Brawn GP News

Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button began the team’s on-track preparations for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit in the city of Sao Paulo today.

With the team’s focus on maximising the set-up of the BGP 001 cars for the race, Rubens and Jenson evaluated a number of different set-up options and tyre evaluations working with the Bridgestone Potenza prime and option tyres.

The morning practice session took place with light rain developing into a brief heavier shower thirty minutes into the session which kept the cars in the garage for a short while. The afternoon session was largely dry allowing the team to successfully complete the majority of today’s planned programme.

Rubens completed 70 laps ending the day in third position at his home track, with Jenson totaling 74 laps in fifth position.

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“Our focus today was on evaluating our set-up for the race and whilst the times may not have always looked competitive, the data that we gathered will be very useful when we study all the options this evening. The car felt better when we put the softer option tyre on towards the end of the day and I was able to put in a good lap. It’s great to finally get the track action underway today and I’m pleased with our progress and happy to be starting my home Grand Prix weekend at the top end of the field.”

JENSON BUTTON
“We achieved more running that we initially expected today with just a few little showers rather than the rain that was forecast. The car seems to be working well on the prime tyre which is encouraging and the pace was good. I’m struggling a little with the balance on the option tyre over one timed lap so hopefully we can resolve that overnight to be ready for qualifying.”

ROSS BRAWN
“We had two good practice sessions today and are reasonably happy with our position at the end of the day. The balance of the cars improved this afternoon and both Rubens and Jenson are fairly comfortable with the set-up over longer runs. We still have some work to do overnight and ahead of qualifying to ensure that we achieve the best one-lap pace tomorrow.”

The first of the practice running for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix got underway today at the Monza circuit in northern Italy.

Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button used the two ninety-minute sessions to evaluate their Brawn-Mercedes cars in the low downforce configuration required at the fastest circuit on the Formula One calendar.

Rubens completed 59 laps over the course of the day with Jenson totalling 53 laps as the pair focused on set-up work and an evaluation of the two Bridgestone Potenza tyre compounds available this weekend.

RESULTS

Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Free Practice 1 Free Practice 2
Rubens Barrichello 23 BGP 001-03 24 laps 01:24.826 P12 35 laps 01:25.140 P16
Jenson Button 22 BGP 001-02 21 laps 01:24.706 P7 32 laps 01:25.424 P19

Weather Warm and sunny
Temperatures Air: 25-28°C Track: 28-41°C

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“Our programme went pretty much as planned today with the performance of the car as we were expecting. Our set-up work was focused on long runs and I’m fairly happy with how the car feels and with the braking stability. We have some work to do on the balance but overall a good start to the weekend although today’s running doesn’t really give us an indication of how qualifying will play out tomorrow.”

JENSON BUTTON
“We did a lot of set-up work today with the car in the low downforce configuration although we had a couple of issues which meant that I couldn’t do the long runs that we had planned so that was a bit frustrating. Everything was sorted out by the end of the day which is good but we have a lot of work ahead of us. It feels very different running with such low downforce but the car has been performing reasonably well. We need to work on the fine-tuning of the set-up overnight to ensure that I’m completely happy with the balance before qualifying.”

ROSS BRAWN
“With Monza being such a unique low downforce circuit and the fact that we haven’t had the opportunity to here test this year, today’s practice sessions were particularly important to work on the set-up of the car. Our main focus has been on race preparation to ensure that we understand how the car feels with the low downforce. We’re reasonably happy with our progress over the course of the day and looking forward to the weekend ahead.”

The infamous Spa weather lived up to expectations today with the first of the practice sessions for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix taking place in very different conditions as Brawn GP’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello took to the race track again just five days after the European Grand Prix in Valencia.

The first practice session this morning began on a dry track but was interrupted after just thirty minutes by a rain shower which sent all the cars back into the pits. As the rain intensified over the remaining hour of the session, Jenson and Rubens went out on the Bridgestone Potenza wet tyres to get some valuable wet weather track time ahead of the weekend.

By contrast, the afternoon practice session proved fine and dry, enabling the team to make good progress with the planned Friday programme. With the focus on aerodynamic, downforce and tyre comparisons, Jenson and Rubens collected some useful data to help refine the set-up of the car overnight ahead of Saturday’s qualifying hour.

RESULTS

Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Free Practice 1 Free Practice 2
Jenson Button 22 BGP 001-02 18 laps 01:50.283 P2 34 laps 01:48.125 P17
Rubens Barrichello 23 BGP 001-03 18 laps 01:52.321 P6 37 laps 01:48.130 P18

Weather Rain in the morning, dry and sunny afternoon
Temperatures Air: 14-18°C Track: 16-34°C

JENSON BUTTON
“It was a tough session this morning as we weren’t able to get much done apart from some wet running at the end. However that experience is good here just in case it rains over the weekend which is always possible at Spa. The second session this afternoon was much more useful. We worked through a few aero and downforce comparisons as well as looking at the tyres. We collected a lot of information but obviously at the moment we’re not as quick as we would like to be. There are a few areas that we do need to improve on with the balance but the potential is there to do that ahead of qualifying.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“We got through a lot of work today which sets the weekend up nicely. There is still some way to go to realise the full potential of the car but as always on a Friday, the lap times don’t tell the whole story. It was pretty useful to get some wet running in this morning just in case the weather plays a part in qualifying or the race. The car doesn’t feel as competitive as it did in Valencia last weekend but we’re going to be in a good position to fight hard in qualifying tomorrow.”

ROSS BRAWN
“A good start to the weekend and we were able to achieve much of our planned testing programme despite the interruptions from the weather this morning. We’re not experiencing any issues with tyre temperatures so far which is positive and it’s good to see our hard work in this area starting to pay dividends. There is still some way to go to maximise the set-up of the car to the requirements of both drivers so it will be a busy hour of practice tomorrow morning to get ready for qualifying.”