Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story

[StevieBee]

Jim H said:

Hello folks, I’m not regular in this area of the forum, I gave up F1 many years ago.

However I do remember the 2009 season with fondness and thoroughly enjoyed this documentary which I viewed this week. If only every F1 season could be like that! Fantastic.

A question to the regulars on here?

Is that a very accurate account on the events portrayed relating to FOTA, Ross Brawn, Bernie?

Particularly Bernie gossiping to Flávio and Ross playing his trump card?

Truth is that only those involved will know for sure but that said, the accounts do seem to align pretty well with the many other published record of events. My guess is that what was presented is as it happened.

What's less clear is the strength of motivation behind the intent.

Break-aways never yield anything close to approaching what they break away from. You end up with two sub-par Formulae compared to a single decent one (see Champcar/Indy for more information). Whilst the threat was sufficient to shift the paradigm, I'm not convinced a break-away would have actually happened.

Edited by StevieBee on Thursday 28th November 08:15

[reisskhan]

+2

Summed it all up for me totally agree with you mate

Came across it on iPlayer few days ago and bingedwatched it as always love it when Underdogs are involved with the big hitters

Just can’t believe how time has flown by as I remember that season like it was yesterday

I think the cars looked superb and sounded brilliant wow

Drive to Survive has grown on me but I found this documentary even better as you really get to see behind the business side of things how F1 & the Teams work and hearing it from the Mechanics and the Engineers who don’t get the credit they deserve on other programs

The scene at the end in Brazil where JB was getting Jinxed outside the restaurant from the local Brazillians so Rubin’s can win the WDC was just pure madness lol

djsmith74 said:

Just binged watched this on iPlayer, and it was a wonderful docu-series on an extraordinary sequence of events. From the initial "buy out" of Honda for £1, to putting in epic 24hour shifts to re-design the back of the bar for the Mercedes engine, to seeing the shock on every other team when Brawn destroyed them in Australia, to the political goings-on with FiA and FOTA, to the nervousness in the team when RB & McLaren started to make gains mid-season, to the joy on everyone's faces in Brazil. Fantastic stuff, and certainly a once in a lifetime event. I appreciate that those cars are not the best lookers, but they do look wonderfully compact & agile, compared to today's monstrosities.

[Zammy]

I had forgotten just how strong the Toyotas were that season too, or was just everyone else was sooo bad in the first half of the season. Shame they never took a win.

[StevieBee]

Zammy said:

I had forgotten just how strong the Toyotas were that season too, or was just everyone else was sooo bad in the first half of the season. Shame they never took a win.

They were one of three teams to run the double diffuser (the other being Williams) that year. Brawn were the only one to understand how to make it work properly and made a better job of optimising it compared to Toyota. Williams never really understood it.

[Oilchange]

StevieBee said:

Zammy said:

I had forgotten just how strong the Toyotas were that season too, or was just everyone else was sooo bad in the first half of the season. Shame they never took a win.

They were one of three teams to run the double diffuser (the other being Williams) that year. Brawn were the only one to understand how to make it work properly and made a better job of optimising it compared to Toyota. Williams never really understood it.

[TikTak]

Oilchange said:

StevieBee said:

Zammy said:

I had forgotten just how strong the Toyotas were that season too, or was just everyone else was sooo bad in the first half of the season. Shame they never took a win.

They were one of three teams to run the double diffuser (the other being Williams) that year. Brawn were the only one to understand how to make it work properly and made a better job of optimising it compared to Toyota. Williams never really understood it.

Why so confused? Those 3 teams started with it and the diffuser was protested almost immediately by the other teams. It took a few weeks (3 rounds) for hearings etc. before the FIA deemed it legal and teams could go forth and develop their own knowing it was legal.

Pretty sure it was almost half way into the season before other teams were operating with their own versions, and the lack of money/development on the Brawn was negating the performance increase by that point anyway.

[Dashnine]

StevieBee said:

Zammy said:

I had forgotten just how strong the Toyotas were that season too, or was just everyone else was sooo bad in the first half of the season. Shame they never took a win.

They were one of three teams to run the double diffuser (the other being Williams) that year. Brawn were the only one to understand how to make it work properly and made a better job of optimising it compared to Toyota. Williams never really understood it.

Much of Brawn’s advantage was from the front wing which had been designed to work the double diffuser harder, which the other two teams wings didn’t do.

So much fuss was made over the rear of the car that the detail of the front wing was effectively hiding in plain sight.

[Oilchange]

TikTak said:

Why so confused? Those 3 teams started with it and the diffuser was protested almost immediately by the other teams. It took a few weeks (3 rounds) for hearings etc. before the FIA deemed it legal and teams could go forth and develop their own knowing it was legal.

Pretty sure it was almost half way into the season before other teams were operating with their own versions, and the lack of money/development on the Brawn was negating the performance increase by that point anyway.

Just the way I read it, apologies

[entropy]

Zammy said:

I had forgotten just how strong the Toyotas were that season too, or was just everyone else was sooo bad in the first half of the season. Shame they never took a win.

They should have won in Bahrain but bottled on strategy and played it safe.

[coppice]

The Brawn's airflow smoothing rear brake drums also made a huge impact , John Owen told David Tremayne . .