13/03/2009
NEWS STORY
It is not only on message boards and internet forums that the incredible pace of the Brawn car is being discussed.
As the majority of the teams prepare to head off to Melbourne for the season opener, rival teams and drivers are wondering how come the BGP 001 is so quick straight out of the box.
While everyone in the pitlane acknowledges the pace of the Brawn, a pace which has Barrichello and Button topping the Barcelona timesheets by over 0.6s, few can offer a reasonable explanation, though some are clearly sceptical.
Talking at the end of his team's stint at the Spanish track, Felipe Massa admitted that he is as surprised as the rest of us. Referring to the F60 he said: "As far as the performance is concerned I'm really satisfied with our competitiveness compared to all the others, except obviously Brawn GP, who were unreachable for all of us.
Asked about the performances this week of the Brawn and McLaren, the Brazilian continued: "What do I think about McLaren and Brawn GP? I can't reply to that, because I don't know the details. I can just look at the lap times and what we see from the outside."
At a time when it is being suggested that up to three teams are running 'illegal' diffusers, and it being common knowledge that Williams and Toyota are two of the outfits under suspicion, Massa offered his own thoughts.
"As far as the aerodynamic solutions are concerned I can only say that I'm not the one to comment on that. First of all I'm not an engineer, but a driver and then there's a Federation (FIA), which has the task to see if everything is alright or not."