: How has it gone today?
AP: It has gone okay but it does not really count for anything, does it?

Q: Ross, your feelings so far?
Ross Brawn: Well, obviously Australia was, as has been said many times, a fairytale. Thinking about what the team has gone through for the past few months then to have the result we had in Melbourne was inconceivable and unbelievable. I have been through many things in Formula One. I have been lucky enough to have some very special experiences and that certainly ranks as one of the best, if not the best of my career. It was achieved with a lot of things from within the company but there are a lot of people outside the company who helped us survive. Martin was one of them and Ron did his elder statesman part and did a very good job and I must say FOTA rallied around. We would not have survived without the help of those people. Whilst it was a wonderful it shows that even though we are going through a little bit of a difficult period with protests and things at the moment there is another side of our business which is very united and very together in trying to solve and improve Formula One.

Q: Martin?
Martin Whitmarsh: I think we are already on record as saying that our car is not quick enough and I think that was evident last weekend and it is evident again this weekend. I think after the two massive championship seasons, frankly, fighting through to the end of the year we put a lot of resource into that. It was a decision we felt was right in Brazil but as we stand today we know we have got a lot of catching up to do. On a positive note I think in week 11, Barcelona test, I think we were very slow by comparison to every car. I think the team has made a spirited fight-back to try and drag itself into the pack but the truth is we have got a lot of work to do and we have got a lot of development necessary to get ourselves into a position we would expect to be in.

Q: John?
John Howett: I think it is too early to say really. We had a fairly challenging weekend in Australia. In qualifying if you look at fuel corrected pace, definitely Timo (Glock) had a very strong lap and in race pace when we were running in relatively free air the car was competitive. We need to wait at least another couple of races, different type of circuits, to really judge the relative performance of all the teams.

Q: John and Martin, you both had certain events during last weekend. Any further comment on what was happening last weekend and what continues to happen now?
JH: I don’t think so. I mean we have issued press statements on it, so we will have to wait and see in terms of the diffuser what happens on April 14. I think as a team we are very confident that we have interpreted the rules correctly and we have had verification that our interpretation would appear to be correct and we just need to wait to see.
MW: Well, okay obviously I have got to comment on what for our team is a very sad day today. We have suspended a long standing Sporting Director, Dave Ryan. I think many people in this room will know Dave and will know of Dave. He has been with the team for 35 years. I have personally known him for 20 years and I think anyone who knows him, knows that he is a very straight forward, dedicated, hard working individual. However, it has become clear from discussions with Dave last night and through into this morning that during the stewards’ meeting he was not entirely full and truthful in answers that he gave the stewards and consequently we had no alternative today other than to suspend him. As you can imagine I think it is a very sad day for the team. We have got to deal with this weekend and we have got to look in a bit more detail at all of the events that surrounded that. From my perspective obviously it is a point of deep, deep regret. It is not how I wanted this year in particular to start and it is something for which the team and myself are not only deeply embarrassed but deeply regretful. I think for Dave is has been a shattering day for him.

Q: Another question for both of you in the front row. Relating to KERS, how do you feel KERS went and how you have used it so far?
MW: I think at the moment it is still early days and frankly we had some difficulties with KERS today and Lewis’s runs in the afternoon were without KERS. It was an incredibly challenging range of technologies to package KERS on a Formula One car. I think Mercedes Benz have done a fantastic job and it was a really successful use of it in Australia. Here it has been a bit challenging but again it is early days. I am confident that we will find our way through those difficulties. It’s a technology that is important to Formula One and there has been just a huge effort to make it work. I can appreciate that some teams have decided wisely not to bowl in there with KERS. I think Mercedes Benz and ourselves rolled our shirt-sleeves up and got stuck into it. It has been a massively expensive and challenging programme. But we are going to stick at it. When it is working there is some advantage and we will, I am sure, have benefit of it as the season progresses.

Q: Will you persevere with it this weekend?
MW: Yes, we will. I think we had one glitch which caused us for safety and practical reasons to turn it off. I think we had a small cooling pump failure which meant we couldn’t run with it on Lewis’s car. We will obviously look into that and see whether it is anything particular to these conditions or whether it’s the fact it is a very new technology and we are working hard to develop it and solve those problems.

