A buyout from Honda for GBP 1, a controversial double diffuser and eight wins from seventeen races gave the team both championships in its single season.
Brawn GP competed only in the 2009 Formula One World Championship, with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Formed through a management buyout after Honda left the sport, it won the drivers' title with Button and the constructors' title. Mercedes then bought most of the team, which became Mercedes GP in 2010.
Brawn GP was a Formula One constructor that existed for a single season, 2009, and won both world championships in that year. Ross Brawn led a management buyout of the Honda team after the Japanese manufacturer left the sport, and the drivers were Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.
How did Brawn GP come out of the Honda team?
The team's roots run back to Tyrrell Racing, founded by Ken Tyrrell in 1958. After entering Formula One in 1968, Tyrrell won the Constructors' Championship and three Drivers' Championships with Jackie Stewart during the seventies. British American Tobacco bought the entry in 1998 and set up British American Racing in Brackley, which finished second in the championship in 2004. Honda took full control at the end of 2005 and renamed the outfit Honda Racing F1.
Honda announced its withdrawal from Formula One in December 2008, citing the financial crisis. Ross Brawn, the former technical director of the Honda team and a veteran of Ferrari and Benetton, led a management buyout and acquired the team for GBP 1 from Hiroshi Oshima.
The team had started work on its car in early 2008, while Honda still owned it. The car was originally named RA109 and was reworked to take a Mercedes engine, becoming the BGP 001. Honda had committed a budget of $100 million for 2009 before the change of ownership.
Honda's engine supply ended with its withdrawal, and several manufacturers offered Brawn engines. Brawn concluded that the Mercedes-Benz units were the best fit for the car, and that choice shaped the team's identity from that point on.
The FIA treated Brawn GP as an entirely new entry rather than a continuation of Honda's. Its vice-president Keith Hayes waived the standard entry fee in recognition of the circumstances, and the team was allocated the final pit-lane slot, with numbers 22 and 23 after an earlier change.
The name itself was contested. Pure Racing was considered, but the engine supplier Mercedes blocked it because the name could suggest a works link, and the Brawn name was adopted when the FIA confirmed the change on 17 March 2009.
Sponsorship was assembled quickly. Henri Lloyd became the official clothing supplier on 26 March 2009, and Virgin was announced as a major backer on 28 March, in the middle of the Australian weekend. MIG Investments put its logo on the front of the car from 17 April, and Ray-Ban stayed on as a helmet sponsor.
Other partners came and went race by race. Virgin Galactic appeared on the car at Bahrain, a Sony Pictures promotion for Terminator Salvation decorated the cars in Spain, and Monster Energy put its logo on Button's helmet from Silverstone onwards. Canon joined for Singapore, and Banco do Brasil and the Petropolis brewery appeared in Brazil, where the team clinched the constructors' title.
One season, two world titles and a single chassis that is still talked about as one of the best the sport has seen.
What made the BGP 001 so quick?
The double diffuser was the car's controversial innovation. Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Renault protested it, but the FIA declared it legal in April 2009 after the appeal process, and the design gave the team a clear advantage early in the year.
The car's colours were white, fluorescent chartreuse yellow and black. Its rear diffuser was among the designs complained about in Melbourne, when the FIA reviewed the diffusers of the Williams and Toyota cars alongside the Brawn. The stewards found all three legal, and the ruling was upheld on appeal.
Pre-season testing showed the pace. The car made its first test at Circuit de Catalunya on 9 March 2009, and it topped the timesheets many times in the sessions that followed.
Nick Fry, the team's chief executive, later argued that the Mercedes engine had accounted for half of the team's improvement and that the title would not have followed with the Honda unit. The engine was a customer supply, and the relationship was the foundation of the team's rise.
Button used one car for most of the season, and the chassis designated BGP 001-02 is often counted among the most successful in the sport's history. Barrichello used BGP 001-01 until it was damaged in a qualifying accident at Singapore, and then switched to BGP 001-03.
How did the 2009 season unfold?
Many of the former Brawn employees were kept on by the new Mercedes team after the buyout, so much of the group behind the title stayed in place.
At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Button took pole with Barrichello second, and Brawn finished first and second in the race. It was a debut result that had not been matched by a new team since Mercedes did it in 1954.
