BrawnGP

[Conceptual]

It's something all right!

And to the poster that said that Ferrari slammed the door in his face, I suggest you read the Ross Brawn Q&A on Formula1.com. He is very clear that the choice was his, and it came down to packaging/mounting.

[Moanlower]

When i watch BGP001, especially that nose, makes me think of his weight distribution, maybe it's their biggest advantadge.

Thats probably the weight.

[Conceptual]

I just am curious to see how many BGP clones we see in Melbourne!

[freedom_honda]

I'd imagine right now those Honda execs that made the decision to drop the F1 team are getting fired. Atleast I bloody hope so, see how they like it!

I think someone else touched on it, but...Honda had to be just as aware of the potential of the car as Ross. Honda and their F1 team had been working on it together for 12 or 14 months (around there anyway) before Honda made their announcement to withdraw. IMO their decision was completely auto-industry driven. That doesn't mean they can't kick themselves though Who knows, maybe they are happy for BGP.
Something I found funny/interesting: in one of Alono's recent comments about BGP's pace, he didn't say 'they are two tenths ahead of us' but instead he said 'they are two and a half months ahead of us' (paraphrase). He was speaking of how the at-the-time Honda team scrapped 08 and started 09 early and how they are much further ahead (now in the BGP guise) with their developments. In the RB5 thread, people marvelled at the developments. With BGP we're all going crazy!

i think that the main reason why Honda pulled the plug is purely political. Honda certainly has the money to keep the team going, even maintain their 300m budget per year. After all, Honda is one of the biggest car maker in the world. But the problem is that Honda has achieved NOTHING (as a honda fan its sad to be saying this) in the past two years, that gives the anti-f1 people in the team an excuse to stop the F1 programme. To make matters worse, the financial crisis hits. The lower demand forces the team to shut down plants and to layoff people. Obviously that would cause the company some money. And this allows the anti-f1 people to say that you are losing millions and letting people go, but spending 300 millions a year on some stupid racing that is not having any success? That's why Honda pulled out.

[marinopc]

Any news about if they're using the KERS?

[Agerasia]

Any news about if they're using the KERS?

I think they weren't going to use it.

[RacingManiac]

I read somewhere that they won't have it on the car til May....

[Kester]

Till at least then. They may not run it at all this year.

[freedom_honda]

ive read it on RBGP (RHF1) that the car wont be fitted with KERS until mid-season. and that would be a Merc system.

IMO, by the looks of the performan of the car, unless the KERS is super effective, i reckon they might not fit it on the car until next year.

[Shaddock]

It's something all right!

And to the poster that said that Ferrari slammed the door in his face, I suggest you read the Ross Brawn Q&A on Formula1.com. He is very clear that the choice was his, and it came down to packaging/mounting.

I thought Ferrari came out with "the chance of us supplying engines to Honda is close to zero" on the 15th Jan,later that week Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug said,

"If there is a feasible solution with an investor for that team, we would be prepared to discuss it. You cannot give any presents at this time and in this climate, but we would like to help for the sake of Formula One. Ross Brawn and Nick Fry and their guys have done a good job so far, so if we could be in a position to help we certainly could try to do so"

[Kester]

You shouldn't read everything at face value.

It's clear the Brawn take over deal was going on for much longer than it seemed to the public, and all parties concerned (Ferrari, Mercedes, etc) would have been in talks with them the entire time.

[Afterburner]

"Felipe Massa is the latest is a long list of people to feel that the recent pace demonstrated by the new Brawn GP team is genuine; the ex-Honda squad stunned onlookers in Barcelona this week by setting the fastest times on the last two days, with Button and Barrichello racking up 443 laps and over 2,000 kilometres between them.
The Ferrari driver was in doubt when asked if he would be able to match his compatriot's best time from Thursday of 1.18.926: "I don't think anybody could. Many people were running on low fuel as well, not just them. I think their lap time is just much quicker than what anybody else can do."

The Brazilian's feelings shadow those of Renault's Fernando Alonso, as most of the grid appears to share the feeling that the Brackley-based team, despite their enormous lack of running over the winter, is ahead of many of their rivals. "I believe they did those laps in Barcelona with ballast onboard," Massa continued. "There's no point coming here to be quick to then go to the first race and being slow; I would say that, even if they do have no ballast on the car in testing but put it on for Australia, they would be quick anyway. They are really surprising. What I can say for us (Ferrari) is that, if you took Brawn away, we are very competitive."

in: http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/03/ ... n-worries/


Massa even says they've done the laps with ballast on board, brilliant! I bet if BrawnGP is reliable enough until F1 return from the flyway races to europe they'll be on the front of both championships.

[jddh1]

I just remembered back in 2006 when Schumi announced his retirement, Brawn was seeking for the top seat which is Jean Todt's position. Todt did go away after that but Brawn never got the spot he wanted. So may be in Brawn's mind, he want to show Ferrari what big mistake they had made. who knows..

I knew we should've kept Brawn. I keep saying this: it was mainly him engineering our most recent championships, not Todt. He helped us become a top team. I think he is doing it again with his own team right now. Well done to him I say. And lucky Button. (I think he'll be the top driver there, not Wubans.)

[axle]

I just remembered back in 2006 when Schumi announced his retirement, Brawn was seeking for the top seat which is Jean Todt's position. Todt did go away after that but Brawn never got the spot he wanted. So may be in Brawn's mind, he want to show Ferrari what big mistake they had made. who knows..

I knew we should've kept Brawn. I keep saying this: it was mainly him engineering our most recent championships, not Todt. He helped us become a top team. I think he is doing it again with his own team right now. Well done to him I say. And lucky Button. (I think he'll be the top driver there, not Wubans.)

Brawn wanted a new challenge...he'd done Ferrari, now he needed to build up another team...he left for that reason only. People with money don't need more of it (usually) they need a challenge, a goal.

[Kester]

I agree, it's a common thing to happen, it was one of the reasons Alonso moved to McLaren, at the time it seemed a bizarre idea, but last could have settled him as one of the greatest, unfortunately for him, he had a little upstart to contend with.