五場比賽取得四個分站冠軍、車隊積分領先29.5分，狀況無疑的是從谷底反彈回來。很明顯的是由於 Brawn GP 車隊總管Ross Brawn 的緣故。車隊的成功在他的一些同輩中激起了敵意甚至是仇視，但是對Brawn 來說這都是些小事，他從很久以前就已經學會和這些煩人事共存了。他只專注在贏得下一場比賽，還有他(和其他)F1車隊的未來。
Q: Ross, you must feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland, as Formula One racing at the moment is a world full of paradoxes: some of the least successful teams of last year lead the championship this season. How is life in that fairytale world?
Ross Brawn: 沒錯，一方面感到有點超現實，但另一方面這也是我們藍圖的一部份。這麼說吧，不是一個精確描繪我們會達到怎樣成果的藍圖，是關於大幅提升車隊競爭力的藍圖，這個計畫犧牲了08年賽季成績，完全專注於09年賽季，因為新規則提供了很大的機會，新規則讓以前在後面的車隊有機會可以翻身。我們的想法是:拋棄過時的舊規則，讓我們根據新規章並專注開發09年的新賽車。而那些爭冠車隊沒有這些餘裕，他們必須爭取每一場勝利，所以你可以看到今年初他們的賽車速度不是很理想，現在他們正慢慢回復水準，但是之前他們還是有一些困難的妥協:放棄08年來換取09年的成績，或是反過來呢?我想這情況會在每五到十年規改變一次的時候出現。他們在08年的成果在09年完全派不上用場，全都浪費掉了。我們計劃要改變這樣的情形，這麼一來我們必須要先一步往前，並且讓車隊更有競爭力，和一、兩支同樣有疑問的車隊合作，我們找到自己的水準，而且我們也很高興。
Q: What is the prevailing feeling: surprise, satisfaction or thankfulness?
RB: All of those! Obviously some surprise of the position of some of our competitors. I don’t want to say that in an arrogant way, but it is no surprise how our car is performing, because it is performing where we had expected it to be. But it has galvanized the team enormously in what also was a very difficult period for the team - and the two have gone hand in hand. What I am really, really happy about is that although we had that very difficult time the team is united in a way that perhaps it wasn’t before. The difficult circumstances had bonded everything together. I am delighted, of course, with how things are going. Now we try to keep it going as long as we can.
Q: Had you ever guessed in your wildest dreams that a Formula One team would one day bear your name?
RB: No, that was never my ambition, quite frankly, and it really came about as a necessity because we’ve tried to come up with different names for the team but none of them made much sense. And it was Caroline, our legal secretary, who said ‘why don’t we take your name? You are established. It will have a certain standing in Formula One’ - and we didn’t have a better idea! That’s how we arrived!
Q: If Jenson goes on winning with Rubens in tow both championship titles could be decided by the time of the summer break. Is that your aim?
RB: It would be fantastic, but I don’t think that will happen. Formula One is very competitive and very tough - and we are not thinking about the championships. We are attacking every single race as it comes - and in attacking every race if we do well the championships will start to evolve. But you can’t set out your plan to win the championship by a certain date. Whether it happens or not fate takes a bit of a hand. But sure there is no reason why we shouldn’t be competitive for the rest of the year. And we don’t talk about it - it means bad luck.
Q: For the first time in his career Jenson can consistently show his true colours. Have you always known that potential was under the surface?
RB: I always rated Jenson as an excellent driver, as a top class driver, but I have never worked with him and last year we did not have the equipment, so I still wasn’t really able to judge that final strength that a very successful racing driver has. The people in the team told me that he had it. People in the team said you haven’t seen Jenson at his best - because the equipment we had in 2008 was not very good - so be patient. And if you remember we agreed to keep Jenson in the summer of 2008 and a lot of that was based on the expectations that he would do well with the right equipment. And he’s doing a fantastic job! I couldn’t ask for anything more in terms of his performance and the guys who said be patient, wait and see, were absolutely right because what he is doing is exceptional.
Q: You were criticized for keeping Rubens and not signing Bruno Senna, but the results prove you right…
RB: Bruno was a very exciting prospect and I like him a lot. He has a good attitude and approach. The difficulty was that the team couldn’t take any risks, unfortunately. We have a very low budget for this year, we can’t afford to have too many parts damaged and we have no testing due to the regulations. Bruno unfortunately was a too high risk for the team in that situation. And I know Rubens very well. He is a great driver but he is very good for the team as well. He’s a very important part of the team. So regrettably for Bruno we made the decision to stay with Rubens and I am a hundred percent sure that was the right decision. But I think that Bruno has something to offer to teams in the future. I don’t know if here or at another team, but I do see him in Formula One.
Q: The success of Brawn GP has caused its fair share of controversies. In fact at times there has been quite some hostility towards the team. How did you live through that?
