Sky Sports.com

Related links

Teams

• Honda

Ahead of the new Formula One season, one of the most intriguing prospects will be to see how Honda can go about improving their record after a disastrous 2007 campaign.

Hampered with a car, the RA107, which lacked grip and proved unpredictable under braking, drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello struggled.

The former - who labelled the car "a dog" - scored just six points, while his team-mate went pointless for the first time since his F1 debut in 1993.

However, Honda achieved a real coup towards the end of last year with the appointment of Ross Brawn as team principal.

As technical director with both the Benetton and Ferrari teams, the Englishman has an unrivalled level of success in F1, working alongside Michael Schumacher as the German claimed each of his seven world championships.

After a season-long sabbatical, Brawn has now returned to the fray, with Honda clearly hoping that both his expertise and experience will help turn them from underachieving outfit into championship challenger.

Speaking at the recent launch of Honda's RA108 car, Brawn gave his own thoughts on leaving Ferrari, joining Honda, plus the 2008 F1 season and beyond...

Is it good to get back to racing?

It evolved to be honest. I was quite glad to take a break. I had 10 intense years at Ferrari - wonderful years - but intense. I was very happy to take a break and it took me a little while to adjust to not going to a race. Last year I was in New Zealand when I watched the first race in Australia and that was a very strange experience: the first race I'd missed in a very long time...and it took a little while to adjust. And then I guess in about the middle of the year I started to turn my thoughts towards perhaps returning to Formula One and I'd made a commitment to talk to Ferrari in the summer to see how things were going. I guess the juices were starting to flow about then. It was nice to take a year out and something I'm very pleased I did - but I'm very glad to be back.

After a year in which Honda fell well short of their own expectations, what was morale like when you got here?

Very resolute, I must say. Which was very encouraging, because it was a very difficult year. I think the team were encouraged by the response of management, by the response of Honda - seeing that changes were being made, particularly in the management area. Even before my arrival there'd been some very important strategic changes: (head of aerodynamics) Loic Bigois came in with John Owen in the aero group; we had Steve Clark join us from McLaren as race and test chief engineer; (deputy technical director) Jorg Zander came back as a very popular member of the team. So the personnel could see that there was a strong effort being made to strengthen the organisation. I came back to F1 to join Honda with a group of people who were very motivated and very passionate about trying to succeed. I was very pleased with the attitudes here; it's a very 'can do' attitude - not looking back but trying to look forward.

What's the split between yourself and Nick (Fry, Honda F1 CEO)?

Well I take care of all the technical side, all of the engineering, all of the racing. Nick takes care of the commercial, media and marketing side. Which suits me very well and suits Nick very well because he's not an engineer and I'm not a person who, to be frank, enjoys the marketing and media side. That's for him to look after. So I think it's a nice split of duties which suits both of our expertise and perhaps characters. I think we can be very complimentary in the future.

In the past you built two empires around Michael Schumacher, first at Benetton and then at Ferrari. Do you think Jenson Button has the qualities for you to focus on him?

I think that both drivers have the capability of winning races for Honda. I think the issue clearly in the past has been equipment: we haven't been able to provide them with a car. But I think that both drivers will be more than capable of winning races. With Rubens, we had several races wins and I think he finished second in the championship twice, so if Michael hadn't been there then Rubens would have been world champion. I think both drivers are more than capable of achieving the results we want and I'm very happy with the two drivers we have.

What about your new third driver Alex Wurz? Was he your choice?

Partly my choice. I've never worked with Alex but Steve Clark has and Loic Bigois has and they were very complimentary about his ability. And, given the progress the team has to mak,e we weren't looking for a 'hotshoe' test driver who's trying to prove himself; we were looking for a guy who could really contribute technically and I think that Alex is a great choice.

With the limitations on aerodymanics, wind tunnels and CFD put forward by the FIA, do you think such measures will hurt the teams that try harder to establish a good aerodynamic basis?

Well I think that's always the difficulty when you try and apply any kind of constraints: that those who are already achieving their levels of performance don't have to make as much progress as those teams that are trying to catch up. And that's the problem with any contstraint you try and apply, technically or financially.

So we understand and perhaps need to try and control the costs in F1 in the future. But we're hoping do it in a way that doesn't penalize any team technically, and doesn't consolidate the position of those that are already winning races and the position of those that are trying to achieve that success, because that's what F1 is all about. Everyone who is not winning wants to try and win and we shouldn't have regulations that protect the guys that are winning.

What about the standard ECU? (Electronic Control Unit, to be introduced on all cars this season to coincide with a ban on driver aids like traction control) Some say that maybe McLaren (who helped design the ECU) have a little advantage. Do you agree with that? And do you agree with comments made recently that some teams have been able to bypass the ECU and have launch control?

Well I think the problems of legality are always going to be there, unfortunately, because if you make an accusation it's very difficult to prove it. That was really why we allowed traction control in the past, because too many people were accusing others of using traction control. And although the FIA gave everyone reassurances, people continued to support that idea - and it was bad for F1.

From what I understand, it's very hard to understand how you could bypass the system. I mean, it's a standard electronic system, all the teams are using it, the FIA has access to all the software - they know how the system is configured. It's not like the old days where there may have been some complex software that perhaps wasn't so easy to understand and of looking at all the cars and comparing them to see where they are different. I think there's every probability they'll be able to control that side. But it won't stop the rumours, unfortunately. As soon as anyone starts to perform above their expectation the rumours will start - that's an unfortunate aspect of F1.

Regarding McLaren, they're more familiar with the system. But I don't think that will last very long. Because they're also dealing with a different system - without traction control, without launch control, without engine braking - they're also having to adjust to the removal of those features. But I think the system is very close to what they would have been using in the past, and of course the hardware is the same.

Click here for part two of the Ross Brawn Q&A