Brawn: Qualifying a compromise

Ross Brawn has said teams are having to compromise their qualifying performance to try and ensure they get the best out of the tyres on race day during the 2012 F1 season. The Mercedes boss has seen the impact that the Pirelli tyres are having first hand, with the team having struggled to maximise the performance of its tyres in the opening two races of the year in Australia and Malaysia. While Nico Rosberg then took victory in China, Mercedes was one of the teams to suffer from degradation in Bahrain – with Michael Schumacher vocal in his criticism of the tyre supplier. The seven-time champion has again hit out in recent days, telling CNN that racing on the current tyres was like 'driving on raw eggs', and Brawn admitted that the current tyres – allied to parc ferme rules that prevent set-up changes after qualifying – were making it difficult for teams to decide on strategy. "We can't modify the setup between qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday," he told O Estado de S.Paulo. "And they are very different challenges, especially with this year's tyres. It's one thing to get the car to be fast on one lap and quite another to make it fast and consistent over 70. "Whoever can anticipate what will be required for the race and come to a compromise - maybe to the detriment of grid position - should have a decisive advantage in the race. But it's not easy to anticipate what happens on Sunday."