MOTORSPORT: Perspectives on Brawn-again F1

Brawn GP a masterful feat of engineering
The Australian Grand Prix is being seen as a breath of fresh air for Formula 1.

Certainly the race result it produced -- a quinella by the "new" Brawn team's drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello -- was very welcome, but it was more a breath of recycled air.

Barrichello, Button and even more so team principal Ross Brawn have all been around in F1 a long time.

But what seems to have escaped the attention of most so far is that Brawn GP is the latest incarnation of a team that was born 10 years ago boasting that it could win its first race yet failed to score a world championship point in its first season.

That team was British American Racing, founded by Jacques Villeneuve's manager Craig Pollock with the Canadian 1997 world champion as its centerpiece and with almost limitless funding from British American Racing, availing itself of the opportunity of what were the last few years of tobacco sponsorship in F1

BAR never won a race, Pollock was eventually dislodged from the helm and replaced by Prodrive's David Richards, and the team was taken over by Honda in two stages through 2004 and '05.

Under Richards it made giant strides, became for a while the main threat to Ferrari, then it faltered again when the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) caught it out with a dodgy fuel system.

Then in 2006 Button jagged an unlikely victory in the Hungarian GP.

After that there was so little joy that at the end of last season Honda -- a company that proudly declared that racing was a key component of its DNA -- announced it was withdrawing from F1.

The global economic crisis that sent car markets into a tailspin provided a highly plausible excuse for what was a huge loss of face.

Honda said it would shut the F1 team completely if a buyer could not be found promptly.

While there was supposedly a lot of interest from potential buyers it took more than three months to get a deal done, and ultimately that was with Brawn -- an engineer, and one of the most brilliant in F1 history, but with no experience as a team principal.

Even at the time of the announcement the team would become Brawn GP it was not obvious who was going to be paying the bills -- mighty big bills, even in this era of what is meant to be cost-cutting. Indeed, it is still not clear who is picking up the tab.

The popular thinking is that Honda is still largely funding the team, even though Brawn's cars have Mercedes-Benz engines, and at the weekend Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group got involved -- but only as a sponsor at this stage.

And that came so late, and perhaps -- despite the fanfare -- in such a small way, that the Virgin name was not on the driving suits of Button and Barrichello by the time Sunday's race began and, more importantly, as they celebrated on the podium after one of the most amazing achievements in F1 history.

Surely a seamstress could have been found in Melbourne to sew the Virgin name across the front of those suits on Saturday night, but as a contact of ours has pointed out today perhaps the blankness on the chests of the delighted drivers was a sign of just how small the Virgin deal is to date

One estimate is that it may have been as little as US$200,000.

What is now obvious, as there were pretty clear hints of it during the final stages of F1 pre-season testing when the Brawn cars made an immediate -- indeed pace-setting -- impression, is that throughout the protracted team sale process the staff were kept focused and diligently working away on converting what was designed as Honda's 2009 car to the quite substantially different rules for this season to accommodate the customer Mercedes-Benz engine.

That, at a minimum, was a very solid six-week project, but the combination has proved already to be a marriage made in heaven.

And, it ought be remembered, Honda -- under the technical directorship of Brawn, who had been brought in about year earlier after years of success with Michael Schumacher at Benetton and Ferrari, began concentrating on the 2009 model very early last year while other teams were instead more focused on wringing everything from their '08 cars.

In retrospect the Honda withdrawal and sale has proved to have been only a temporary distraction for what is a perfectly conceived F1 car.

Sure there is fuss about the diffusers on the Brawn cars, and indeed those on the Williams and Toyota cars too. Those diffusers -- the bodywork below the rear wings and which helps air from under the car exit smoothly for maximum downforce and grip -- will be the subject of an FIA hearing on April 14.

The seven teams that went another direction with their diffusers under the new rules claim Brawn, Williams and Toyota have gone too far with their interpretation of the regulations -- with three of those teams officially protesting.

However, with Brawn, Williams and Toyota having been given the nod to run them so far, we find it hard to envisage -- even in F1 -- that they will be ruled illegal in mid-April.

More likely is that Ferrari, McLaren and co. are going to have to follow suit, although there is a contrary theory that Brawn and Williams are prepared to discard them but that Toyota is resistant -- and that that may be one reason Toyota has been treated very strictly by the FIA, relegated to starting in the pitlane for its flexible wings in qualifying and then losing Jarno Trulli's third place to Lewis Hamilton hours after the chequered flag.