RB: I’ve been in Formula One for a very long time. The approach I like to take is that what happens out on the race track and what happens in competition is different to what should happen between team owners and team principals. Some of my colleagues don’t seem to be able to make that separation because for me we should go out on the race track and we should try and beat each other with every bit of strength that we can - but when that is finished we should sit down and have a beer together and laugh about what happened. But you need to separate those things. You fight on the track but then you sit down and try to improve Formula One, to improve the show, to improve so many things. I find it very frustrating that some teams find that a difficult concept. They love you on the track when you’re not competition, but as soon as you become competition they don’t love you anymore, but that affects your relationship - and it shouldn’t do. But I gave up worrying about it - I gave it up many years ago.
Q: Ross, you must feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland, as Formula One racing at the moment is a world full of paradoxes: some of the least successful teams of last year lead the championship this season. How is life in that fairytale world?
Q:Ross，你一定覺得自己像是愛麗絲夢遊仙境一樣，在現在F1比賽中每件事都不同以往:去年不太成功的車隊在今年的比賽中處於領先地位。這是多麼夢幻的人生?
Ross Brawn: Yes, it is a little bit surreal on one hand, but on the other hand it was all part of a plan that we had. Well, not necessarily a plan to be exactly where we are, but a plan to improve the team enormously. And that plan was to sacrifice 2008 and focus totally on 2009, because the new regulations gave an enormous opportunity. These new regulations gave an opportunity to teams which perhaps were behind with the old regulations. Our idea was: let’s forget about the outdated regulations and let’s get on with the new ones and concentrate on the car for 2009. The established teams didn’t have that luxury - they had to try to win the championship. And you can see that it hurt them at the beginning of the year. They are starting to come back now, but it was somewhat of a difficult compromise for them: do they sacrifice the 2008 championship for a strong 2009 or vice versa? I think it is one of those situations that arise every five to ten years when the regulations change. Any work that they did in 2008 was not usable in 2009 - it was wasted. We had a plan to make that step change that we needed to go forward and make the team more competitive, and in combination with one or two teams having problems we find ourselves where we are. And we are very delighted.
Ross Brawn: 沒錯，一方面感到有點超現實，但另一方面這也是我們藍圖的一部份。這麼說吧，不是一個精確描繪我們會達到怎樣成果的藍圖，是關於大幅提升車隊競爭力的藍圖，這個計畫犧牲了08年賽季成績，完全專注於09年賽季，因為新規則提供了很大的機會，新規則讓以前在後面的車隊有機會可以翻身。我們的想法是:拋棄過時的舊規則，讓我們根據新規章並專注開發09年的新賽車。而那些爭冠車隊沒有這些餘裕，他們必須爭取每一場勝利，所以你可以看到今年初他們的賽車速度不是很理想，現在他們正慢慢回復水準，但是之前他們還是有一些困難的妥協:放棄08年來換取09年的成績，或是反過來呢?我想這情況會在每五到十年規改變一次的時候出現。他們在08年的成果在09年完全派不上用場，全都浪費掉了。我們計劃要改變這樣的情形，這麼一來我們必須要先一步往前，並且讓車隊更有競爭力，和一、兩支同樣有疑問的車隊合作，我們找到自己的水準，而且我們也很高興。
Q: What is the prevailing feeling: surprise, satisfaction or thankfulness?
RB: All of those! Obviously some surprise of the position of some of our competitors. I don’t want to say that in an arrogant way, but it is no surprise how our car is performing, because it is performing where we had expected it to be. But it has galvanized the team enormously in what also was a very difficult period for the team - and the two have gone hand in hand. What I am really, really happy about is that although we had that very difficult time the team is united in a way that perhaps it wasn’t before. The difficult circumstances had bonded everything together. I am delighted, of course, with how things are going. Now we try to keep it going as long as we can.
Q:主要的感覺是如何? 驚喜、滿足、感謝?
Ross Brawn:每個都有! 明顯的，我對我們的一些對手的速度很驚訝，我不想讓人覺得我很自滿，但是我對我們賽車的速度不感到驚訝，因為它表現的跟我們預期的一樣好。但是這給了車隊很大的鼓舞，因為我們度過了一段很艱難的時期，但是我們一起走過來了。我真正開心的是，即時我們當時情況險峻，但是車隊更為團結一心，可能是從未有過的情形。危機讓大家團結在一起，我很高興，當然也是因為事情順利發展，現在我們盡所能的讓一切順利進行。
Q: Had you ever guessed in your wildest dreams that a Formula One team would one day bear your name?
RB: No, that was never my ambition, quite frankly, and it really came about as a necessity because we’ve tried to come up with different names for the team but none of them made much sense. And it was Caroline, our legal secretary, who said ‘why don’t we take your name? You are established. It will have a certain standing in Formula One’ - and we didn’t have a better idea! That’s how we arrived!
