Friday: Brawn GP has not yet reached its cruising speed

The first free practice sessions took place today in Monza for the Brawn GP team. As usual, the performances do not reveal the real potential of the English car. The two drivers, Barrichello and Button, focused on evaluating the car with very low downforce. They also took the time to note their tires.

Barrichello completes nearly 60 laps of the circuit today while Button does 56. The team must spare their engines to have them available until the end of the year. Today’s engines were already used in Grand Prix and could not give their full performance. The 60 minutes of practice tomorrow morning will be essential for Brawn GP drivers to secure the top positions in qualifying, which were previously unthinkable.

Rubens Barrichello – 12th and 16th:

« Our program went according to plan. The car’s performance was expected at this level as well. We focused on long stints, which were quite satisfactory. The car brakes with great stability, although there is still work to be done to perfectly balance it. From a general perspective, today’s performance doesn’t really allow us to position ourselves in the competition, let’s wait… »

Jenson Button – 7th and 19th:

« We worked a lot on set-ups today and the configuration of the car, with little downforce. In the end, we were able to work well, but I couldn’t do everything I wanted on the long runs. It’s a bit frustrating to have lost time to set up the car… Everything was sorted out at the end of the day, but there’s still a lot of work to do. It’s really weird to race with so little aerodynamic downforce, but the performance is decent. We still need to find the fine-tuning tonight so that I’m fully satisfied with the car’s balance tomorrow… »

Ross Brawn – Director:

« We had already tested the single-seater here earlier this season, fortunately because Monza is atypical with a really low downforce configuration. The sessions today were therefore particularly important, and we focused on race preparation. We are happy with our progress and hope to do better later. »