Ferrari’s technical director Ross Brawn says that his team’s dominant performance in United States Grand Prix qualifying is a reflection of its car’s true pace. Having lagged behind Renault in Canada just a week ago, a race where Ferrari expected to be very strong, the team has made a remarkable recovery and claimed a front row sweep at Indianapolis, a second clear of the field. Brawn told ITV Sport’s Ted Kravitz that the speed was always in the car, it was just a matter of waiting for the tyre war to turn in Bridgestone’s favour. Brawn said
I really felt we would be strong in these two races with the nature of the car, We were disappointed in Montreal to not be more competitive, but really we had a tyre problem there. I think what we are seeing here is a situation where the tyres are working well, and shows the true performance of the car.
Renault’s strategic mastermind Pat Symonds had strongly hinted that his team chose to carry a heavier fuel load in qualifying once it realised that it couldn’t match Ferrari’s raw speed. But Brawn does not expect any surprises from Renault. He said
The fastest race strategy is what we have so unless something goes wrong at the start we will be trying to run the fastest race, You are never completely sure, but obviously we have got a good performance from the car so we will be strong tomorrow. We have got to hope we get a good start and then we can run the race we want to.
Giancarlo Fisichella admitted he was surprised by Ferrari’s crushing display of superiority at Indianapolis on Saturday. The Italian claimed a strong third on the grid for the US Grand Prix, outqualifying team-mate Fernando Alonso for only the third time this year. But Fisichella said the 1.1s margin separating him from pole-sitter Michael Schumacher had come as a shock to the whole Renault team. He said
We are really surprised about Ferrari’s pace, already this morning we were very surprised about that, when they ran with scrubbed tyres and they were able to be really quick, really competitive. Maybe it’s the characteristics of the circuit or maybe the Bridgestone tyres are working better than our Michelin tyres. I don’t know, I have no idea.#.#.