Q:你是否曾經夢想過有一天你的名字冠在一支F1車隊上?
Ross Brawn: 沒有，坦白說這從來不是我的目標，是因為必要性的考量，我們試著想其他名字，但是都不夠突出。之後我們的法律主管Caroline ，她說"我們何不用你的名字，你在這圈子已經成名了，這個名號在F1夠響亮了"，而我們沒有其他更好的主意! 就是這麼來的。
Q: If Jenson goes on winning with Rubens in tow both championship titles could be decided by the time of the summer break. Is that your aim?
RB: It would be fantastic, but I don’t think that will happen. Formula One is very competitive and very tough - and we are not thinking about the championships. We are attacking every single race as it comes - and in attacking every race if we do well the championships will start to evolve. But you can’t set out your plan to win the championship by a certain date. Whether it happens or not fate takes a bit of a hand. But sure there is no reason why we shouldn’t be competitive for the rest of the year. And we don’t talk about it - it means bad luck.
Q:如果Jenson 和Rubens 繼續贏得比賽，讓兩個世界冠軍頭銜在夏季休兵前就決定了，這個會是你的目標嗎?
RB :如果是真的，那真是太美妙了，但是我不認為這會實現。F1比賽是很競爭和艱難的，而且我們還沒想到奪取冠軍，我們努力在每一場比賽，如果我們每場表現良好，那麼冠軍自然會慢慢入手，你沒辦法準確定出一個何時拿到冠軍的計畫。是否能得到冠軍都有一點命中注定的成分，但是在沉潛了一年後，我們沒有理由表現不好。而且我們不去討論去年的事，那些都是時運不濟的時候。
Q: For the first time in his career Jenson can consistently show his true colours. Have you always known that potential was under the surface?
RB: I always rated Jenson as an excellent driver, as a top class driver, but I have never worked with him and last year we did not have the equipment, so I still wasn’t really able to judge that final strength that a very successful racing driver has. The people in the team told me that he had it. People in the team said you haven’t seen Jenson at his best - because the equipment we had in 2008 was not very good - so be patient. And if you remember we agreed to keep Jenson in the summer of 2008 and a lot of that was based on the expectations that he would do well with the right equipment. And he’s doing a fantastic job! I couldn’t ask for anything more in terms of his performance and the guys who said be patient, wait and see, were absolutely right because what he is doing is exceptional.
Q: 這是Jenson 生涯中首次可以完全展現他真正實力的時候，你之前是否就已經了解他以前無法發揮的潛力?
RB: 我一直都把Jenson 歸類在優秀車手那邊，是頂尖車手中的一位，但是我之前從未與他共事而且去年我們沒有好車，所以我一直沒有辦法衡量他是否有成功車手的實力，車隊裡的人告訴我他是有實力的，他們說我沒有看過Jenson 最好的狀態，因為08年的車並不是很好，所以要我有耐心。如果你還記得的話，我們在08年的夏天留下了他，因為我們期望他在有一輛好車後可以好好發揮，而他不可思議的辦到了! 對他的實力我沒有什麼好再要求的，而告訴我要有耐心的傢伙真是一點也沒錯，他現在幹的很優秀。
Q: You were criticized for keeping Rubens and not signing Bruno Senna, but the results prove you right…
RB: Bruno was a very exciting prospect and I like him a lot. He has a good attitude and approach. The difficulty was that the team couldn’t take any risks, unfortunately. We have a very low budget for this year, we can’t afford to have too many parts damaged and we have no testing due to the regulations. Bruno unfortunately was a too high risk for the team in that situation. And I know Rubens very well. He is a great driver but he is very good for the team as well. He’s a very important part of the team. So regrettably for Bruno we made the decision to stay with Rubens and I am a hundred percent sure that was the right decision. But I think that Bruno has something to offer to teams in the future. I don’t know if here or at another team, but I do see him in Formula One.
Q: 對於沒有簽下 Bruno Senna 而留下Rubens 這件事，你備受批評。但是現在證明你的決定是對的...
RB :Bruno 是個備受期待的新人，我也很喜歡他，他的態度很好。不幸的，難處就是車隊沒有冒險的空間，我們今年的預算非常低，我門沒有辦法承受太多的部件損失，因為規章我們也沒有測試，在這樣的情況下，用Bruno對車隊來說太冒險了，而我也很了解 Rubens ，他是個好車手，對車隊也很有幫助，他是車隊很重要的一份子。很遺憾的，我們決定要留下Rubens，而我可以百分之百的確定這是一個正確的決定，但是我想在以後Bruno還是會對車隊有貢獻，我不知道是為哪支車隊，但是我確定會在F1場上看見他。
Q: The success of Brawn GP has caused its fair share of controversies. In fact at times there has been quite some hostility towards the team. How did you live through that?
