Brawn: Staged finish in Austria 2002 a big mistake for Ferrari

Almost fifteen years after the infamous Austrian Grand Prix which saw Ferrari order a stage finish, Ross Brawn admits the call was big mistake.

In the closing stages of the race, a comfortably-leading Rubens Barrichello was ordered by the Ferrari pit wall to hand over victory to second-place man Michael Schumacher, so the German could collect maximum points for the Drivers' championship.

A sore and angry Barrichello yielded to his team mate, but only on the last lap at the finish line, the obvious move enraging spectators and viewers alike.

In hindsight, Brawn, who had presided over the Scuderia's strategy, admitted the decision was wrong, and cost Ferrari dearly.

"Austria, on reflection... it was a mistake," F1's new sporting director said in an interview with Autosport.

"The circumstances behind it were a bit more complex than people realise, in that we'd had the discussion before the race about how we would manage that situation if it occurred - that if Rubens got the jump on Michael, then at some convenient point he would let him slip past and we'd carry on.

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"That was all pre-agreed before the race. Then we got into the race, Rubens was ahead of Michael, and we said to him, 'OK, can you now let him past?'... 'No! Don't make me do that! This is my big chance to win this race! You can't do this to me!'

"By this time, Michael was also on the radio, wanting to know when Rubens was going to let him past as previously agreed. How do you reconcile all of that if we don't do what we said we were going to do in the pre-meeting?

"And that was, ultimately, why we told Rubens he had to do it, and of course he made a big show of it, which was... unfortunate.

"And then it got worse, because Michael saw the reaction of the crowd and put Rubens on the top spot of the podium, for which we were fined a million dollars by the FIA."

Brawn admits that the negative consequences and the aftermath of the decision far outweighed the benefits of the letting Schumacher win.

"What followed was far more damaging and distracting for the team than if we'd just left it alone and given Rubens a spanking in private.

"If I could have re-run it I wouldn't have done what we did, because the consequences were more far-reaching than we could have considered.

"Something that should have been an internal team matter became very political."

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