Why Brawn GP’s fairy tale is the F1 story that keeps on giving

While F1 racing has paused for April, teams have still been working flat-out at their factories to get ready for the resumption of the season in Miami next weekend, and cars have still been appearing on track to help tyre suppliers Pirelli prepare for upcoming campaigns.

And, midway through the five-week gap, there was a treat for fans when the Brawn GP band – who pulled off one of the biggest shocks in F1 history by winning both world titles in that sole 2009 season – got back together at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting.

Button and Brawn return to the track

Watched by thousands trackside at the famous English venue, and plenty more online around the world, Jenson Button went for a trip down memory lane by adding a few more celebratory miles to the clock of a car that helped him realise his childhood dream.

Among the crowd of observers was the man who worked tirelessly to put everything in place after Honda’s withdrawal from the sport at the end of 2008, and ensured ‘Team Brackley’ could race on under a new guise – team boss Ross Brawn.

When Brawn made his way back to Goodwood’s temporary paddock, F1.com grabbed a few minutes of his time – flanked by passionate fans young and old – to discuss the past, present and future of an F1 story that keeps on giving.

“Things are obviously very different to what they were back then, but it’s still lovely to see the car run, and very special when Jenson’s driving it,” says Brawn, while perched on the rear wheel of the car Button has just completed laps in – with some 17 years passing since the team raced.

“I think in some ways the memories come flooding back to Jenson much more than they do me. He mentioned that on the first lap he was just getting used to everything, and suddenly on the second lap everything slotted into place, and he remembered the car intimately.

“I think the relationship a driver has with a car is something that’s special to them, and obviously as an engineer or a manager, or what have you, I sort of look at it from a distance, so there’s a huge emotion for this car, but it’s more the team, the events and the story that were so special.

“But it’s lovely to get it out again, and it’s lovely to see the passion of all these people who love to see it go around the track.”

All three Brawn GP 001 chassis were on show together for the first time at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting, while the car Button drove is owned by Brawn himself – begging the question of how he feels whenever its throttle is pinned…

“Well, I trust Jenson!” Brawn says with a chuckle. “He didn’t crash very often when he was racing, so I trust him to be sensible, but you can never take the competitiveness out of a racing driver.

“He was asking what the track record was before he went out, so whether he was just trying to tease us or he was serious, I don’t know… That’s why they are what they are, and that’s their sole focus – how to go faster!”

Button himself described a “very emotional” experience at the wheel, having last driven the car in 2019 to mark 10 years since his title triumph – sealed on a rollercoaster weekend at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.

“It was pretty awesome going out,” he told Goodwood’s TV crew. “I’ve only ever driven historics around here, so getting out in an F1 car was a little bit of a shock initially. But it feels so natural – it feels so much more natural than anything I drive here.

“It’s insane how quick these things are. You forget. I don’t know what speed we were on the back straight, but it was quick! It was a wonderful opportunity for me. This is my life. Having Ross be that kind to let me drive his car again is amazing.

“There are so many good memories that season that it’s hard to forget, and I’m definitely not allowed to forget with being able to drive this.”

Brawn GP’s ongoing F1 operation

While Button made everything look smooth out on track in his trademark style, there are plenty of moving parts that need to come together behind the scenes to reach that point – the process resembling a mini F1 outfit.

“We have quite a team,” Brawn admits. “It still takes seven or eight people just to run it at a place like here, so it’s quite an operation, and it’s primarily organised and run by Frazer Deane and his preparation business, Deane Performance.

“Frazer’s cousin was the Chief Mechanic at Brawn, so there’s a strong connection. Frazer looks after it very well, the factory have helped where need be, because they like to see it run, and Mercedes look after the engine side of it.”

As for whether the original BGP 001 designs still exist, should they be needed in the future, Brawn adds: “Well, they do, but we’ve never tried to recover them. I think they got put into the archives at Mercedes.

“A surprising number of parts were destroyed after we finished with it, which now we’d be desperate for, but at the time we didn’t really pay too much attention, because in motor racing you just move on to the next project very quickly.

“When people look at the history of Ferrari, there’s a lot of old Ferraris they can’t get parts for. In some cases they destroyed the cars at the end of the racing season, because for a race team, these cars are expendable.

“You used the cars for one season, you got what you could out of them, and then they were gone, so you moved on to the next project. I think that’s the mindset, the philosophy and the culture of F1.”

A fairy tale story – with more chapters to come

It makes the sight of three original-liveried Brawn GP cars all the more impressive – and given just how many challenges he faced in preparing his eponymous squad for the 2009 season, is something that Brawn still sometimes struggles to comprehend.

“It’s a story which, as we all know, if it was fiction, people wouldn’t believe it – it’s only that it’s non-fiction that you have to believe it,” he says, revisiting those initially dark days of late-2008, before the fairy tale unfolded.

“I think the only way we did it was to do it on a day-by-day basis. You couldn’t sit there at the end of November, having been told to shut the team, and think, ‘Well, in four months’ time, we’re going to go racing’.

“There was a great team of people at all levels. I’d come in perhaps one day almost having given up hope, but somebody would be positive about it. Somebody would say, ‘Come on’, and I would do the same to them on another occasion, so we sort of kept each other going.

“It was day-by-day, because you couldn’t plan any further ahead, you just didn’t know what was around the corner.”

As it transpired, of course, a hatful of race wins and two world titles were just around the corner – Brawn GP selling up to Mercedes for 2010, and leaving the sport with a 100% championship-winning record.

Etched into the history of the sport, and neatly documented by the Keanu Reeves-led, award-winning documentary, Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story, it is an underdog tale that will be admired for generations to come.

And, if Brawn has anything to do with it, there will be plenty more victory laps going forward.

“I think for Jenson, [driving the car again] suddenly wakes him up to the time we had together, and certainly with me, it reminds me of the time we had together when we do events like this,” Brawn comments.

“I want to try and keep running the car so fans can enjoy it. It gives me a buzz to see it go round. These things are not easy to keep running properly, but Frazer does a great job, and we’ll do it as long as we can.”