Given the uncertainties over the future of the team during the winter, when Ross Brawn, the team principal, eventually led a management buyout from Honda, with a question mark over funding, there have been widespread doubts about whether they have the resources to stay ahead of the pack.
The word from the factory in Brackley, near Silverstone, however, is that Brawn GP have all that they need to fend off rivals such as McLaren, Ferrari and BMW Sauber, who have barely got going yet, not to mention further advances by Toyota and Red Bull.
“I think our team has got all the resources,” Nick Fry, the Brawn chief executive, said. “We have got a reasonable upgrade package for Barcelona. Whether it will be as big as some others, we don't know. Do we have the resources to develop for the rest of the year? Yes, we do.”
Brawn himself has spoken of there being “quite a lot of new bits” in the pipeline for Spain. “From the time that Honda announced they were stopping at the end of November, the budget was limited, the developments weren't coming,” he said. “But they are coming now, so we can get the ball rolling again in terms of improving the car.”
Brawn believes that he has the driver in Button to capture the title; it is now up to him and the team to keep the car at the front of the grid. “I've got no doubts about Jenson's ability to win. The way he is driving, that part is taken care of,” he said. “It's up to us to produce the performance in the car, do the pitstops, the strategies and make sure the car is reliable.”
Over at McLaren, who go before the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Paris tomorrow in connection with the so-called “Lie-gate” scandal, Martin Whitmarsh, the team principal, says that they have “thrown everything” at their new car to haul it up the grid. With 12 modifications on the MP4-24 in Bahrain, Hamilton rewarded their efforts with an impressive fourth place. But, as Whitmarsh hinted, the “all hands to the pump” approach at this stage may have negative consequences later in the season.
“We've put a lot of effort in, by comparison, to some of our competitors, and if you do that, it can be to the detriment of longer-term development,” he said. “But being McLaren, we want to win. We've made steps in the right direction, but we need to keep pushing.”
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