Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn has struck out at his opposite number Patrick Head of Formula 1 rivals Williams over his mindset that the Italian manufacturer gets favourable decisions over crucial incidents from race stewards and the sport's governing body, the FIA.

Head has given his forthright views on the subject on numerous occasions, most recently after Juan Pablo Montoya was given a drive-through penalty at the US Grand Prix due to his collision with Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello. Following that incident, Head said: "Certain events that involve Ferrari and the FIA particularly have amazed me in the past."

But Brawn, speaking in his exclusive 2003 Race Diary on the Autosport website, says that such criticism is unjustified, and pointed to the fact that Michael Schumacher was given a similar punishment for his collision with Jarno Trulli in the Malaysian Grand Prix earlier in the season.

"I get very upset when people like Patrick Head talk about championship-deciding decisions by the stewards being unfair on Montoya and all that sort of cobblers," said Brawn. "What's the difference with Malaysia? Michael hit Trulli and we had to serve a penalty – we out our hands up and we took our punishment and got on with it. That was a championship-deciding situation as much as Indianapolis was, so people ought to take a more balanced view."

Source: Autosport