Jenson Button ready for Brawn GP surprise at German Grand Prix
After a stunning start to the season, Button could only finish a distant sixth at Silverstone 10 days ago as Red Bull utterly dominated in unseasonably cold conditions.
However, with F1 preparing to dust off its collective lederhosen and head for the Nurburgring, Button's team principal Ross Brawn has assured supporters his man has not lost his performance advantage overnight.
'"It has always been a strong car aerodynamically and at Silverstone in the slow-medium speed stuff, we didn't take the return we normally could because the tyres were cold,"
Brawn said.
"So when we got to the complex there wasn't enough temperature in the tyres for our normal advantages to come through in that area.
"But we probably need to see a bit more in normal conditions to really judge it - a race where we are comfortable we are performing how we should be."
Whether Brawn will get those 'normal conditions' at the notoriously inclement Nurburgring is a moot point - the track is well known for capricious weather patterns and frequent squalls - but he appears relaxed either way.
"Red Bull have been pretty close all year, so I think we have got to find some performance because they made a good step at Silverstone," Brawn said.
"But with all due respect we were racing Williams and Ferrari at Silverstone, and we don't normally do that. I don't think they made a step, I think we struggled a bit."
"With the confusion over the tyres, we didn't run some new pieces we had because Friday [at Silverstone] was very difficult with the tyre temperature. We couldn't determine how the new bits were working, so we decided to avoid confusion and went back to what we had in Turkey.
"
"So we've got those bits and we have some new improvements for the Nurburgring."
Date published : 30 Jun 2009 - 14:28:53
