Honda

After what seemed like months of agonizing negotiations, Honda has officially sold its Formula One team to Ross Brawn and investors. The team is now formally known as Brawn GP. The question is whether it will remain a going concern in the highly competitive F1 championship.

To evaluate the hopes of Brawn GP, it might make sense to look at how we got to this point. Honda has a long history of success in Formula One with many world championships. It left the sport for a number of years, but came back in as an engine supplier for BAR. When it eventually purchased the team, most expected Honda to move to the front of the grid and challenge Michael Schumacher and Ferrari – the dominant driver and car of that time.

It didn’t happen.

Honda had all kinds of problems and consistently ran at the back. The team would score the one off podium every once in a while and even won a race, but every one of these achievements could be attributed to rain or some other non-car event. In one last gasp at getting its act together, the team brought in Ross Brawn for the 2008 season.

Much like Honda, Ross Brawn has known a ton of success in Formula One. He was part of the team at Benetton that helped Michael Schumacher win his first championships. When Schumacher moved to a very sorry Ferrari team, Brawn was one of the Benetton players that followed him. Along with Jean Todt, Brawn was able to get the team straightened out and championships soon became the norm. When Schumacher was forced into retirement [and that is clearly what happened], Brawn took a leave of absence that eventually turned into a permanent move away from the team.

Jump to late 2008 and we find a Honda team in chaos. The manufacturer has decided to pull out of Formula One. Many are looking in to bidding on the team, but it is the insiders led by Ross Brawn and Nick Fry that are able to get a deal done. The question is whether they are going to be able to survive much less make the team competitive.

The 2009 season starts in the last weekend of March in Australia. As of March 6, 2009, Brawn GP has done no testing whatsoever on the car. How could they? They didn’t even know if there was going to be a team!

Not only has there been no testing done, but the car has a radical change that few commentators have mentioned. What is it? The engine. The team is not racing with a Honda engine. Instead, it is buying engines from McLaren Mercedes, which would appear to mean Brawn’s relationship with Ferrari has cooled considerably.

Let’s summarize. The team hasn’t tested at all. They are using engines they’ve never tried before and for which the car engine compartment was not designed. This hardly sounds like a recipe for success and Brawn has admitted that the beginning of the season could be ugly.

To attract sponsorship, the team needs to be somewhat competitive. All indications are the team will not be. Does this mean the team is doomed? Its long term health is definitely a question, but one would be crazy to bet against Ross Brawn. That being said, we’re definitely going to find out just how much credit he deserved for the success of Schumacher and Ferrari.

Lemmy Gibson writes and rants at PullingGsRacing.com where you can get F1 news updated daily.

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