“It was a monster”

The impossible, the unthinkable, the unimaginable can happen in sport. This car – to be offered in The Miami Auction – proves it, says Neil Lyndon

Before the 2009, F1 season began, nobody would have bet a penny that the World Driver’s and the Constructors Championships would be won by the Brawn GP team in their first season. They were no-hopers. It was as inconceivable as Boris Becker winning Wimbledon at the age of 17 in 1985 or Leicester City winning the Premiership in 2016. Yet, as the records prove and Brawn GP Chassis 001/01 is here to remind us, the incredible actually did take place. The year 2009 was to produce the most miraculous story in the history of F1.

In keeping with a story of miracles, this one begins with disaster and despair.

Following the global financial crash in 2008, the mighty Honda corporation decided to cut costs, pull out of F1 and shut down their team. As an engine manufacturer and team owner, Honda had been a giant in F1 for nearly 50 years but, with the world economy on the brink of going under, the main board decided overnight that the sport was a sideshow they could no longer afford.

“Having joined Honda only in 2008, Ross Brawn had barely got his feet under his desk. Now that desk was at risk of being carted away by the removal company”

This came as shattering news to the Honda team’s principal, Ross Brawn, their CEO Nick Fry and the 700 people who worked at the team’s HQ in Brackley, Northamptonshire.

Brawn was one of the most successful figures in F1, having had a leading role in winning eight constructors’ championship with Benetton and Ferrari. Having joined Honda only in 2008, he had barely got his feet under his desk. Now that desk was at risk of being carted away by the removal company.

Once they had recovered from the initial shock, Brawn and Fry started asking each other if they could put together a management buy-out to keep the team going under Ross Brawn’s name. Honda regarded this as such an implausible proposition that they charged the hopefuls £1 to take the whole shoot off their hands. The rest of the F1 world took pity on the waifs and went out of their way to help. Mercedes came up with the offer of an engine but had so little faith that the rookies would survive that they demanded payment in advance. Making that engine fit a chassis for which it had not been designed and getting the car ready to race early in 2009 demanded 24/7 working for weeks by the technicians at Brackley. Those guys didn’t even know they were going to get paid at the end of the month.

“Thanks to a secret design ruse, Ross Brawn had a missile on his hands”

When they were being so soft-hearted and accommodating, however, those other teams in F1 hadn’t known that Brawn GP was putting together the makings of a world-beater. Thanks to a secret design ruse, Ross Brawn had a missile on his hands.

During Brawn’s first year at Honda in 2008, the cars had been so hopeless that he didn’t much bother with trying to make them successful. While the team was finishing ninth out of 11 constructors (with drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button ranked 14th and 18th respectively), Brawn spent his time on developing the 2009 car – including one magical ingredient.

It came from a Honda engineer, Saneyuki Minegawa. After studying the F1 regulations for 2009, he spotted that, inadvertently, they allowed scope to expand the effective volume of the diffuser which amplified aerodynamic suction at the rear, pressing the car down against the track surface to improve its cornering stability. Effectively, Saneyuki Minegawa was devising a “double diffuser”.

“Their car was as much as two seconds a lap faster than their rivals. They didn’t believe their eyes... Brawn told the geeks to run the figures through their computers again”

When Brawn’s techies applied this innovation to their modelling and wind-tunnel tests, they found that their car was as much as two seconds a lap faster than their rivals. They didn’t believe their eyes.

Neither did the rest of the team. Brawn told the geeks to go back and run the figures through their computers again. When, however, Brawn GP took a car to Silverstone for a secret shake-down, they found the figures confirmed. As the test-driver, Jenson Button, said, “It was a monster.”

As the test-driver, Jenson Button, said, “It was a monster”

The team was still running on a shoe-string. They could only afford to create three chassis, half the number their rivals might build. Brawn GP possessed so few spare parts that the drivers were told under no circumstances to crash – especially with each other.  However, when it came to testing in Barcelona, Rubens Barrichello, in this very car Brawn GP Chassis 001/01, was faster than the all rest of the field by a clear second. Jaw-dropping.

At the first Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne, the Brawns finished first and second. Astoundingly, they won six of the next seven Grands Prix, taking Jenson Button out of sight in the lead of the driver’s championship. In chassis 01, his team mate Rubens Barrichello achieved four podium finishes in Australia, Spain, Monaco and Silverstone. Meanwhile, Richard Branson stepped in to supply some essential funds and plaster Virgin’s name on the cars.

Now the other teams weren’t feeling quite so indulgent towards the upstarts. Accusations of cheating flew around the F1 paddock. Luca di Montezemolo, legendary boss of the Ferrari team, was incensed. “This is war!” he declared. The big teams got lawyered-up and took their complaints about Brawn and the double diffuser to the FIA governing body in Paris. There they were defeated by the narrowest minority and the complaint was thrown out by FIA President, Max Mosley.

“Accusations of cheating flew around the F1 paddock. “This is war!”, declared Luca di Montezemolo”

Immediately, the other teams spared neither effort nor expense to apply the double diffuser discovery to their own cars. The gap between Brawn GP and the others promptly narrowed. Renault, Ferrari and McLaren came roaring back to put Brawn GP in their place. But Rubens Barrichello went on to claim two wins in the team’s chassis 03 thus securing the World Constructors’ Championship while Jenson Button had amassed enough points to make his position unassailable as World Champion driver.

The miracle was complete. The impossible had been achieved. In their first season, out of nowhere, those no-hopers had created a record in F1 that will probably last forever.

It was also unrepeatable. Brawn GP’s first season would also be their last. After 2009, Mercedes acquired the team, changed the name again and made it the dominant force in F1 for a decade.

Journalist and author, Neil Lyndon, has written about motoring and cars for publications such as The Sunday Times and the Telegraph.

The Miami Auction | Miami | 3 May 2025

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