Brawn GP

[thomasburnside]

Im sure everyone remembers Brawn GP from the 2009 F1 season. I just want to know what's happened to the cars were they scraped or are they hidden away somewhere. Another thing if Mercedes hadn't of bought them and Jenson stayed would they still be a successful team.

[AllanL]

You could see one of the cars at the Goodwood Festival mascarading as Mercedes F1 cars for a couple of years.

Jenson won a court case to force the team to honour his contract and give him one of the cars as he had won the championship.

The team effectively stayed in place after Jenson left, with added staff and investment from Mercedes. So without that added investment the cars would have been even less successful than the feeble effort that they have managed since!

Jenson must laugh every time he passes the Mercedes pit in his McLaren. He has had more success since leaving and a better paypacket than they were grudgingly offering him for a single year contract.

At least Lewis can comfort himself with a healthy bank balance if they do not make the step forward that they are always promising for the next year.

[Garry Russell]

I think far from everyone remembering, a lot of us, including me, have no idea what this is about

[thomasburnside]

This is what were talking about Garry.

http://www.sportindustry.biz/resource/b ... ngp2_n.jpg

[VC10]

Another thing if Mercedes hadn't of bought them and Jenson stayed would they still be a successful team.

The Mercedes/Brawn family tree was Tyrrell, British American Racing (BAR) & Honda before Brawn so there is not a lot of race winning pedigree there so I would say Button staying at Brawn wouldn't have made a lot of difference. Just look at the fact thAT when Mercedes stepped in their budget must have gone through the roof and they employed Schumacher and still they haven't shone.

Before anybody say's it, I know Tyrrell were World Champions once but their world fell apart when Stewart retired and Cervert was killed. They never really recovered after that.

Incidentally Tyrrell were my local team being based in Ockham, long before McLaren moved to Woking.

Paul

[clavel9]

Before anybody say's it, I know Tyrrell were World Champions once but their world fell apart when Stewart retired and Cervert was killed. They never really recovered after that.

Incidentally Tyrrell were my local team being based in Ockham, long before McLaren moved to Woking.

Paul

I think that's a little unfair, as they were sporadically competitive throughout the seventies, and winning races and podiums into the eighties with the likes of Michele Alboreto, Stefan Bellof and Jean Alesi. It's certainly true that they were never championship contenders again, but how many teams were or are?

Still, pretty cool to have them in your locality!

[TobyV]

One of my closer colleagues at work was the wind tunnel manager at BAR/Honda up until it became Brawn. He worked on the development of the car you mention though. Seen some interesting photos from his time there, especially one group photo showing the work experience lad they had one summer. Took me a moment to notice the family resemblance and figure out who his dad was!

[Garry Russell]

AH yeah F1!

I wish all that wasted money was spent on something worthwhile

[TobyV]

I believe the aerodynamics R&D budget of all teh F1 teams is bigger than Airbus and Boeing's combined. I think F1 and all its R&D spending could be put to very good use. In my opinion you just need to change the rules to force the teams to develop technologies that you could apply to everyday cars. For example, I would bring in a rule whereby they could only have so much fuel to start with and they have to complete the race on only that much. Every year you could lower it Just MHO!

[VC10]

Before anybody say's it, I know Tyrrell were World Champions once but their world fell apart when Stewart retired and Cervert was killed. They never really recovered after that.

Incidentally Tyrrell were my local team being based in Ockham, long before McLaren moved to Woking.

Paul

I think that's a little unfair, as they were sporadically competitive throughout the seventies, and winning races and podiums into the eighties with the likes of Michele Alboreto, Stefan Bellof and Jean Alesi. It's certainly true that they were never championship contenders again, but how many teams were or are?

Still, pretty cool to have them in your locality!

I thought that might upset somebody. I didn't mean it to be so harsh, I just meant they weren't the team they were. Nobody could have wished more than me to see them return to their winning ways once more.

It was cool to have them down the road. I had a tour round the workshops in early '73. You wouldn't recognise them as a F1 team compared to today's standards, the workshop was just an old converted wooden army hut. During my tour they were still building that years contender. As I was going the Silverstone that year I wrote to Ken Tyrrell to see if I could get some close-up pictures of the completed car on race day. He replied and said I was to make my-self known to him and he would show me round the car - and he did! Imagine Ron Dennis doing that.

I also had a trip round the works, proper facilities then, when they were building the 6-wheeler.

Paul