Q: John, when will we see KERS on the Toyota?
JH: We are still monitoring the situation. We are still continuing development in Cologne. I think we have always said that when we start to see the advantage in terms of lap time or a competitive advantage we will try to install KERS on the car. Here you have fairly long straights and a reasonably long run into the first corner, so we need to evaluate what advantage KERS will give in those situations.

Q: Adam, can you say when your slightly different system of KERS will be used?
AP: Very similar to John. We are just working on it flat out and we are also waiting to see whether it will generate faster lap time. But I think one thing was quite clear in Melbourne which is that regardless of lap time there may be tactical advantages in having it on the car, so we are more determined than ever to have it on as soon as we can.

Q: Both of you in the back row are independent teams. You have both tasted a certain amount of success in various ways. How important is that from a commercial point of view? Ross, obviously, has got the Virgin sticker on the car and that’s about it. How important is success for you from a commercial point of view? Adam, perhaps you could start?
AP: It is why we are here. We were very fortunate in the last few months of last year that I think 10 of our partners renewed their sponsorship with us and I think including four upgrades for this year, so they showed a lot of faith in the team at a time that, as you will appreciate, was extremely difficult to make a decision like that. We are very grateful to them and the only way we can reward them on the track is by performing, so it is absolutely crucial to us to perform.

Q: Ross, has the phone been ringing with people wanting to give you money since last weekend?
RB: It is not quite that simple but there has been a lot of interest and of course given the result we had last weekend it was perfect to develop the commercial side. If we had been at the back of the grid it would have certainly been a lot more difficult. But it is a tough market out there at the moment and we all know what the economic situation is. But things are developing reasonably well but the key objective for us is to find partners that we can have for the next two, three or more years, not just someone to come along and have a quick splash and disappear. We will take our time to develop the right partners. With Virgin it is starting small but with a lot of potential for the future, so I think we have made as good a start as we could have dreamed of with the results we have and the car we have got. With regards to KERS it is not high on the agenda for us at the moment. We had to make some compromises to change the engine in the car, so the car has got to be heavier now than originally intended and that makes it quite difficult to install KERS. We will have to work hard to get some weight out of the car before we can get to a position where KERS is a possibility. Like the rest of the group we will be monitoring the situation. This, I think, is one of the best tracks for KERS according to our simulations when we did it and I think you may see that KERS-equipped cars will be more to the fore here than they perhaps would be on other circuits.

Q: Someone suggested last weekend that is costs more money to have KERS. Is that right?
RB: It certainly costs money.

Q: Is it part of the deal? Is it extra?
RB: No, our engine agreement with McLaren Mercedes is purely an engine supply agreement. We have had some tentative discussions about KERS but it is a little bit early for us to engage properly on that.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Talking about what happened to Mr Ryan. Does it mean that he was lying then to the stewards?
MW: It means he was not truthful and full in his answer which is what I said (becomes inaudible).

Q: (Ed Gorman -The Times) Martin, to follow that up. The impression we are getting from the statement is that Dave Ryan did this on his own. Are you telling us that there was no-one else involved in McLaren, senior to him, in this process?
MW: Correct, there was no-one else senior. I think anyone who knows Dave will know that he did not set out with any deliberate intention to mislead the stewards. He went to that stewards meeting with Lewis, I am sure, with the intention of being very clear and straightforward but I think during the course of that meeting, as we explored it more with him, over the last 24 hours it became clear that he was not as full and comprehensive as he could have been.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Could you explain also what Lewis’s precise role was because the stewards made it very clear to us that both Dave Ryan and Lewis specifically said that the team had not told them to allow (Jarno) Trulli to go past. So what did Lewis do? Did he follow Ryan?
MW: I think Dave was the senior member of the team there and Dave has to take responsibility for leading that process. I think Lewis is going to talk to the media later and I am sure he will give a full account from his perspective. But this is something that was still unfolding until literally minutes before the first practice session. I had to take an incredibly difficult decision. I have personally known Dave for 20 years. If you go around this paddock and ask any team in any organisation of their experiences of Dave in terms of his dedication and commitment, so he is shattered by what has happened today. We need to take stock of that situation but there were two people in with the stewards but Dave is part of the management, he is the Sporting Director of this team, and as such he had the responsibility to ensure that the stewards received a full and entirely truthful account of what happened.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) There have been some very harsh things said about the team, particularly in the British press, including a suggestion that McLaren is contaminated by a culture of cheating. Is that the case?
MW: No.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) What is the case?
MW: The case is that Dave made a very serious error of judgement in going into that stewards meeting and he is paying the consequences of that. It is something that he deeply regrets, Lewis and I and the team regret, and it is something that we have got to put right.

