Jonas Leo
Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula 1 World Champion, has offered a retrospective analysis of the tumultuous period experienced by the Honda Racing F1 Team during the 2007 and 2008 seasons, attributing the subsequent turnaround and eventual championship success to the arrival of engineering titan Ross Brawn, whom he unequivocally described as the team’s "saviour." Speaking on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast with Tom Clarkson, Button provided a candid account of the team’s unexpected decline and Brawn’s profound impact.
The struggles detailed by Button followed a period of considerable optimism within the Japanese manufacturer’s racing division. The 2006 season had culminated in Button securing his maiden Formula 1 victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, a significant milestone for both driver and team. This triumph, achieved with the Honda RA106 chassis, had fueled high expectations for the subsequent year, with the team aiming to build on this momentum and establish itself as a consistent front-runner. The 2006 season saw Honda finish fourth in the Constructors’ Championship with 86 points, a solid foundation that promised further progression.
However, the reality of the 2007 season proved to be a stark contrast to these aspirations. Button characterised the year as an "absolute disaster," a sentiment underscored by the team’s dramatic collapse in performance. The new Honda RA107 car, designed to comply with revised aerodynamic regulations, proved fundamentally flawed. It suffered from chronic instability, a lack of consistent downforce, and general underperformance that rendered it uncompetitive. "We expected so much out of 2007, and it just was a disaster," Button stated on the podcast. "It really was. Our junior team, Super Aguri, had our 2006 car, so they were beating us. That car had won a race, and we were driving something that we couldn’t even get into the points with."
Indeed, the Super Aguri F1 team, operating as a Honda B-team and utilising a modified version of Honda’s previous year’s chassis (the SA07, based on the 2006 RA106), occasionally outqualified and even outraced the factory Honda outfit. While Super Aguri scored four points in 2007, the main Honda team managed only six points, all courtesy of Button’s teammate Rubens Barrichello. Button himself failed to score a single point throughout the entire 2007 campaign, a testament to the car’s profound deficiencies. This abysmal performance saw Honda plummet to eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship, a significant regression from their fourth-place finish just a year prior.
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It was against this backdrop of severe underperformance and dwindling morale that Ross Brawn’s appointment as Team Principal in November 2007 marked a pivotal moment. Brawn arrived with an unparalleled pedigree in Formula 1, having been a central figure in multiple championship successes. His illustrious career included orchestrating Michael Schumacher’s two world titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995, followed by an era of unprecedented dominance at Ferrari, where he was technical director during Schumacher’s five consecutive Drivers’ Championships and Ferrari’s six consecutive Constructors’ Championships between 1999 and 2004. His reputation as a strategic genius and a master of team organisation preceded him, creating an immediate sense of anticipation within the struggling Honda camp.
Button vividly recalled the transformative effect of Brawn’s arrival. "So, that was a tough year. And then it was more when Ross turned up at the end of 2007. That was the moment that it’s like, ‘Oh, this is going to turn around,’" the Briton explained. "And you felt the mood shift. A team that had won a race suddenly was so bad in 2007, it needed that kick-start again." This "kick-start" began with Brawn’s sheer presence, as described by Button. An assembly was held where Brawn’s appointment was announced, catching many by surprise. "Just him walking into the room was enough. I remember it was like an assembly. We had the whole factory in one room, and nobody really knew that Ross was coming, and that’s when it was announced. He walked down the middle aisle, and there he was at the front, and he was our saviour. He was the person who was going to come in and save us from the disastrous 2007."
Brawn’s impact extended far beyond his mere presence; it was his leadership philosophy and strategic approach that fundamentally reshaped the team’s culture and operational methods. Button elaborated on the specific changes Brawn implemented: "It wasn’t just his presence, but that was already a kick-start. But his leadership, his understanding of how a team needs to work together. Getting rid of the blame culture within a team, letting people be a bit more free within a team, and come up with crazy ideas." This shift encouraged innovation and risk-taking, fostering an environment where engineers felt empowered to explore unconventional solutions without fear of immediate reprisal for failure. "Sometimes they don’t work, but they’ve got to take risks, otherwise you’re never going to get to the front. So, it was a really good atmosphere when Ross was there."
While the 2008 season, Brawn’s first full year at the helm, did not immediately yield a dramatic improvement in on-track results—Honda finished ninth in the Constructors’ Championship with 14 points—it was a crucial period of restructuring and strategic development. Brawn initiated a comprehensive overhaul of the technical department, streamlining processes and fostering a collaborative environment. Crucially, the team began development on the RA109 chassis, designed for the radical new aerodynamic regulations slated for the 2009 season. This car would eventually become the Brawn BGP 001.
However, the team’s future was cast into severe doubt in December 2008 when Honda announced its immediate withdrawal from Formula 1 due to the global financial crisis. This decision left the team, its infrastructure, and over 700 employees facing redundancy. It was at this critical juncture that Ross Brawn’s leadership proved truly indispensable. He orchestrated a management buyout, acquiring the team for a symbolic £1 and renaming it Brawn GP. This extraordinary move saved the team and preserved its staff, albeit with a significantly reduced budget and a last-minute engine supply deal with Mercedes-Benz.
The newly formed Brawn GP team, leveraging the Honda-developed chassis, arrived at the 2009 pre-season testing with a car that immediately showcased groundbreaking performance. The BGP 001 featured a revolutionary "double diffuser" design, which exploited a loophole in the new technical regulations to generate significantly more downforce than its rivals. While initially controversial and subject to protests from other teams, the design was ultimately deemed legal by the FIA, providing Brawn GP with a substantial competitive advantage.
The 2009 season commenced with a display of dominance from Brawn GP that astonished the motorsport world. Jenson Button, driving the BGP 001, secured six victories in the first seven races, a remarkable feat for a team that had nearly ceased to exist just months prior. His early season form included wins in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco, and Turkey, establishing a commanding lead in the Drivers’ Championship. Rubens Barrichello also contributed to the team’s success with two victories later in the season. Against all odds, Brawn GP clinched both the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship with Button at the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The team accumulated 172 points, securing 8 wins and 15 podium finishes throughout the year, marking one of the most improbable and fairytale successes in Formula 1 history.
Button’s reflections underscore the profound impact of individual leadership within complex sporting organisations. Ross Brawn’s tenure, from his initial role at Honda to his audacious buyout and subsequent championship triumph with Brawn GP, represents a unique chapter in Formula 1. His ability to diagnose systemic issues, implement cultural changes, and strategically exploit technical regulations transformed a team mired in "disaster" into a world champion, providing Button with the machinery to achieve his lifelong ambition. The Brawn GP story remains a powerful testament to the vision and leadership capabilities of Ross Brawn, a figure whose "saviour" status in Button’s eyes is firmly rooted in historical fact and unparalleled sporting achievement.
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Author Profile
- Jonas Leo is a passionate motorsport journalist and lifelong Formula 1 enthusiast. With a sharp eye for race strategy and driver performance, he brings readers closer to the world of Grand Prix racing through in-depth analysis, breaking news, and exclusive paddock insights. Jonas has covered everything from preseason testing to dramatic title deciders, capturing the emotion and precision that define modern F1. When he’s not tracking lap times or pit stop tactics, he enjoys exploring classic racing archives and writing about the evolution of F1 technology.
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