Formula 1 fans will soon have something exciting coming their way, as DisneyPlus (Disney+ Hotstar in India) will soon air a 4-part docu-series on the Brawn GP Formula 1 team, as confirmed by Brawn's championship winning driver Jenson Button via his social media handles. While more details are expected soon, the series will be narrated by Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, who is best known for his roles in the movie series Matrix, John Wick, and Speed.
Brawn GP was a wonderful tale of a miraculous season by a Formula 1 team, that rose from the ashes of the Honda F1 Team. Formula 1 was set to undergo a major overhaul with the car design in 2009, and as teams were preparing for this in the 2008 season, Honda F1 Team decided to pull out of the sport due to financial reasons. The announcement came as a surprise to everyone, including the team's employees who were kept in the dark about Honda's plans until the very end.
Also Read: F1 2022 Belgian GP Preview: Who's Got The Upper Hand?
By then, the team's 2009 car was close to ready, but Honda still elected to leave the sport. Honda offered its employees generous severance packages and began to disband the team, when the team principal Ross Brawn decided to convince Honda to sell the team instead. Ross Brawn couldn't find a suitable buyer for the team, so he somehow convinced Honda to pay the severance packages to the employees anyway, and sell the team to him for just ₤1, and thus began the tale of one of the most epic comebacks in the sport.
The BGP-001 missed the first pre-season test, but it set the fastest times right away when it hit the track in the second test.
Also Read: F1: Alfa Romeo Announces Termination Of Sauber Partnership
With not much time left on hand, Brawn barely managed to secure enough funding for the team to run operations, and no development. The team had to miss out on the first pre-season test, and it showed up directly in the second pre-season test. Most teams were expecting nothing from the Brawn GP team, but when Jenson Button took the car out for a spin for the first time, he set the timing screens ablaze, setting the fastest time by quite a margin.
Also Read: Audi Announces Its Entry In F1, Starting In 2026
The team initially thought that the other teams may have been running their cars slower to hide their pace, but it was optimistic nonetheless. The team turned up at the first Grand Prix of the 2019 season in Australia with the iconic white and neon coloured livery on its car - the BGP-001, and went on to finish first & second in the opening race, with Button taking the win ahead of his veteran teammate Rubens Barrichello.
Brawn GP secured 1-2 finish in its first ever Formula 1 race.
Brawn GP showed unimaginable pace in the first half of the season with its ‘blown diffuser’ car, which was a clever interpretation of the 2009 regulations, and won 8 races with 7 of the wins going the way of Jenson Button. But with no funding to develop the car further, other teams started to catch up with Brawn and in the second half of the season, Red Bull proved to be the faster car. However, the initial success in the season helped Brawn GP claim the Constructor's Championship anyway, with Jenson Button getting crowned as the 2009 Formula 1 Driver's Champion. The team - in their solitary season in Formula 1 - did the unthinkable, and then it morphed into Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team in 2010, which later went on to win 8 consecutive Constructor's Championships between 2014 - 2021, an unparalleled feat.
