Button’s amazing journey
November 26th, 2009: The 2009 Grand Prix season will be remembered for its drama, its controversy and most of all for one incredible story: how Ross Brawn took over a team on the brink of extinction and made Jenson Button a World Champion in 10 short months.
The January issue of Motor Sport includes our Formula 1 season review, featuring at its centre our man of the year: Ross Brawn. Editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck interviews an engineer and team owner who deserves the status of modern F1 legend. Ross takes Nigel through from the end of his incredible career at Ferrari to his takeover of the Honda team, and on to a remarkable drivers’ and constructors’ championship double.
We reckon he stands in comparison with Colin Chapman as F1’s greatest engineer/team boss. But what do you think?
Other features of our season review include Adam Cooper’s superb explanation of how the biggest technical revolution in F1 for 30 years led to closer racing than ever before – if not more overtaking (which was of course the intention!). Meanwhile, Paul Fearnley visits McLaren to reveal the behind-the-scenes story of how the team took Lewis Hamilton from the back of the grid in Australia to race winner in just six months.
We reckon McLaren’s turnaround from technical disaster to triumph within a single season is the most remarkable in history. Anyone care to argue?
Away from F1 2009, Simon Taylor meets Jochen Mass for lunch and brings us great tales from Capris to Grands Prix and sports cars through the 1970s and ’80s. We knew Mass would be a great target for Simon – and he did not disappoint.
Mass was Germany’s biggest racing star in his era, and towards the end of his frontline career he played a part in the development of his successor: a certain Michael Schumacher.
Mass and the future seven-time F1 champion both raced the stunning Sauber-Mercedes C11 sports car 20 years ago and here we feature this beauty as Bob Berridge prepares to let it loose in the historic Group C series in 2010.
Schuey in a Silver Arrow? Now where have we read that in the last few days? It’s almost as if we knew…
UK readers can enjoy an extra special treat with this issue. Peter Ustinov’s comedy classic, ‘The Grand Prix of Gibraltar’, is a rare case of satire and motor racing colliding – and we’re giving it away free with the magazine. As Nigel explains in his Reflections column this month, humourist and Hollywood star Ustinov was an avid fan of motor racing and recorded this commentary of a fictional motor race in a New York studio in 1957 – without a script. His characterisations, voices and sound affects capture the era perfectly. And it’s very funny.
Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to include the audio CD with overseas issues. But it is available to buy at a very reasonable price here on our website shop.
To listen to a clip, simply click here.
Filed under: Formula 1, Historic Racing, Miscellaneous, Notes from the Editor
john d'abbot-doyle:
November 26th, 2009 1:10pm
Frankly, from the little that has been reported, I can only conclude that Brawn GP’s treatment of both Barichello and Button is nothing short of disgraceful. Neither Ross Brawn nor Nick Fry has said anything which may alter that view. The whole buy out process and subsequent driver shenanigans has left me entirely disillusioned with the team. Comparable to Chapman?, certainly, looking at the distasteful aspects of both.
Brian Evans:
November 26th, 2009 3:45pm
I suppose Brawn’s loss is McLaren’s gain. There must have been something powerful to persuade Jenson away from Brawn and into Mercedes (Nee Brawn) He would, after all been competing with Lewis anyway, so the competition motive would be relevant in any case. Money was not stated to be the main reason, so taking into account the apparent speed with which the McLaren deal was concluded, it would seem to be an influence outside Brawn which became known to Jenson. Rather than be negative about whether Lewis will have the beating of Jenson or not, we have the prospect of a great team, with British drivers, both of whom are capable of regularly scoring big points (A rarity in itself) That is going to take some beating ! Roll on 2010.
Grahame Ward:
November 26th, 2009 6:47pm
I note with some distaste the comment that Colin Chapman was so wonderful and innovative. Look at the number of drivers killed in Lotus racing cars in the Chapman era. I have read Crombac’s words about Chapman and I have never been able to find him a pleasant man. Why do you always overlook Sir Jack Brabham. He beat all the so called innovative engineers with logical simple design. Is innovationalways the best solution. Not always at all.
