Brawn GP was a Formula One constructor which competed in the 2009 Formula One World Championship, with drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. The team was formed in 2009 by a management buyout led by Ross Brawn of the Honda Racing F1 Team, after Honda announced their withdrawal from the sport in December 2008 due to the 2008 financial crisis, while other teams like Toyota and BMW Sauber raced in F1 until the end of the 2009 season, also choosing to depart from the sport. The team is famous for its symbolic £1 sale from Hiroshi Oshima to Ross Brawn. The team started development of their car in early 2008, when still owned by Honda. The car was originally named the RA109 until the team rebranded to Brawn GP, to which the car was redesigned to fit the Mercedes engine and was subsequently renamed the BGP-001. For the 2009 season, Honda provided a $100 million budget, while Mercedes provided engines under a customer relationship. This evolved into a buyout of the team in November 2009 by Mercedes.
Pre-season testing quickly revealed that the car was highly competitive. One of its key innovations was a controversial aerodynamic feature known as the double diffuser, which provided a significant downforce advantage over many rival teams early in the season, and was protested by Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, and Renault F1 Team. The design was then declared legal in April 2009 by the governing body of the sport, the FIA. On its racing debut, the season-opening 2009 Australian Grand Prix, the team took pole position and second place in qualifying and went on to finish first and second in the race. Button won six of the first seven races of the season. At the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix on the 18th of October, he finished 5th after starting 14th to secure the 2009 Drivers' Championship, while the team won the Constructors' Championship. Barrichello won twice and finished third in the Drivers' Championship. The team won eight of the season's seventeen races and took both titles in its only year of competition. As a result of this being their only year in Formula One, Brawn GP is the only Constructor with a 100% title rate. The team obtained fifteen podiums, five pole positions and four fastest laps in 2009. With a total of 172 points, its average is 10.12 points per Grand Prix. In 2010, Brawn GP received the Laureus World Sports Awards for Team of the Year.
On 16 November 2009, it was confirmed that the team's engine supplier, Mercedes-Benz, in partnership with Aabar Investments, had purchased a 75.1% stake in Brawn GP, which was renamed Mercedes GP for the 2010 season. Many of the Brawn GP former employees were retained by the new Mercedes team following the buyout. Now known as the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, the team is considered to be the 2nd most successful constructor behind Ferrari in Formula One, with 8 consecutive constructor titles and 7 consecutive drivers titles, from 2014 to 2021 and 2014 to 2020 respectively.
History Origins Brawn GP had its origins in the Tyrrell Racing Organisation, a motorsport team founded by Ken Tyrrell in 1958 which entered cars in various single-seater championships. After entering Formula One in 1968, the Tyrrell team won the Constructors' Championship and three Drivers' Championships during the 1970s with Jackie Stewart. The team kept racing in F1 until 1998, when declining results led to Tyrrell selling the team to British American Tobacco (BAT). While BAT bought the Formula One entry, they set up the British American Racing (BAR) team in a new factory in Brackley. BAR competed for six years, with a high point of finishing second in the championship in 2004. Increasing restrictions on tobacco advertising resulted in Honda, BAR's engine partner, acquiring full control of the team at the end of 2005, and the team was renamed as Honda Racing F1. Brawn GP was formed on 6 March 2009 when it was confirmed that Ross Brawn, the former technical director for the Honda Racing F1, Ferrari, and Benetton teams, had bought the team from Honda for £1 in the wake of the Japanese marque's withdrawal from the sport in December 2008, marking Honda's return as Brawn GP.
On 17 March 2009, the FIA officially agreed to the name change from Honda Racing F1 Team to Brawn GP. Although Brawn led the purchase of the assets and staff of the Honda team, the FIA considered Brawn GP to be an entirely new entry. FIA vice-president Keith Hayes agreed to waive the standard entry fee in recognition of the team's circumstances. When choosing a name for the team, a revival of the Tyrrell name was considered, as was Pure Racing. The name Pure Racing was blocked by engine supplier Mercedes, as the constructor name Pure Racing-Mercedes could have indicated that it was the works team of Mercedes, which in fact was McLaren at the time. With the loss of Honda's engines, Brawn stated that several manufacturers offered to supply the team but Mercedes-Benz engines were the ones that best fitted the car. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, who had respectively been Honda's drivers since 2003 and 2006, comprised the driver line-up. It was also rumoured that the team would enter the 2009 season with backing from Bruno Senna, who would bring his personal sponsors to the team.
