Brawn reveils future F2004 plans - 9th July 22:22pm GMT

Ferrari could not let the British GP go by without arranging for its English technical director to talk to the press, which is exactly what Ross Brawn did this afternoon. He was asked yet again about the unusual four stop strategy that brought Michael victory in France last Sunday and explained that the strategy was designed to exploit the strong points of the Bridgestone tyres. Ask for what was more important, the strategy or the driver, Brawn replied: 'you need a good strategy and a good driver to implement it. We set the driver a target he must reach in terms of lap times and he has to meet it. If he can go even quicker it is a great help. Asked about the effect of proposed changes to the technical regulations to slow the cars, Brawn felt they did not suit Ferrari. 'As we have a very strong package, any change is not good for us,' he said. But we have to accept change because every year the cars get faster and the tracks stay the same. That is not to say the cars are dangerous now, but every year they progress so it is time to take a step back. The easiest element to change is aerodynamics, followed by the tyres and the engine. But the big step on the engine side will only occur in 2006 when we have a smaller capacity. I think we can improve the safety of the sport and improve the show at the same time.'

Brawn went on to reveal that the current F2004 will not evolve much more over the course of this year. 'We have already started work on next year’s car,' he declared. 'Now our aim with the current car is to score enough points to win both championships and that requires reliability. So we are now concentrating our efforts on next year’s car. Apart from a new aerodynamic package we hope to introduce at Hockenheim (the next race in Germany) and a special low downforce package necessary for Monza, evolution on the F2004 will mainly be restricted to work on tyres and engine. This means that the opposition could catch us up or even overtake us sometimes before the end of the season.'