Well after several people in and around the pits were sent running from the flying toys coming from outside the Brawn garage it's time we asked the question "Did Rubens have a point?"
For those of you who may have missed Ruben's rant he said "the team gave a perfect demonstration of how to loose a GP". When asked "did he mean that the team were favouring Jenson" he replied "no he was not saying that but the team did a bad job".
Now I think there are one or two things in Rubens favour here. We all heard Rubens ask to change to a two stopper (or at least we presumed it was and so did Martin Brundle) even before the race began. During the race Ruben's again came on the Radio and seemed to ask several times for a change of pit stop strategy. For that matter Jenson also asked the team for a strategy change and was rebuffed.
I don't think the team were favouring Jenson and also Rubens had the problem with his fuel rig that could have happened to either driver however it was clear today that the Brawn team didn't do a great job.
The facts against Rubens however are the fact that he made little or no head way when he was stuck behind Massa. He had a faster car (2 seconds a lap faster once Massa had pitted) and yet couldn't find a way past. There was some overtaking this race and Jenson pulled off a couple so the Brawn car was capable of over taking.
As Martin Brundle pointed out the "Next 9 laps are crucial" radio call is missleading because as Brundle said there is no way that Rubens could have pulled out enough time for a 3 stopper to work at that point of the race. I have heard a pundit on Radio 5 this afternoon say that Rubens just wasn't fast enough and sited the "next 9 laps" message as proof that Rubens wasn't on the pace.
When looking at the fors and againsts I think that Brawn dropped the ball for both Rubens and Jenson this weekend and Rubens does have a point but his rant against the team will be misread as a rant against Jenson and in this case I don't think it was.
For those of you who may have missed Ruben's rant he said "the team gave a perfect demonstration of how to loose a GP". When asked "did he mean that the team were favouring Jenson" he replied "no he was not saying that but the team did a bad job".
Now I think there are one or two things in Rubens favour here. We all heard Rubens ask to change to a two stopper (or at least we presumed it was and so did Martin Brundle) even before the race began. During the race Ruben's again came on the Radio and seemed to ask several times for a change of pit stop strategy. For that matter Jenson also asked the team for a strategy change and was rebuffed.
I don't think the team were favouring Jenson and also Rubens had the problem with his fuel rig that could have happened to either driver however it was clear today that the Brawn team didn't do a great job.
The facts against Rubens however are the fact that he made little or no head way when he was stuck behind Massa. He had a faster car (2 seconds a lap faster once Massa had pitted) and yet couldn't find a way past. There was some overtaking this race and Jenson pulled off a couple so the Brawn car was capable of over taking.
As Martin Brundle pointed out the "Next 9 laps are crucial" radio call is missleading because as Brundle said there is no way that Rubens could have pulled out enough time for a 3 stopper to work at that point of the race. I have heard a pundit on Radio 5 this afternoon say that Rubens just wasn't fast enough and sited the "next 9 laps" message as proof that Rubens wasn't on the pace.
When looking at the fors and againsts I think that Brawn dropped the ball for both Rubens and Jenson this weekend and Rubens does have a point but his rant against the team will be misread as a rant against Jenson and in this case I don't think it was.