The 1 Year Domination Of Brawn GP

In 2008 the Honda F1 team was in a bit of a mess Honda was already struggling with money when the 2008 economic crisis struck and they were hit hard, as their main way of making the money for the F1 racing team was selling cars. With a massive financial crisis on the horizon, they knew they would not be coming back to the F1 grid in 2009.

The team principal Ross Brawn needed to find someone to buy the team, but it was getting too late. There was very little time before the 2009 season would start. Brawn had an idea though. If he could buy the team for himself they would still be able to race. So that’s exactly what Brawn did. He acquired the team for a single British pound.

When all of the teams arrived in Australia for the season opener of 2009, they all knew that the Brawn GP F1 team was hiding something. In testing, the Brawn was rarely seen on the track and stayed in the garage, so all the other teams had no idea of the true power of the white and neon green car. It was only when qualifying opened that the other teams realized how fast the Brawn could be. Qualifying ended with a pole position taken for Jenson Button and second for his teammate Rubens Barichchello, making up the first-ever Brawn 1-2.

Then the race came and the Brawns showed their true pace. Jenson Button stayed in first for pretty much the entire race with Barrichello dropping positions, but making them back up in the blisteringly fast Brawn. The end result of the race was the same as qualifying. A win for y Button and second for Barrichello. This was a huge result for the tiny team that had barely any funding. The Brawn team won six races in a row but unfortunately lost out at Silverstone in the seventh round.

They were so fast but what was it that was making them unbeatable? The rear diffuser nicknamed the double-decker diffuser was able to control where the air went, creating a version of the ground effect. It had a hole in the rear which increased the speed of airflow as it headed towards the higher rear venturi section in the diffuser. This in turn producing downforce which made the BGP 001 very, very fast. There were many complaints by teams that wanted the diffuser banned and claiming that it was illegal. But the FIA saw no issue. In fact, it was a very similar situation to Racing Point (Now Aston Martin Racing) in 2020 where many teams thought it was illegal, but there was nothing in the rule book to state that you could not do it. So Brawn kept using their insanely fast Double Decker rear diffuser.

Jenson Button went on to win the 2009 F1 World Championship and Brawn won the Constructors Championship. But unfortunately with Ross Brawn as the only investor of Brawn GP, he could not continue alone. So for the 2010 season, Brawn GP was sold to Mercedes AMG Petronas. The one-hit-wonder team produced arguably one of the most amazing seasons in FI by proving that even on a tighter budget you can win world championships and have arguably the best car on the grid.

Cover Photo From Grand Prix 247