Q: (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Germany) You say that Dave was not entirely truthful in front of the stewards but what about Lewis, was he truthful in front of the stewards?
MW: No, I think that Lewis was not entirely truthful but we have spoken to Dave, he was the senior member of the team and they went into a situation together and I think they were trying to deal with the situation but they got it wrong. Dave, as the senior member of the team was responsible for what happened and therefore I took that decision this morning.

Q: (Jonathan Legard – BBC) Martin, what is the procedure or the process in terms of deciding what was going to be said? You were on the pit wall and so was Ron Dennis as much as Dave and anyone else. When this process was unfolding and you knew he had to go to the stewards what was done? What happens?
MW: In truth the situation was that during this incident we were asking the stewards, well, we were asking race control, for a decision because we realised that Trulli had been let past. We did not think that was right because in fact the original overtake of Trulli was entirely legitimate as Trulli was not on the circuit. We believed that when all of the facts were presented to the stewards that they would recognise and they would restore the positions, so we asked for the race control and the stewards to look into it and Dave and Lewis went to the stewards to give their account.

Q: (Jonathan Legard – BBC) But did they talk to you about what should be said?
MW: No. They did not because it was not necessary. We knew what had happened and there was a belief that a true and honest account of that would get the result, that the positions would have been reversed.

Q: (Jonathan Legard – BBC) So what got lost in translation? Lewis gave this interview or interviews saying ‘I was asked’ and then said ‘no’ in the stewards’ inquiry. Why, why did that happen?
MW: Well, I think Lewis got out of the car and gave a truthful account of what happened. I believe that whilst they were at the stewards, Dave, who had been party to what had happened in Spa, was highly sensitive and I think in the heat of the moment, his judgement was to not give a true account, and I think Lewis was then led by that.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) Martin, I was just wondering what we should believe is the next step, given that Dave Ryan has been suspended as opposed to sacked or resigned. What does that mean, how will that develop?
MW: What it leaves now is that this is something that happened literally minutes before the first practice session. Dave has been sent home and we need to, during the course of this weekend, understand exactly what happened and make the decisions about Dave’s future.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) And finally, from me, I was wondering if you, given all the fall-out from this, have given any consideration to whether you would resign from your role?
MW: I think there’s a lot of things going through my mind today and it’s happening during an event in which we’re trying to do the best job we can. I think, as a team, at the moment, we’ve lost someone who is very much a significant anchor in this organisation and we’ve got to make sure that we pull together to do the best job that we can this weekend. I think we’ve got to reflect on everything that’s happened over the course of the Australian weekend, after this race has finished.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) So you don’t rule that in or out?
MW: I don’t rule anything in or out. I think at the moment, what we are keen and earnest to do today is make sure that we put our hands up and say it was a serious error of judgement during that process and that we make sure that we come clean on that fact.

Q: (Ingo Rorsch – Sport Bild) Mr Whitmarsh, have you had the chance to see the precise words which were spoken between the stewards and your two team members?
MW: No, I haven’t. Ordinarily they aren’t minuted and I believe one of the stewards didn’t bring his notebook from Australia but we have no access to that. All we can do is ask the driver and the team manager what was said in that meeting.

Q: (Ingo Rorsch – Sport Bild) But shouldn’t that be recorded for the future?
MW: Well, again, I think at the moment it’s not for me to make that judgement. I think what the stewards should rely upon is that when the teams are called before them, they will give a totally true and open account of what happened.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) John, relations between FOTA and FOA are a bit strained and tense; do you see that getting better or worse?
JH: Between FOTA and FOA? Well, I think at the moment we have progressed significantly. There was, as you know, some tension over historic payments. They haven’t, I think, in the teams’ opinion, all been settled but a significant proportion have been settled and whilst we’ve been in Australia I believe our lawyers together with FOA’s lawyers have made significant progress, so I think in terms of the actual agreement, we all believe, we are extremely close to actually reaching a final conclusion.

Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) To all of those who are using KERS: how much of an advantage can it be at the start? Is it quantifiable? Is it possible to know?
MW: Yes, it’s quantifiable. There are a number of factors but clearly if you can discharge going down to the first corner, then you do get a quantifiable advantage that varies from circuit to circuit depending on whether you’re grip limited and the length to that corner. It also, frankly, relies upon you being able to deploy that much additional energy. If you are frankly languishing further back on the grid as we were at the last Grand Prix, then it’s very rare that you can go to the first corner braking point at full power, even with or without KERS, so its benefit is greater, clearly, if you’ve got a clear run at the first corner.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, how do you see the situation here compared to Australia one week ago?
RB: It’s still a little bit too early to say. We’re struggling a little bit with the balance of the car today, it’s not quite as nice as Australia. Despite what the perceptions are of the car it has actually very good low speed grip, it’s very good on traction. It’s not a track that perhaps rewards those elements quite as much and neither driver was particularly happy with the balance of the car today, so we’ve got to do a good job tonight to improve that, but I think we’ll be near the front and fighting at the front. Whenever anyone said a car or a team were going to be dominant, don’t believe it because this business is too competitive for anyone to be dominant. We’re going to have to fight very, very hard to get points this weekend and hopefully get podiums.

Q: This is for Ross Brawn, can you explain for us the development plan for your car this year? Do you have enough resources to develop the car while other teams develop their cars, of course?
RB: Yes, we’ve been through a pretty traumatic winter and unfortunately that still continued this week because we had a lot of restructuring of the team to do. We’re not a team with a budget that Honda had, so this week there has been some unfortunate restructuring. We hope we’re going into next week with our new team and we can then look forward and the restructuring has been very focused on performance. It would be no good having a team with fantastic production facilities and no ideas, so the team has been structured very strongly around maintaining a good development programme, so we’ve tried not to impact the technical areas too much and yes, the development is on-going. We’re planning an upgrade for Barcelona or just after Barcelona. We obviously have this appeal hearing next week or the week after next and we need to see what comes out of that because that may change direction. I’m reasonably confident but you can’t be one hundred percent confident. So yeah, we’ve got to move forward. I think these new rules, by definition, being a new set of rules, the rate of progress will be very rapid as Martin touched on. At one stage in winter testing they were quite a long way behind and now they’re getting into the pack and making rapid progress, so it is an era of very rapid progress and we’ve got to progress as well as our competitors if we want to have a hope of winning another race this year.

Q: (Benny Casadei – Il Giornale) Ross, which is the most important thing you learned at Ferrari that you are applying leading your new team?
RB: Non mollare mai – you never give up and there were times over the winter when it was easy to think this was actually not worth it. It was very, very difficult at times. The great thing, I must say, is that the team stuck together. I’ve said before, I had some black days over the winter. Luckily they didn’t coincide with Nick’s black days or some of the other management team’s black days. As I said at the beginning, the support from McLaren and Mercedes was exceptional. They didn’t know whether we were going to make it or not but they just gave us 110 percent all the time. There was no doubt from their side that they were going to give us everything we wanted. So if I took something from Ferrari and from Luca (di Montezemolo) and Jean Todt and Michael (Schumacher), it was just never give up.