Anyway, we have many impressions after the season-opening GP -- and they are mainly positive, although there is still the sour taste of the way the organisers treated, or mistreated, Australia's F1 world champions, Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones, as we mentioned before the weekend.

Despite that the show indeed went on. And, in a sense, it was more than ever what an Australian GP ought to be -- a Formula 1 event.

By that we mean -- and it may come as a surprise to the local organisers, and even a valuable lesson to them -- that F1 was at the weekend, and ought to be, the very dominant and overwhelming element of the event; that the V8 Supercars were an incidental support act rather than upstarts pretending they should be approaching equal billing at such a carnival.

For the record, Fords won the V8 Supercar races -- Craig Lowndes two and Mark Winterbottom the other, while Will Davison was again impressive with the Holden Racing Team.

But the F1 race was much more than ever the feature event. Indeed, in the cool light of day, we've got to say that the F1 races in Melbourne the past four years have been a damn sight better than most of what was seen in the first 10 years.

And, despite the problems of the local organisers (massive and burgeoning financial losses, declining attendances, poor relations with many stakeholders, etc) and F1's own issues, GP racing is in rather good shape.

That is helped by what we increasingly reckon to be perhaps the greatest depth of driver talent in the sport's history.

Just consider it: Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica, Sebastien Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Button and Barrichello -- and then Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock, and "our" Mark Webber, if he ever gets a chance to truly show it.

Webber was dreadfully unfortunate to have his chances wrecked at the first turn yet again yesterday the way they were -- Barrichello punting him, albeit after the Brazilian had been hit from behind by Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren rocketing towards the first turn with KERS-enhanced power.

It must be said though that the root of Webber's problem began on Saturday. He made the top 10 in qualifying but then in the final 10-minute stint to decide the front end of the grid clocked only the 10th best time while Vettel put the other Red Bull RB5 into third place for the start.

Webber's 10th became eighth when the Toyotas were penalised for the illegally flexible rear wings, but he was still in that "zone" that invariably gets caught up in first-lap, even first-corner, carnage.

But we can see a potential silver lining for Webber in the next three races (Malaysia, China and Bahrain) before the world championship settles into the European rounds.

Vettel has shown, in qualifying and yesterday's race (despite his somewhat ignominious end to it), that the RB5 is a very competitive car.

It has neither the more effective diffuser (which some engineering types say is worth an extra 14% grip) nor KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), yet Vettel qualified on the second row of the grid and ran in second place for most of the race.

Had he and Kubica not collided with three laps to go he probably would have finished third -- perhaps fourth if Barrichello had caught and passed him.

So the Red Bull car was very much the equal of the BMW at the opening race of the season. Perhaps only Kubica and BMW's tyre choice, to run hard compound on the final stint, was what gave the Polish star the edge that should have seen him finish second to Button, perhaps even overhauled him.

As wasteful as it was to see Kubica and Vettel out of the race so close to the finish it was still so refreshing to see these two young stars in the frame at the business end of the day.

Their demise created some extra excitement for the fans but they may well rue the points that got away when it comes to deciding the championship.

The US$50,000 fine and 10 grid-place penalty imposed on Vettel for next Sunday's Malaysian GP is perhaps fair enough for him continuing as long as he did on three wheels. But we don't share the view that he was at fault in the coming-together with Kubica.

Rather we saw it as him being at the wheel of a car on worn tyres that was beyond control, and as the pair arrived at turn 3 together we felt Kubica turned across in front of Vettel unnecessarily sharply.

Anyway, savour the thought of this pair racing wheel-to-wheel again -- and against Hamilton and others.

Had Kubica and Vettel not taken each out we most likely would have seen the first four starters fill the first four positions in a bit of a reshuffle of the order in which they began -- which may not have been a great advertisement for the new rules supposed to create more overtaking and interesting racing.

Instead the exit of the over-exuberant youngster produced the remarkable 1-2 by the Brawn veterans.

All the more remarkable because of Barrichello having survived his horror start, first-corner argy-bargy and having driven the rest of his first stint with a damaged front wing.

And Button had a final pitstop that lasted at least 5sec longer than it should and on another day may have cost him victory.

The gods shone on the Brawn camp, but it won't always be so.

Hamilton's drive from 18th on the grid to third, belatedly awarded the final podium position that Toyota's Trulli had for the celebrations until penalized for overtaking the world champion under caution, was evidence that McLaren is not as far off the mark as late pre-season testing and the first two days at Albert Park had suggested.

And Hamilton's promotion to his rightful third place also meant that the first three finishers were all Mercedes-Benz powered.