As for Jenson I feel he is a one year wonder. Somewhere under all the hype there is a flawed character or personality.
john d'abbot-doyle:
November 27th, 2009 3:00pm
Actually, I’m still seething at this article. I am certainly not normally prone to fits of pique as experienced on this occasion. But then, your sentence, “We reckon he stands in comparison to Colin Chapman as F1’s greatest engineer/team boss”, is what bothers me, or am I completely missing your subtle irony. If so, then I think you are being possibly unkind to Ross Brawn for I doubt that RB would wish to be compared to a man who was a liar, a cheat, a plagiarist as well as being a junkie in his spare time. His early death was probably the only thing which saved him from a 10 stretch courtesy of her Majesty. Innovative? yes he certainly was, but there again, so was Robert Oppenheimer.
john miller:
November 27th, 2009 5:52pm
I can understand the above comments in relation to Colin Chapman as a person, but there can surely be no doubt that he was the greatest designer in the history of F1. The 25, 49,72 and 78/79 were revolutionary and each bequeathed the sport with a fundemental design concept that has been retained to this day.
The monocoque, engine as a stressed member, side radiators and advanced aerodynamics are with us still.
That is not to say that Chapman invented any of them, but he did package them in F1 cars with great success before anyone else.
But, undoubtedly, I’d have avoided him at the bar!
Rob Whitmarsh:
November 28th, 2009 6:29pm
To compare Ross Brawn with Colin Chapman is very wrong, possibly even silly. I worked with Colin Chapman and knew him fairly well, and apart from the DeLorean fraud, he was pretty honest, though as sharp as they come in business. Apart from a fairly minor scam involving LeMans scrutineers, there’s no any record of him doing anything dishonest as far as racing was concerned, cheating to win would have meant nothing to him. He certainly wouldn’t have raced with illegal traction control software, broken the rules in modifying a fuel rig, or employed a driver who scored wins by driving rivals off the track, but then what kind of a man would employ tricks like that?
Rob Whitmarsh:
November 28th, 2009 6:55pm
To add a footnote, John Miller sums up Colin Chapman’s contribution very well, and scope for true innovation is very limited in today’s F1, so we won’t see his like again. Chapman’s genius was often about seeing the flaws in unsuccessful innovations by others, and making them work by coming up with a different approach, you can’t call that plagiarism, it’s virtually impossible to come up with anything 100% original. Ross Brawn is brilliant at what he does, man management especially, but surely not as an innovative designer or engineer in the way that Colin Chapman unquestionably was.
R Tanveer:
November 30th, 2009 12:58am
If there was a team manager who cheated his way into winning it was Flabio, not Colin.
Bob Graham:
November 30th, 2009 8:31pm
My take on Brawn not drooling to re-sign Button was his anticipation of the M-B buyout, and that the seats would then (preferably) go to German drivers. That, and the possibility that he was a bit underwhelmed by Button’s performance drop-off after the first few races of the season.
As to slagging Brawn for employing a driver whose race tactics were sometimes, uh — overly assertive, how could anyone in his right mind turn down an opportunity to have a Michael Schumacher in one of your seats? Is this in the same league as “adding lightness” to your cars to the point at which they actually became flimsy, and endangered the lives of their drivers?
DDT:
February 5th, 2010 3:04am
A bit of a Post Script.
I felt at the time that Buttons’s switch to McLaren was a little fishy. Gathering info from several sources, its clear the Brawn MB negotiations were ongoing throughout the second half of the season. Button would have known most of the terms. But somewhere about the time MS did his test drive in the F2007, some light bulbs went on in Stuttgart. Ross wanted MS, MB wanted MS, MS wanted Ross and Button very definitely didn’t want any part of this Teutonic love fest.
I suspect, the negotiations for Button’s new contract went south immediately from there.
Now we see Heidfeld, Rosberg and Schumacher. Now, you don’t need to be genius to see the writing was clearly on the wall for Jenson.
Now, as champion Jenson was able to maximize his options, so Ross shouldn’t feel bad. But I don’t think you can say Jenson was truly welcome at Brawn.
So I hope he kicks Schumacher’s ass, and Lewis’ for that matter.