Brawn keeps his feet on the ground
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Your support makes all the difference.By any standard, three wins from the first four grands prix is a major achievement for a team that didn't even know if they would be in business weeks before the first race of the season. And to have amassed 50 constructors' points so quickly is also remarkable. But the Brawn GP team principal, Ross Brawn, and the championship leader, Jenson Button, remain under no illusions despite Sunday's latest success in Bahrain.
"That was a tough one," Brawn said yesterday. "Perhaps Australia was one we could only throw away, whereas here was one we had to win. My worry was to look after the engine because in qualifying it was running too hot; because it all got thrown together at the last minute we have underestimated the water cooling and since it was so hot on Saturday it was compromising the car. Jenson and Rubens could only do one fast lap and then they had to cool the car down. And that is not great for using the tyres and getting into it. So qualifying was compromised. We felt we could cope with it in the race, and we did that."
The team still has only two cars, and parts have begun to wear out after four flyaway races. Their rivals – notably Red Bull who won in China and Toyota who threw away their chance in Bahrain – will have variations of the two-tier diffuser, that Brawn so controversially introduced, for the next grand prix, Spain, on 10 May.
"We will have a series for upgrades for Barcelona and beyond," Brawn said. "We have to be optimistic. We have had no upgrades for the first four races, because there was nothing there. Getting to the first race was as much as we could manage and there was nothing in the cupboard.
"The process is starting again from the point at which we were able to buy the company and we got our programme well into the swing again and Barcelona will show us the benefit of getting it running again."
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