The Brawn Story: Buying an F1 team for £1

Harry Whitehead

(The following article is the winner of the Polyphony summer essay competition 2024)

Formula 1, or F1, is often regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport. The combination of exceptionally skilled drivers, along with state-of-the-art technology fostered a thrilling racing series where millions congregate (via multiple outlets such as TV) to watch the action. All this brings a monumental price tag for teams. According to Red Bull: an F1 car alone can cost 15 million Euros and the annual budget cap for teams during 2023 was set at $135 million. Furthermore Zak Brown - Racing Chief for Mclaren - claimed that every F1 team is “well north” of £1 billion.

Despite this, Ross Brawn (the then Team Principal of Honda Racing F1 Team) and his associates shocked the world on the 5th of March 2009 when they bought out 100 percent of the Honda racing team, with Brawn himself taking the commanding 54 percent stake, all for a singular £1.

The primary reason why Brawn managed to take control of the Honda team was due to the existing 2008 financial crisis: giving rise to a sharp decline in economic activity. Honda was concerned when Lehman Brothers - an American global financial group which was ironically dubbed “Too big to fail”, filed for bankruptcy. Hence when their profits were down 87% in comparison to their previous fiscal year - along with the disappointing performances of their RA108 (their car driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello), the team desperately wanted to drop out of the F1 roster.

The team in fact paid Ross Brawn (approximately 150 million dollars in both assets and employee wages) and continued to help him develop the car for the following year. Attributable to the colossal amounts of debt procured, it was financially reasonable to give the team away to a third party for next to nothing than to liquidate it entirely.

Another motive for Honda selling their team for 1 pound was the symbolic value it held, it worked brilliantly with the media as well as avoiding the legality of “handing over” their team to Brawn.

Additionally, Honda felt much sorrow for their hundreds of workers based at Brackley; the executives preferred for them to keep their jobs under a different authority instead of having to make approximately 800 workers redundant.

Brawn, after purchasing Honda, rebranded the team to “Brawn GP”. With powerful Mercedes engines along with manipulating aerodynamic rules with the use of a double-diffuser on their car (BGP 001), a dominant machine was born. On their maiden Grand Prix in Australia, Button and Baricello achieved first and second in both qualifying and the race. In fact, the car was so exemplary that Button and Brawn GP won the 2009 Driver’s World Championship and the Constructor’s Championship respectively.

After such an astounding year Brawn sold his now British team to Mercedes due to the lack of sponsorship revenue, however, they remain the only team in F1 history to never lose a championship.