Europe: Ross Brawn Q&A

What is the situation coming here? What upgrades do you have on the car? How much are you working on this year’s and next year’s car?

We have a reasonable aerodynamic upgrade package here. We had one in Hungary. The last couple of races have been a bit messy for us. We did have some quite good upgrades in those races and hopefully today and this weekend we can take the benefit of those upgrades as we have not had some good races recently. Primarily another aerodynamic upgrade here. We are working hard on the 2010 car. I think we had a good FIA technical meeting on Wednesday which clarified some open issues to enable us to proceed properly with the new cars and we have got a balanced approach between what we are doing for 2010 and what we are doing still for this year. We will be working hard this year all the way up to the last race.

Ross, what is the situation with your drivers?

It is a work in progress. I am sorry but we are in discussions with our drivers. We are obviously very happy with their performance this year and it is not appropriate for me to talk about what we are doing with our drivers at the moment. But we will announce it in good time what is going to happen.

Ross, we heard a little bit yesterday what the plans were for today. How have you actually got the car back up to being competitive after the last couple of races?

Well, to be frank it is just tyre temperature. Obviously in these sorts of conditions we have no problem generating the tyre temperature. We did some scans of set-ups we have used in the last few races and all of them to be honest were very bad. Some were better than others. We did a couple of aerodynamic comparisons on pieces which we have tried and I think we have seen some differences, nothing that would necessarily be the reason why we have struggled the last few races, so I think the main issue is that here we are generating tyre temperature and the car feels good. The car feels as we have had at previous races. We have just struggled at the last few with tyre temperature which is still an issue which we will have to find a solution for as we have got Spa coming up and we have got some races towards the end of the year. But we are very pleased with today. We did some very good race work and both drivers are happy with the cars. It was a good Friday but we had a good Friday in Hungary but then it got a bit more difficult the rest of the weekend. But I think the reason there was the drop in ambient temperature on the Saturday and Sunday whereas here the forecast is for it to stay hot or perhaps even hotter for Sunday. That’s the predominant reason. No magic switch has been turned. There was nothing horribly wrong with the car. We had a logical programme today and I think we have understood some things and we are pleased with what we did.

But you do really need a high ambient temperature then as well as high track temperature? Let’s face it, Hungary wasn’t cold.

No, we are in an unusual situation with having one tyre supplier as there is no longer a tyre war where the tyre is developed towards the car. It is a slight distortion in a way in that you have these tyres and you have to make the best usage of them. Those teams which make the best usage of the tyres that we have will succeed. Our strengths are consistency and ability to use the tyres in hot weather. We have got to work out how we can get the tyres to work in cold weather and how we can generate tyre temperature. We have got some things planned for Spa which I think may help. That is the conundrum we are trying to solve.

You brought up the Technical Working Group meeting. I understand that there was at least one area where there wasn’t agreement which was KERS and that the vote to remove KERS from the technical regulations next year wasn’t unanimous. Could you tell me what your reaction to that is, please, and what it means for whether KERS will still be in Formula One next year?

I think that one of the important points of the new Concorde Agreement is that there’s governance and there’s procedures and the procedures in the Technical Working Group now are that majority decisions in the Technical Working Group go forward to the F1 Commission, and the F1 Commission votes on whether they want the recommendations or proposals from the Technical Working Group to become regulations. So it’s just part of the process. The majority in the Technical Working Group felt we should have same clarity on KERS because the FOTA teams have agreed not to use it but you’re left with this awkward situation where it’s still in the regulations but people have agreed not to use it and not everybody is in FOTA. But it was a majority decision, it will go to the F1 Commission and it will go through the normal process now and we will see where it goes.

One of FOTA’s mission statements is to improve the show. In recent years, with different fuel loads in qualifying and the race, it has had the effect of constantly jumbling the race order throughout the race. Next year, basically all we are going to see is the fastest cars at the front disappear and the only factor will be tyre wear. Surely it is a mistake to not have refuelling next year?

I agree there’s pros and cons. There’s criticisms aimed at refuelling because drivers don’t have to overtake on the track, they can wait until their strategy kicks in, so there’s been criticisms. I don’t think any system is perfect. I think we can try it and see what happens. I think there will be quite a lot in the way that the tyres are used, getting the car to the end, and I think that will be quite interesting. Tyres will be more stressed, we’ve got a smaller front tyre next year. So there’s going to be some interesting aspects next year and again, certainly at the beginning of the year, we will see some teams have got it right and others need to catch up. In terms of improving the show, I very much hope and think that now we’ve got stability, we’ve got stability for at least the next three years, we can all build together something that is stronger but it needs doing in a measured way. We need to study it carefully and make sure the moves we make have got… there’s clear evidence that they’re an improvement. Because if we keep chopping and changing, then all we will do is confuse the public. I think there are a lot of things we can do that will improve our show and FOTA and the other teams and the FIA and the commercial rights holder are now going to work very hard to improve it.