After a winter of uncertainty, the former Honda team stunned the rest of the pack by setting a dominant pace in the final winter tests, making Brawn GP many people’s favourites for Melbourne victory.
Some have suggested that the currently sponsor-less Brawn team will struggle to keep up with the leaders as the development race progresses.
But Brawn says there is still a lot more to come from his squad’s startling machine.
“From our short but crucial testing programme over the past two weeks, we have reinforced our view that the BGP 001 is a good car and an excellent platform from which to develop performance over the course of the season,” he said.
“Our ambition has always been to be on the grid for the first race of the season in Melbourne and our planning was specifically tailored towards the achievement of this goal,” he said.
“Things can go wrong, but we are optimistic and if we can capitalize on the performance of the car, and the car looks good, then I think the team has got a future,” he said.
If the new team becomes a relative success, it may usher in a renaissance of privately owned teams, wresting the sport back from the auto industry giants that took a grip on it over the past decade.
Unlike billionaire business tycoon Vijay Mallya, who started the Force India team last year, Brawn isn’t rich enough to buy success, but he does have a wealth of experience and past achievements that many in the F1 paddock would envy.
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