We wonder, though, whether McLaren, effectively the Mercedes factory team, won't be looking for a new teammate for Hamilton by the end of the season, or even earlier. It's no secret that its eyes are on Williams' Rosberg.

Kovalainen is on borrowed time.

While it was a second consecutive horror race in Melbourne for Ferrari, the Italian squad is not far off the mark either. By the start of the European races expect the red cars to be right back at the pointy end.

This diffuser controversy is just the thing to fire the boys at Maranello into action.

Brawn and perhaps Red Bull and Toyota may have a handy jump on Ferrari and McLaren after the first four long-haul races, but that will only add spice to the championship.

BMW is going to be right in the mix because of Kubica's precocious talent and perhaps by sensibly hedging its bets on KERS -- Heidfeld with it and Kubica without it.

And Renault is one team that has shown itself capable of quantum advances during a season.

Alonso masterfully salvaged four points in Melbourne with a car not worthy of that and he is always going to be a force. However, he is another champion who may have a new teammate by the end of the year, if not earlier.

Nelson Piquet Junior has seven races to save his career, we believe.

The 5pm start at Albert Park worked well enough on a fine day, but the glare in the closing laps was a problem.

The bigger danger will be if there are dark clouds or even rain in the second half of a race starting at that time.

Now while there is a sense of fresh -- or recycled -- air in the aftermath of this first twilight race, get set for some hot air.

Be on guard, dear readers, for any outlandish claims on the TV audience.

Certainly the British audience will have been better than it might otherwise have been, with a day's notice of Button being on pole position in the Brawn.

The telecast, back on the BBC after a decade on ITV, may have been up around 7 million in the Old Dart. Perhaps even a bit higher, which may point to a global audience of around 60 million.

Any numbers heard beyond that ought to be greeted with requests for credible evidence.

On the other numbers of importance, track attendances, the Melbourne organisers have admitted to the four-day crowd being below 300,000 for the first time.

We were pleasantly surprised at what we saw of the Sunday crowd but are skeptical that it was the 105,000 claimed.

The first three days of the event Albert Park had much of the feel of a ghost town.

The 286,900 claimed for the four days looks coincidentally similar to the four-day number from the previous week's Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, which had the advantage of not being in competition with AFL games.

Although the vibe after Sunday is considerably more positive than it might otherwise have been, the GP is now the subject of endless media negativity in its home market.

The Rupert Murdoch/News Limited tabloid Herald Sun regularly professes itself to be supportive of the event but has editorialised today that it's "Time to audit the Grand Prix".

"After 14 annual outings around the lake, we are yet to see from any (Victorian) 0State Government a convincing, detailed breakdown of the Albert Park event's balance sheet," the Herald Sun said.

"Such an audit is long overdue.

"Major Events Minister Tim Holding can assert as often as he likes that the race is a valuable contributor to the Victorian economy.

"But only high quality and unambiguous facts and figures can prove it."

The cynicism is far greater in broadsheet The Age, owned by Fairfax Media, ironically chaired by Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker.

One of the concerns of The Age has been the lack of transparency on attendance figures.

We mentioned here a few days ago that we were impressed that a cricket Test in South Africa had the daily crowd number ticking over on the TV screen and wondered why motor racing, and particularly F1, with all its technology, could not at least match that effort of a ball sport.

It occurred to us over the weekend that perhaps race promoters and/or series organisers responsible for announcing attendances at motor races ought to be made to sign statutory declarations verifying the accuracy of the numbers they issue. 

Then any -- or all -- promoters caught telling porky pies might meet the same fate as Justice Marcus Einfeld did for swearing a false declaration.

Now that might incentivise a bit of transparency!

But for now let's just look forward to Sepang in Malaysia next Sunday afternoon and the second round of what promises to be an enthralling world championship, irrespective of how many are actually watching.

Formula 1 drivers' world championship after first round -- Jenson Button (Brawn-Mercedes) 10 points, Rubens Barrichello (Brawn-Mercedes) 8, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 6, Timo Glock (Toyota) 5, Fernando Alonso (Renault) 4, Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) 3, Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 2, Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1.

F1 constructors' championship -- Brawn-Mercedes 18 points, McLaren-Mercedes 6, Toyota 5, Renault 4, Williams-Toyota 3, Toro Ross-Ferrari 3.

>> Three other items of interest that have caught our attention over the past few days.
First was an F1 business perspective by the Bloomberg news agency, here.

Secondly a feature, in The Times of London, on the 50 greatest F1 drivers in history, here.

And, from The West Australian newspaper, a report on the company associated with the proposed Bunbury international racetrack being sued, here.