Button won the rain-shortened Malaysian Grand Prix from pole, which made Brawn the only new constructor to win its first two races since Alfa Romeo managed it in 1950. Button then won in Bahrain and in Spain, where the team secured its second 1-2 of the season.
Turkey was a different sort of race. Brawn struggled for pace on Friday and Saturday, and Vettel took pole, but Button got off the line cleanly and inherited the lead at turn 10 when Vettel ran wide. Barrichello lost seventh gear and retired, which was the team's first retirement of the season, while Button led the rest of the way.
Hungary was a poor weekend for the team. Barrichello's rear suspension failed in qualifying, a spring came off and struck Felipe Massa on the helmet, and Button spent most of the final qualifying session being checked to make sure the same components would not fail.
Monaco produced the third 1-2 finish, and Button added another victory. Barrichello finally won the European Grand Prix, ending a five-year gap between wins, and that race is often cited as one of the longest droughts in Grand Prix history.
The team had a poor run around its home race, when tyres were hard to bring up to temperature and both drivers struggled with balance. In Belgium Button was taken out by Romain Grosjean on the first lap, which was a disappointing return from the team's best form.
China brought a change in the qualifying order, as Barrichello qualified ahead of Button for the first time that season. In the rain Button finished third and Barrichello fourth behind the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
At the Japanese Grand Prix the team was half a point short of the Constructors' title before the race. Nico Rosberg was investigated for excessive speed under the safety car, and when he was cleared the result stood, leaving Brawn to take the title at Brazil.
The final two rounds decided the championships. Button finished fifth at Brazil to clinch the drivers' title, and Barrichello's eighth place was enough to secure the Constructors' Championship. At Abu Dhabi the team finished 3-4, with Button champion and Barrichello third in the standings.
How was the team sold to Mercedes?
Daimler AG bought a 45.1% stake in November 2009, and Aabar Investments took 30%. Together the two partners held 75.1%, and the price was reported at GBP 110 million. Mercedes-Benz had already been the engine supplier, so the buyout linked the car maker directly to the title-winning team.
Brawn GP made a profit of GBP 98.5 million in its only year, and its directors, including Brawn and Nick Fry, shared GBP 20 million in dividends. The total payout after the sale reached GBP 150 million, a sum that made the buyout one of the most profitable in the sport's history.
The remaining 24.9% stake belonged to Brawn and Fry, and the team used the Brackley base for its operations. Brawn stayed as team principal until the end of 2013, while the team was renamed Mercedes GP for 2010.
What were the team's results across its single season?
The 2009 season produced the sport's only team with a perfect championship record. Brawn GP won eight of seventeen races and took both titles in its first and only year, which gave it a championship success rate of 100%.
| Measure | 2009 figure |
|---|---|
| Race wins | Eight from seventeen races |
| Podiums | Fifteen |
| Pole positions | Five |
| Fastest laps | Four |
| Points | 172, an average of 10.12 per Grand Prix |
| Race win rate | 47.05% |
| Titles | Drivers' title (Button) and Constructors' title |
The Mercedes purchase also changed the team's identity. The Brackley base stayed in use, and the Mercedes-Benz engine plant at Brixworth supplied power to the works team, a relationship that would shape the squad's next run of titles. Brawn's team, so recently a midfield rebel with a borrowed engine, became one of the strongest organisations in the sport.
After the title Button moved to McLaren, and Barrichello joined Williams for 2010, so the team's drivers did not stay together. The title itself was the team's only shared identity, and it stayed in the record books.
The team's win rate and its perfect title record have kept it in the sport's history books, even though it never raced again under the Brawn name. In 2010 the squad received the Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year.
What is the legacy of Brawn GP?
The team's story is told in a four-part documentary released on 15 November 2023 on Disney+ and Hulu. It stars Keanu Reeves alongside key team figures, and it describes the 2009 season as the sport's last great fairy-tale story.
Ownership of the cars has also followed a unique path. Ross Brawn kept chassis BGP 001-02, which was restored to running order and wore its championship livery at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Button took chassis BGP 001-01 after a long legal battle with Mercedes, the later owners.
Brawn GP remains the clearest example of a team built quickly from the wreckage of a works operation, supported by a single season of budget and an engine partner who later bought it outright.
