Brawn GP; A Cinderella story

Brawn GP entered F1 on the 6th of March 2009, making its debut at the Australian Grand Prix. The 2009 F1 campaign, is regarded as one of the most unforgettable stories in F1’s history, Brawn taking both the constructors’ and driver championship on their first time asking.

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Honda announced its departure from the sport in December 2008 with immediate effect, due to the global financial crisis. With a team with no certainty of tomorrow, around 300 workers being made redundant, and a 2009 car set to hit the track, Ross Brawn bought the team. It was approved on the 17th of March 2009 that the teams name would change from Honda Racing F1 to Brawn GP.

Now without an engine for the car after Honda’s departure, Brawn GP struck a deal with Mercedes to run a Mercedes engine at the back of their challenger. Work on the car began mid 2008, Honda exploiting a loophole found in the regulations and running the controversial ‘double diffuser’.

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Jenson Button’s former race engineer at Brawn, Andrew Shovlin, commented on the BGP 001 saying, “we knew it was a decent car because we put so much effort into it, and we started so early”. Even with the team’s confidence, nobody could predict for what was to come, a team that went from finishing ninth in the previous campaign to winning both the constructors and driver’s title.

On its debut at the 2009 Australian GP, Brawn shocked everyone with a 1-2 finish for their first race as a team, Jenson Button finishing ahead of his teammate Ruben Barrichello. This was only sign of what was to come, with Brawn winning 8 out of 18 races that season. Button winning 6 of the 8 races in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco, and Turkey. Barrichello would win the other two races for the team in Europe and Italy. The BGP 001 was a monster not only winning near half the races of the season, but also setting the fastest lap at 4 of the races,

The team claimed both titles at the penultimate race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, neither driver finishing the race on the podium, Button finishing ahead of his teammate in P5 with Barrichello in P8.

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Button claimed his first driver title with a 11points lead on Sebastian Vettel, who would go on to win the title for the next couple of years with Red Bull. Barrichello finished 7 points behind Vettel in P3.

As Button took the title, caught up in the moment, Button got out his car, stood up and announced loudly “where is everyone, I’m f*****g world champion!”. A line that would go viral and perfectly capture Button and Brawn GP’s fairy tale story.