Honda had finished the 2008 Formula One season ninth out of eleven in the constructors' standings and that same year focused its development for the 2009 car. Although Honda were thought to be the first team to run a KERS in 2008, Brawn stated in an interview that, owing to the circumstances of the change in ownership, the team had not had the time to consider the system. On 20 March, it was confirmed that Brawn GP would be allocated the final pit-lane slot, with Force India moving up one slot. Bernie Ecclestone suggested that this was due to the takeover involving a name change, saying: "If ... it was called Honda. Whatever was due to Honda, they [Brawn GP] would have got." For this reason, Brawn GP were initially assigned numbers 20 and 21 after Force India were assigned Honda's old numbers of 18 and 19. This was changed at the request of Force India because their promotional material had already been printed with numbers 20 and 21. Brawn had no objection and were reassigned numbers 22 and 23, with 18 and 19 not assigned to anyone.
2009 race season
The team started off strongly on the Friday practice of the , finishing in the top five. In qualifying at Australia, Jenson Button took pole, with teammate Rubens Barrichello coming second, followed by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.Button heads all Brawn front row |2009-03-27|ITV-F1.com This was followed by a race win for Button, who led from start to finish, with Barrichello second,Button gets dream win|2009-03-29|BBC Sport giving Brawn a 1–2 finish on their debut, which had not happened since Mercedes in the 1954 French Grand Prix.Brilliant Button wins on Brawn debut.2009-03-29.eurosport.co.uk Button won the rain-shortened from pole and picked up the fastest lap.Button wins second pole ITV-F1.com. 4 April 2009. Retrieved on 4 April 2009 With the win in Malaysia, Brawn GP became the only new constructor to win their first two races since Alfa Romeo won the first ever two World Championship Grands Prix at the 1950 British and Monaco Grands Prix.Classy Button wins abandoned race|2009-04-05|BBC Sport At the , Barrichello qualified in front of Button for the first time that season. In the rain, Button finished third with Barrichello fourth behind the Red Bulls of Vettel and Mark Webber.Vettel flies home with RBR maiden win ITV-F1.com. 19 April 2009. Retrieved on 19 April 2009
Button won again at the from fourth on the grid with Barrichello in fifth from sixth. Button ran most of the race in clean air and maintained the lead after the Toyotas pitted and fell down the order. This was the first time they were slower, with the fuel corrected qualifying times, in the season and was blamed on the lack of development on the car. At the , Brawn achieved their second 1–2 of the season, with Button leading home Barrichello again. Brawn's fourth win saw them overtake Honda on the all-time wins list.
At the , the same qualifying results as in Spain were achieved with Button on pole. Button led Barrichello, who had overtaken Kimi Räikkönen off the line, into the first corner with Button leading Barrichello, Räikkönen, and Felipe Massa for the majority of the race. Button took Brawn's third 1–2 and his first hat trick of wins. At the , the Brawns were beaten to pole by Vettel after struggling with pace throughout Friday and Saturday, for Button especially. At the start, Barrichello's anti-stall cut in and he fell to the back of the grid; Button meanwhile, after pointing the car at Vettel, got off cleanly and inherited the lead at turn 10 when Vettel ran wide. Button led the race calmly for the rest of the race, with his teammate having many incidents before giving Brawn their first retirement after losing seventh gear.
At the , both drivers struggled in the team's home race. The car could not heat up the tyres enough and both drivers struggled with balance issues. Button had his worst qualifying of the season in sixth, with Barrichello achieving second. In the race, neither of the drivers shone and both had rather quiet races to third and sixth with Button having a late surge. At the , the team suffered the same fate as in Britain as both drivers suffered with tyre temperatures. The team qualified light as to get onto the front row and qualified behind Webber in second and third, respectively. Despite leading in the first stint, Barrichello finished sixth after a faulty fuel rig ruined his race. Button ran in the low points after getting stuck behind Heikki Kovalainen and managed to overtake Barrichello to finish fifth after the team inverted their pit-stop laps to lessen his disadvantage to contenders Webber and Vettel, who finished first and second, respectively.
At the , Brawn suffered the same uncompetitiveness after experiencing their worst qualifying of the season, with Button in eighth and Barrichello in thirteenth. The reason for Barrichello's underperformance was caused by his rear suspension failing, which resulted in a spring falling off and subsequently striking Ferrari's Felipe Massa on the helmet, resulting in serious head injuries. Button too was affected by this as his car spent most of Q3 being checked to make sure the same components would not fail and ended up qualifying with much more fuel than planned. In the race, neither driver showed much pace until the temperature hit 40 °C, and Button was the fastest man on the track at that point. Button managed to repass Jarno Trulli through the final pit stops and finished seventh, with his teammate in tenth, closely behind Kazuki Nakajima and Trulli.