Is Brawn that good? what is his magic touch?

[markabilly]

Poor ferrari....it was only a matter of time that they would be blowing pitstops with tire choices and fuel hoses attached as the car left the pitbox and thereby cost Massa a WDC.....once they lost "the team"

Meanwhile Brawn takes how long to put to two "also rans" in back marker carsfrom the back of the pack to right on top, in pole position and number 2!!!

Poor Honda, spent all that effort to get no glory, either.
And freddie A, said no to them!!
And then it looks as though the fromer honda team is headed to the toilet, no money, no sponsor and benie cutting them off, calling them a new team so not entitlted to the old honda money

But okay what is the man's genius (besides infinite--)?

How did he get it done so quick and once again, return to former glory?

[Malbec]

Poor ferrari....it was only a matter of time that they would be blowing pitstops with tire choices and fuel hoses attached as the car left the pitbox and thereby cost Massa a WDC.....once they lost "the team"

Meanwhile Brawn takes how long to put to two "also rans" in back marker carsfrom the back of the pack to right on top, in pole position and number 2!!!

Poor Honda, spent all that effort to get no glory, either.
And freddie A, said no to them!!
And then it looks as though the fromer honda team is headed to the toilet, no money, no sponsor and benie cutting them off, calling them a new team so not entitlted to the old honda money

But okay what is the man's genius (besides infinite--)?

How did he get it done so quick and once again, return to former glory?

The guy is good, no doubt, but the Brawn GP pace isn't just down to him.

Firstly the Honda team performed a top down review of where they were going wrong in early 2007 and identified that CFD, vehicle and tyre dynamics were flawed. They spent late 2007 and 2008 investing heavily in those areas, bringing them up to date and then some. Then they deliberately didn't develop their 2008 car to concentrate on 2009.

Without those two decisions made by Honda the 2009 car wouldn't have been much good either.

That said, I think Brawn is an excellent manager, what he did at Ferrari and Honda was to reorganise the engineering departments his way to work better. Not only that but I suspect that Fry and Honda found it a lot easier to recruit top talent from other teams once they had Brawn on board, after all what else could show people that you're serious about sorting the team out than hiring him?

[ioan]

A blank check from Honda, 3 windtunnels and some 700 people working 24/7 for whole 2008!
It doesn't seem like Brawn did it.

[BDunnell]

Of course, we can't have him being given any credit, can we?

I would think that his leadership through a difficult time for the team since Honda withdrew must count for something. This sort of performance doesn't just come out of nowhere.

[markabilly]

A blank check from Honda, 3 windtunnels and some 700 people working 24/7 for whole 2008!
It doesn't seem like Brawn did it.

You mean just doing exactly what Honda had been doing for about ten years in a row before him?

[Malbec]

Of course, we can't have him being given any credit, can we?

I would think that his leadership through a difficult time for the team since Honda withdrew must count for something. This sort of performance doesn't just come out of nowhere.

True, but the way things are being portrayed in the press, its as if Brawn GP just sprang out of the ground a few weeks ago. I think you and I both know that F1 is far more complicated, while Brawn was an indispensible component of Ferrari's success and Honda/BrawnGP's hopefully forthcoming era of success too, one ought not forget that Ferrari brought him in during an era of serious investment and restructuring, something that Honda did a decade later too.

The press like to concentrate on single individuals like Newey or Brawn but often the appointment of serious engineer/managers like that is merely representative of serious investment in manpower by a particular team.

[Nikki Katz]

I think that Brawn has been key in the team still being around at all. As far as pace goes, I'm sure that he's re-organised and corrected a lot of the mistakes of the past few years, but a lot of the pace will actually be down to Honda giving up on the 2008 season a few races in.

[BDunnell]

True, but the way things are being portrayed in the press, its as if Brawn GP just sprang out of the ground a few weeks ago. I think you and I both know that F1 is far more complicated, while Brawn was an indispensible component of Ferrari's success and Honda/BrawnGP's hopefully forthcoming era of success too, one ought not forget that Ferrari brought him in during an era of serious investment and restructuring, something that Honda did a decade later too.

The press like to concentrate on single individuals like Newey or Brawn but often the appointment of serious engineer/managers like that is merely representative of serious investment in manpower by a particular team.

All true.

[OutRun]

The loss of the Honda engine may be the best thing in terms of performance. Suddenly the side pods are minuscule and elegantly sculpted. Brawn GP is now using a proven championship winning engine in combination with their award winning gearbox. They went from strength to strength in some respects. Ross Brawn is the man who pulled it all together.

[Sonic]

I think RB would be getting a lot more credit if he were an eddie jordan type character jumping and wooping at every success that his team achieved.

Lets give him his due - the guys a LEG END! Whilst its true he wouldn't have got anywhere without the input of Honda millions who cares? Lets enjoy the feel good factor and do all the jumping and leaping about for him!

