Brawn hits back at Dennis over tyre comments
Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn has hit back at comments made by McLaren boss Ron Dennis after he suggested it was irresponsible to fit intermediate tyres to its cars during the Malaysian Grand Prix downpour
Both Ferraris had already gone off the track, after hitting a mixture of oil from Olivier Panis's BAR and the beginnings of the torrential rainstorm, before they pitted to change from dry tyres.
Brawn has admitted that the decision to fit intermediates over full wet weather tyres turned Ferrari's hitherto disastrous race into a stunning one-two finish. Along with the majority of teams, however, McLaren switched to full wet tyres.
After the race Dennis, whose driver David Coulthard led the race during the downpour, said: "The decision to put both drivers on wet tyres was the only responsible option when faced with the severity of the downpour. You can't play around with drivers' lives. David told us he was aquaplaning at 60mph behind the Safety Car." (Click here for full Ron Dennis story)
But Brawn countered those words, however, saying that Ferrari had experience of running intermediates in wet conditions from a recent test session in Italy.
"We tried these tyres at Fiorano last week, and we knew that the intermediate was a very, very good tyre," said Brawn. "Ron made a comment about Ferrari being irresponsible fitting those tyres. We had the information that they were very good tyres even in fairly deep water. So I think that's a bit of an unfortunate comment for him to make without the facts or information that was needed.
"We knew there were dry parts of the track and we knew there were wet parts of the track and we knew the tyres were very good in the morning [warm-up] as well. That was what we ran this morning. We knew it was very good and we knew it would go into the dry," added Brawn.
For full Ross Brawn Q&A, click HERE.
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