Ross Brawn Interviewed after the Grand Prix
6.3.01

Autosport magazine's Adam Cooper spoke to Ross Brawn to get the full story of the team’s weekend – including Michael Schumacher’s mysterious hand signals…

Q: How do you think you and McLaren compared in the race?
“It was a little bit difficult to judge, and on the one hand it’s a shame that Mika went out so early, as it would have been interesting to see how it developed, but I wasn’t complaining too much. I think we were running more downforce then they were, running more wing than they were. They were quicker in T2 generally, and we were quicker in T3. That was obviously the settings that they opted for.”

Q: Did you expect that the two of you (Ferrari and McLaren) would still be ahead, or did you think that Michelin would push Williams up there?
“Michelin will be a consideration throughout the year. I think the thing is, I know what we’ve been able to do over the winter, and I’m sure that McLaren have done a similar job. And it’s hard for me to understand how someone else is going to make a big jump. Because our guys have worked incredibly hard, and worked incredibly well, with a very good car, and although all the other teams are very good, it’s hard to see how they’re going to make twice as much progress as we were able to.”

Q: Where do you think the two teams stand against each other, compared to this time last year?
“I think we were quicker this weekend. I know Ron Dennis gets very frustrated that his strategies are criticised, probably unfairly in a lot of cases, but I get frustrated when people say that the McLaren is the best car, because I think there were occasions last year when we had a better car. And I think we’ve started this year with a better car. I think Rory [Byrne] and the people involved in design of the car and Paulo [Martinelli] on the engine have done a fantastic job, so we’ve started the season again with a great car. I think the two teams tend to drive each other. After Melbourne last year we decided to make an even bigger effort to try to improve the performance of the car. We’ve got to keep that up. If we can continue to progress, it will be very encouraging. I think they had a better car at the beginning of last year, and later in the season we turned it round and we had the better car. Michael is the best driver in F1, there’s no doubt, and equally I think we had the best car on some occasions. So it was that close.”

Q: Michael’s now won five in a row. Can he beat the record? [Alberto Ascari won nine consecutive Grands Prix over the 1952-53 seasons]
“I’ve said this before, it’s like rolling a double six. You’ve got the same chance of doing it at the next race. If you say you’re going to win the next 10 races, that’s something different. If you say can I win the next one, it’s the same chance. That’s how I approach it. We had a fantastic year last year, and eclipsed all the records that Ferrari has achieved, so why not?”

Q: How much did Michael back off towards the end of the race?
“Completely. There was no need to do anything else.”

Q: And that was being carefully managed between the two of you?
“Yep, except we had this radio problem which was getting in the way a bit. I wasn’t sure if he could hear me. I said if you can hear me, touch your helmet, which he did. Then at least I knew he could hear me, so I could start to give him the information that he needed. The radio came back later in the race, so it wasn’t a problem.”

Q: So it didn’t actually cause any dramas?
“No. I was worried because it was getting towards the pit stop, and we would have run into a drama there.”

Q: Was there any danger of him losing concentration when backing off, as we saw in America last year?
“I don’t think this time, no!”

Q: And Rubens backed off as well?
“There was nothing he could achieve really. He couldn’t get David at that stage, and he was under no pressure from behind. So I just told him he had to be quiet and drive to save the car rather than doing anything else.”

Q: What do you think of Rubens’ performance this weekend?
“Pretty good. Considering he lost some running time he did a great job in qualifying. It’s just unfortunate that he got tied up with Alonso and lost his place to David. He got a lot of dirt on his tyres, and before we knew it David was a couple of seconds ahead. Then we lost a little time in the pit stops.”

Q: How worried were you about getting to the finish?
“Well, we just hadn’t done the normal race distances that we should have done by this stage of the year. Normally we’ve done four or five race distances. For various reasons, we just weren’t able to do that. So it was Michael’s first race distance with this car.”

Q: Were you actually pleasantly surprised when they both ran the distance?
“I’m always surprised at the first race! There’s always a certain irony in this business, when you’re very well prepared, something you don’t expect lets you down. When you’re not very well prepared you get through.”

Q: Are you out of the woods yet?
“No, no. There’s more to do before I feel comfortable. You never feel entirely comfortable.”

Q: Michael stopped on the track on Saturday morning. What was that about?
“He got some stuff between the brake calliper and the wheel, and he came to a halt. He felt that the wheel was graunching or grinding, so he stopped because he didn’t want to damage anything. There was some stuff stuck between the calliper and the wheel, and that’s why he didn’t want the car pushed, so they had to lift the car up.”

Q: And he had a problem in the warm-up?
“We had a brake problem, because a piece of debris – a stone or a bolt or something – got into a brake duct and damaged a rear brake. That’s why we stopped running, and I wasn’t sure what the problem was, and obviously when you have a brake problem you need to understand it before you start running again. But clearly a piece of debris had gone in, come round, and broken some of the brake disc mountings.”

Q: Are you now focussing on reliability or performance?
“Both really. We’re going back to Italy to test at the end of the week. We’ve got some new pieces we want to try in Malaysia. There’s not much we can do on reliability between now and the European season, because there’s not much testing. But we’ll strip the cars down, see what they look like, and fix any problems we have.”

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