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You mentioned Rubens. The guy was on the verge of winning the title twice but now many people look at him and think 'that's a hasbeen'. You're in a position where you can evaluate him. Do you think, somehow, he's underrated for the quality he's shown?

I think what probably wasn't often seen in his period at Ferrari was the amount he contributed to the development of the car. He's a very perceptive driver technically - there were sometimes things he would feel that Michael (Schumacher) wouldn't feel. There were occasions when Rubens would make a comment on some aspect of the car's performance which Michael hadn't picked up. That's a normal situation - it works both ways - but certainly Rubens was always listened to intently at Ferrari because he always had a good opinion. So, from a technical perspective, I've got a lot of respect for Rubens. He obviously had a very tough year last year - without being here it's very difficult to judge. But what I see now is a guy who is incredibly enthusiastic. I don't see any reason why his ability should have changed in the two or three years it's been since we worked together. So I'm very optimistic that, if we give him the equipment, he's going to do very well.

One thing that remained constant over the last dozen years was you and Michael. How is this new era going to be for you?

Well things have gone on. I mean, Ferrari are winning races without Michael and without me. It will be different and I think that my year away was a good opportunity to adjust to that situation. So it will be different. But we're going to move on. He's retired and chasing his ambitions; I'm chasing a different set of ambitions. We still remain very good friends - I went fishing with him in the summer - and I've still got a lot of affection for him. But things are moving on.

How did your relationship with Ferrari end? There should be room for you at the top of that team after Jean Todt withdrew from that position (Todt was replaced as Ferrari team principal by Stefano Domenicali at the start of 2008).

It ended very amicably. I still speak to the team, there's a lot of things going on in F1 where we like to share our opinions - discussions on budget capping or technical regulations. We've had a lot of discussions with Ferrari about what might be the way forward on things like that and I've got a lot of very good friends in Ferrari which I hope to maintain.

It sort of ebbed and flowed during the summer. There were periods when I could see some things that might be attractive and they could see some things that might be attractive for me to come back, but it didn't quite gel. And it needed something quite special for me to go back because I had such a wonderful time there. The reason I stopped was because the challenge was still there, but it was different - it wasn't such an exciting challenge...to continue on with a team that was very well established. We concluded that there wasn't enough to go back; it's very difficult to go back to those situations unless there's a very strong reason, and there wasn't a very strong reason. We stayed friends - and now we'll be fighting each other.

Would you say there was some kind of Italian takeover of the team?

No, I don't there was any element of that. There's still a variety of nationalities there. When I was there...if you had a choice of engineers, it was always easier to choose an Italian engineer. They're domiciled there, it's their language, their country. But the first priority was always to choose the best person and I think that's still the case. And they've got some very good people there: Stefano Domenicali, (technical director) Aldo Costa, the chief designer's a Greek guy, Nick Tombazis. No, I don't think there's any nationalistic aspects.

What do you think of 'Earthdreams'? (Honda F1's marketing scheme to provide support and investment for environmental causes.)

I think that's a great initiative. I must say that when I came to Honda I didn't fully understand it - I didn't understand what the objectives were or what the initiative was because it happened when I was out of F1. It's very exciting - it's very unique and because it's very unique not everybody understands it. But I think it's an exciting initiative; using sport to get a message across. It's a very powerful tool - a multinational tool - and getting our sport, our drivers, our team and giving those sorts of messages can be extremely powerful...it was very brave of Honda to make that step.

There is a move for F1 to develop more in an environmentally friendly way. Do you think this is realistic and exciting from a technical point of view?

I think we must never forget what makes F1 so exciting. It's a really intense battle between the engineers and the drivers and there's a lot of noise and excitement and speed involved. And I think that if we remove that then we destroy what F1 is all about. But what is true in F1 is that the level of development is very, very intense and technologies which enter F1 develop extremely rapidly. I mean, next year we're looking at the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and the rate of development of that system within all the major manufacturers is higher than it would have been without it being introduced into F1. It's being developed in a particular area, in a particular direction which may not have a direct application to road cars because of the costs. But the technology and the learning that comes from going through that process will be useful to companies like Honda. We want to look in the future where the major manufacturers will have identified technologies that can benefit from the intense rate of development in F1 and therefore accelerate those technologies. That's where I think F1 can be very relevant in the future: it maintains the technical challenge between the teams, but in some ways it actually has a more meaningful benefit than just the sport itself.

Click here for part one of the Ross Brawn Q&A