Formula One news

Modifications worse than expected, admits Brawn

Ross Brawn has admitted that his team's performances have been surprisingly below par at the last three Grands Prix in Britain, Germany and Hungary. The Brackley-located outfit clinched six of the first seven races of 2009 although wins for Red Bull and McLaren in the last trio of meetings have left championship leaders Brawn GP very much on the back foot.

With cooler temperatures on offer at both Silverstone and the Nürburgring, the general consensus in the Formula One paddock had placed Brawn back at the top in Budapest with the highest track surface temperatures of the year available. With Jenson Button the team's sole points scorer in seventh position, however, all is seemingly not well in the white and green camp.

Ross Brawn would prefer to see testing during the season

"It's true that the opposition has got a lot stronger but in the first part of the season we were getting the most out of the tyres and, unexpectedly, we've had problems there," team principal Brawn admitted to Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport. "It's certainly related to some modification which we've introduced during the year so we are analysing exactly every step we've taken to understand what has caused this problem."

2009 has also featured added frustrations for teams which, according to new technical rules, are unable to test cars on circuits outside of race weekends during the season. "I would be more comfortable if we had been able to do some testing," Brawn added, "but this is a challenge which the regulations impose this year."

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