Ross Brawn admits he is unsure whether or not the BGP 001 will experience the same tyre temperature struggle in Belgium that had began to derail its championship push before Valencia.
The championship-leading outfit, having opened up huge title leads following the first seven races, struggled to get its tyres into their correct operating range in Britain, Germany and Hungary – three races in which the team scored just a single podium finish.
However, the 30C plus air temperatures that were a constant throughout the European Grand Prix weekend meant the team had no such issues, which allowed Rubens Barrichello to claim its seventh win of the year.
But with far cooler conditions expected in the Ardennes region of Belgium, as is usually case, for this weekend’s race, Brawn said he couldn’t be sure the tyre issues wouldn’t return given it has had no running in such weather since Hungary.
Asked if there was a risk its situation could revert to how it had been before the summer break, he said: “Yeah, we have got to try [and resolve it].
“It’s a paradox isn’t it: you work most of your time to try and produce a car that’s easy on tyres, makes them last and can do all the normal things.
“And we’ve now got a situation where it’s hurting us and with no testing to go out and scan things, check things, do things, to see what happens in a range of tyre pressures, settings and downforce.
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