Question: Congratulations Ross on your acquisition of the former Honda Racing F1 Team and a positive outcome after the uncertainty of the past few months.
Ross Brawn: It has been a challenging few months for the team, certainly, but I am very pleased that we have finally reached a successful conclusion and the future of the team has been secured.
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Question: Who owns the team and how will it be structured?
Ross Brawn: I would like to start by saying that it is a great shame that we are no longer able to continue with Honda Motor Company, having worked together for so long. Following Honda’s decision to withdraw, we needed to find a way to secure as many jobs as possible, ensure the team’s continued participation in Formula One and make best use of the state of the art facilities that we are fortunate to have here in Brackley. Quite simply, I have purchased the team from Honda. As the owner I will continue to be supported by the incumbent management team, who have worked closely with me throughout the sale process and will continue to do so in the future.
Question: As you say it has been a challenging period. How is team morale?
Ross Brawn: There is no denying this has been a difficult time for everyone at our Brackley base, but I am immensely proud of the great spirit and fortitude that I have witnessed in the factory over the course of the past few months. The process of designing and manufacturing our new car, which has continued concurrent with the efforts being made to secure the team, has been reasonably straightforward. That is particularly pleasing given that our car was designed around a different engine and both the chassis and gearbox have been modified to accommodate the new engine. Our first test with the new car, though much later than we would have liked, will be an emotional moment for everyone in the team I’m sure.
Question: Your driver line-up remains unchanged. Presumably continuity of drivers is going to be crucial to you with such limited time with which to prepare for the new season?
Ross Brawn: We are very fortunate to have two experienced drivers in Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. They will enable us to hit the ground running when we test for the first time in Barcelona next week. After four years as team mates, their experience with our team in Brackley, our systems and our engineers, will prove a real asset. Jenson and Rubens have always had a great relationship and we expect to see them pushing each other hard over the season to get the best performance from the car and drive forward its development. Both drivers are extremely motivated having trained hard over the winter to ensure that they were in the best possible physical condition. We look forward to their first thoughts on the BGP 001 at next week’s Barcelona Test.
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