[jens]

So it has taken ten years for the Brackley-based team to come out with a car that is a true world-beater. Maybe it shows, how difficult it is and how much time does it take to make a real breakthrough in F1.

[ioan]

The loss of the Honda engine may be the best thing in terms of performance. Suddenly the side pods are minuscule and elegantly sculpted. Brawn GP is now using a proven championship winning engine in combination with their award winning gearbox. They went from strength to strength in some respects. Ross Brawn is the man who pulled it all together.

The sidepods were not designed after they managed to get the Mercedes engine.

But for sure the Mercedes is a more drivable engine, as it was pointed out by Rubens.

[markabilly]

......... but a lot of the pace will actually be down to Honda giving up on the 2008 season a few races in.

as did Beemer.....

[F1boat]

IMO there are many thing which lead to this result and Ross in one of them, if not the major. Truly a great man.

[markabilly]

IMO there are many thing which lead to this result and Ross in one of them, if not the major. Truly a great man.

All I want to know is what is his secret??

BTW If I were Mr. Button, anything Brawn mumbles, even incoherently, would be an instant command...............poor ferrari...what a loss

[Malbec]

The loss of the Honda engine may be the best thing in terms of performance. Suddenly the side pods are minuscule and elegantly sculpted. Brawn GP is now using a proven championship winning engine in combination with their award winning gearbox. They went from strength to strength in some respects. Ross Brawn is the man who pulled it all together.

I believe the sidepods are also smaller because once they were dropped by Honda KERS became out of the question, and therefore the sidepods did not need to be large enough to cool KERS as well as the engine.

This along with the weight distribution issue could only help the Brawn be quicker. One wonders how much of an advantage it is for teams who designed their cars to run entirely without KERS, I believe Toyota have also gone down a similar route.

Markabilly, I believe Brawn is not only a good engineer he is an excellent manager, after all that is what a technical chief is these days. However his abilities are slightly flattered by the fact that teams that have taken him on in the past have done so exactly when they've taken the decision to turn the team around and have pumped up the teams infrastructure as well.

[Valve Bounce]

Poor ferrari....it was only a matter of time that they would be blowing pitstops with tire choices and fuel hoses attached as the car left the pitbox and thereby cost Massa a WDC.....once they lost "the team"

Meanwhile Brawn takes how long to put to two "also rans" in back marker carsfrom the back of the pack to right on top, in pole position and number 2!!!

Poor Honda, spent all that effort to get no glory, either.
And freddie A, said no to them!!
And then it looks as though the fromer honda team is headed to the toilet, no money, no sponsor and benie cutting them off, calling them a new team so not entitlted to the old honda money

But okay what is the man's genius (besides infinite--)?

How did he get it done so quick and once again, return to former glory?

Maybe Ferrari keeps copying their e-mails to Brawn. :p :

[Stram_man]

Is there any politics at play here?
Are the rear diffusers being allowed for Melbourne, as well as all the surrounding hype, in order to assist Brawn with sponsorship?

[Valve Bounce]

Is there any politics at play here?
Are the rear diffusers being allowed for Melbourne, as well as all the surrounding hype, in order to assist Brawn with sponsorship?
No!!

Next please!!

[wedge]

The legacy of Team Schumacher: Schumi pushed the limits on the race track, Brawn and co looking to pushing the limits of the technical regulations - no incidence that the 1994 Benetton B194 and current BGP001 both accused of cheating.

Brawn has the knack to know the rulebook inside out eg. last year he got his cars to use the option tyres during the SC period in Canada; 2003 he questioned the legality of Michelin tyres.

Great man manager, encourages the whole team to push the envelope.

[PolePosition_1]

He's good, he's exceptional.

But I think time is what has made them so good.

There car is basically 6 month ahead of all the other cars, because they started so much earlier.

When we see cars lag behind in development during the season, they drop down the grid. Well here we have a case where all other 9 teams are about 6 months behind development. Hence the obvious advantage.

And that advantage is just made even more visible because of such a huge draft of regulation changes, the first 1-2 years of evolution are going to have a bigger impact than after that, where its essentially a case of fine tuning perfection.

For me, Toyota have impressed me the most, they worked on last years car till the end, and have come up with a blinder this season too. In what is a relatively short time frame in comparison to Brawn.

But you would have to say Brawn is an essential part of Brawn's success.

[Easy Drifter]

There is more to Ross Brawn than engineering and team mangement. He was successful with Benneton before Ferrari and both with TGF as a driver.
However he appears to be able to get the most out of all his people and to have a happy team which goes a long way to success.
On a slightly different tack; the more rules and the more complex they are the more areas open to interpretation. I expect both Ross and a few other members of the team (and other teams) sat down and studied the rules very carefully looking for loopholes or grey areas. With the diffuser they and others seem to have found something.
I know in whatever series I was involved in I read the rules very carefully and usually found something where there was a big question. I did not always find it useful but I would find something and I am nowhere near as clever as a Ross Brawn!