RB: I’ve been in Formula One for a very long time. The approach I like to take is that what happens out on the race track and what happens in competition is different to what should happen between team owners and team principals. Some of my colleagues don’t seem to be able to make that separation because for me we should go out on the race track and we should try and beat each other with every bit of strength that we can - but when that is finished we should sit down and have a beer together and laugh about what happened. But you need to separate those things. You fight on the track but then you sit down and try to improve Formula One, to improve the show, to improve so many things. I find it very frustrating that some teams find that a difficult concept. They love you on the track when you’re not competition, but as soon as you become competition they don’t love you anymore, but that affects your relationship - and it shouldn’t do. But I gave up worrying about it - I gave it up many years ago.
Q: Brawn GP的成功已經產生了一些對於利益公平分享的爭論，事實上現在有人已經隊車隊有敵意了，你要如何面對?
RB :我在F1圈裡已經很久了。我的立場是場上的恩怨和賽會裡所發生的問題，應該要和車隊所有者和主管之間的關係分開。但是我的一些對手們不這麼想，他們不把公事和私事恩怨分開。對我來說，一到場上，我們就要用盡全力去打敗對手，但是平常時候大家可以坐下來喝杯啤酒並且一起開心聊聊天，但是你得要公私分明。大家在場上廝殺，但是當一起坐下來，討論要改進F1賽事、更有趣味性、改進很多其他事的時候，我覺得很挫折，有些車隊的觀念不一樣，當你在場上實力不如他們時，他們態度很友善，但是當你對他們有威脅性時，他們態度就改變了，這是虛假的友誼，這不應該發生。但是我從很久以前就已經放棄去煩惱這些事了。
Q: Will Brawn GP submit their entry for 2010 within the period stipulated by the FIA?
RB: There are a lot of discussions going on at the moment. We want to find the best solution. I don’t want to comment on that particular point yet, because of the discussions going on. My dream - as we talked about dreams - is that we find a solution so that all the teams in Formula One can go forward - with some new teams joining - and we control the costs of Formula One and make a team like Brawn GP viable in the long run. We have to get costs down as low as possible to make that viable, and we have to find solutions so that it is still attractive for the big teams.
RB: There are a lot of discussions going on at the moment. We want to find the best solution. I don’t want to comment on that particular point yet, because of the discussions going on. My dream - as we talked about dreams - is that we find a solution so that all the teams in Formula One can go forward - with some new teams joining - and we control the costs of Formula One and make a team like Brawn GP viable in the long run. We have to get costs down as low as possible to make that viable, and we have to find solutions so that it is still attractive for the big teams.
Q: Brawn GP 是否會在FIA規定的期限前提出2010年的參賽申請?
RB :在這個時候還有很多事需要討論，我們希望找到最好的解決方法，因為還在討論中，我不想在這個敏感時刻多作評論。我們之前提過的夢想，就是可以找到讓現在所有車隊可以繼續參賽，另外也有一些新車隊加入，而且我們可以控制F1的花費，讓如Brawn GP一樣的新車隊可以長遠經營下去。我們必須
降低花費讓這些是可以達成，而且還能找到方法可以吸引大車隊繼續參賽。
Q: What is your stance on the FIA budget cap proposal? Brawn GP is already a team in the process of slimming down…
RB: We as a team always supported the idea of the budget cap, but what we don’t want is a budget cap that forces other teams to leave Formula One. Is there another solution to the budget cap that can achieve the same objectives and be acceptable to teams like Ferrari, Toyota and so on? If we can find such a solution then we get the best of both, so we are not fixed on the budget cap being the only solution. We proposed a budget cap already last year but having a budget cap that forces other teams to rethink their commitment to Formula One would be a great shame. I hope we can avoid that.
Q: What is your stance on the FIA budget cap proposal? Brawn GP is already a team in the process of slimming down…
RB: We as a team always supported the idea of the budget cap, but what we don’t want is a budget cap that forces other teams to leave Formula One. Is there another solution to the budget cap that can achieve the same objectives and be acceptable to teams like Ferrari, Toyota and so on? If we can find such a solution then we get the best of both, so we are not fixed on the budget cap being the only solution. We proposed a budget cap already last year but having a budget cap that forces other teams to rethink their commitment to Formula One would be a great shame. I hope we can avoid that.
Q: Brawn 已經是一支很精簡的車隊了，你對於FIA的預算上限目標有何看法?
RB: 從車隊立場，我們支持預算上限的想法，但是我們不希望看到因此讓其他車隊出走。是否有其他方法可以達到相同目的而又能夠讓如:法拉利、豐田等車隊接受呢?如果有那麼這將是對大家最好的，所以我們不認為預算上限是唯一的方法。我們去年提出預算上限想法，但是如果因為這樣讓其他車隊考慮是否要退出F1，這會是很大的損失，我們希望可以避免這樣的情況。
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