Q: (Chris Lines – Associated Press) I want to ask all four guys what they think of the speed and method of Formula One’s decision-making with penalties with the Hamilton-Trulli situation, with the diffuser situation. Is there any way these can be sped up? Fans attend the race or they watch on TV thinking they’ve seen one result; they get home and it’s completely changed. Is there anything you can think of to improve that process?
JH: I suppose fundamentally FIA is the Federation, it’s their championship and it’s their right to determine how they manage it. It could be something that FOTA, if the members so desired, could try to discuss openly with the Federation, but I think one has to respect the fact that as in football, the stewards are there and appointed and have the right to decide, and I think it’s something that could be expressed as a future opportunity to improve but I don’t believe it’s something that we have the right to really interfere with directly.
AP: Yeah, I think one has to distinguish between the sporting regulations and the technical regulations. I think the sporting regulations, you have to try and sort it out as quickly as possible and the only reason to come back at any distance from the race is if there’s new evidence that is very significant. On the technical side, I think it’s extremely difficult because obviously over the winter or before that, we’re developing cars, we’re seeking clarifications from the FIA as to how to interpret rules or confirming that we’ve correctly understood them and it’s not necessarily until we come up to the new season that people get a sense of what other people are doing. And then the process demands that you protest after an event or during an event or after scrutineering. If you look at the process we’re going through now, we were protested on the Thursday which was the first opportunity that anybody had to do it. It was well signalled by the teams that they would do that, very transparently, and we’ve now got a hearing which is exactly 16 days after that process. You need eight days for the submissions from the appellants and eight days to respond, and I think anything less than that would be very difficult. It may look like a very long drawn-out process but I think it’s dictated by the nature of the sport.
RB: I think it is always a bit unfortunate when fans go away and there’s still debate going on about decisions and I wish it were possible to walk away from a race that was black and white but it’s a very complicated sport, particularly when you start to move into the technical side. I think the process that we’re going through is fair and proper. I’ve been on the wrong side of protests and appeals, I’ve been on the right side of protests and appeals and it is a very, very complicated sport, and particularly with new regulations coming in, three teams took an interpretation which they’re very comfortable with and several other teams aren’t happy with that interpretation. It has to be resolved, so I think the process is as good as it can be. On the sporting side, even if you make a final decision and it’s the wrong decision that’s probably worse than it being a good decision that takes a little bit longer.
MW: I’m afraid, no particular ideas, but I think inevitably that we have to try and get everyone to work together, the teams and the Federation, to ensure that we find ways to shorten that process because clearly we recognise that it’s not the best thing for the sport but I think the teams are as much a part of that as the Federation. We’ve perhaps got to be more transparent, more clear in our dealings with the sporting body, so I think we shouldn’t be looking to any one party, we’re all part of this sport and we’ve got to look at how we can contribute to improving it.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) Where do Lewis and his manager stand with the team at the moment, how are relations between them and you and whether their reaction to what’s gone on was the factor in Dave Ryan going and whether it’s still a factor in how you’re evaluating your next step as well?
MW: No, it’s not a factor. Lewis is not only a very committed member of the team, he’s a long-standing friend of many of us in the team who have known him since he was a lad. Anthony is similarly well-regarded. They are solid supporters of the team, consider themselves to be part of it. They weren’t involved in the sad decision with Dave Ryan, they learned after the event, Lewis didn’t know until after P1 this morning. So they had no bearing on it, they weren’t involved in it. We have to manage the business, they know and understand that and I would say the relationship – at the moment, it’s a very difficult time for the team. We’ve got to make sure that we come out of it understanding and learning and hopefully with even stronger relationships than we started with.

Q: (Dieter Rencken -The Citizen) Ross, I wonder whether you could clarify some points please. After your restructure, will the team be a small big team or a big small team? Secondly, for what reason was the team accepted as a new team and not a continuation of the Honda team? And then finally, with regard to the commercial Concorde Agreement, where the team stands in that regard at this point?
RB: Well, I hope it’s both. I hope it’s a big small team and a small big team. In terms of the structuring, we looked very carefully at where we felt performance came from, reliability. We will be pretty lean in terms of the number of spares we carry. I think we’ve got 55 people here whereas last year we would have had 90 at a race. So it’s a different era for us but one which is quite exciting and quite challenging. There will be times when we will be very frustrated, because we can’t do something that we would have liked to do and that was a luxury and a nice thing, and I don’t mean travelling at the sharp end of the plane, I mean the engineering things that we were able to do with the number of people and the budgets that we had before. With regard to the entry, the FIA determined that we were a new entry. I understand the reasons why they made that decision and we respect that. On the commercial side, it’s not something I feel I want to comment on but something I would say that FOTA has been very supportive of, and FOM in finding a solution, to give the team the best chance of a way forward in the future.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) There’s one thing that I don’t understand very much, Mr Whitmarsh. Does it mean that you only learned this morning from Mr Ryan that he was not entirely truthful, because yesterday when you talked to us, it was something completely different, and it was after you read what the stewards sent out as a press release that you saw there was some inconsistency from what you said and what you knew?
MW: I think in these situations people strive to convince themselves that they have been entirely true and honest in all of their answers and of course you can technically answer something and convince yourself that it is truth. Dave was clear that he had not lied and we believed that. As we dealt with the unfolding situation of yesterday, the more that we discussed it, the more that we believed that the answers that were given were not full and honest in the way that we would expect them to be.

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Friday Press Conferences – The Constructors