Brawn Insists FOTA Is Still United

Ross Brawn insisted the diffuser saga was not detrimental to the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), for which he is currently holding technical responsibilities. Although several teams have protested the famous double-decker diffuser set up by Brawn GP on their BGP 001 – along with the designs of Williams F1 and Toyota – the Englishman revealed it did not break the good relationship between the F1 principals.

Brawn was recently accused by Renault's team boss Flavio Briatore of conflict of interests, the Italian arguing that the Brawn GP owner, considering his current position within the FOTA, should have let the other teams know about the different interpretation of the FIA technical book regarding the rear diffuser.

Brawn publicly responded the accusations, saying he notified the teams about this particular aspect almost a year ago, but they just decided not to take it. As far as the unity within the FOTA is concerned, Brawn insisted all teams should leave aside their personal agenda and work together for the good of the sport.

“What I am pleased about is that FOTA is still operating well within its mandates, objectives and so on. This has not, as far as I can tell, damaged FOTA. We have to learn to work in that way, because we when we get on the track there will be instances where we will get very upset with each other,” said Brawn.

“I draw this analogy with rugby, which is that you go out on the field and try and kill each other, then you come back and you have a beer. You have got to be able to separate those two things. And FOTA has got to be able to do that. We have got to able to put that to one side and say, 'okay we are having our situation there but let's work on trying to help Formula 1 improve and become better,” added the Englishman.

FIA's International Court of Appeal is to hear the diffuser protesting teams during its next meeting, scheduled on April 14th, after which it will make an irrevocable decision over the matter.