Formula 1: auf wiedersehen, Brawn GP

So, it’s goodbye Brawn GP, hello Mercedes GP. “Mercedes-Benz will enter the Formula 1 World Championship with its own team, beginning with the 2010 season”, said yesterday’s statement announcing the takeover of Brawn, championship winners in 2009 in their debut F1 season. Reports confirmed that the team would be re-branded, with the Mercedes statement even accompanied by an image of what is presumably a prospective new silver livery.

Admirers of the Brawn team are entitled to feel a touch let down. It’s a bit like waking up to find your football club is moving to a different town – things can never really be the same. It’s worth recalling what Brawn GP brought to Formula 1. Emerging from the remnants of the former Honda team, Brawn’s astute implementation of the new F1 regulations introduced for 2009 produced a car that thoroughly shook up the pack. And, right down to the minimalist white-and-yellow colour-scheme, they did it with a style and – to take a shamelessly romanticised view – a privateer spirit that was somehow evocative of a bygone era. All of which was accentuated by the odd ‘retro’ look of the 2009 cars and the fact that, in Jenson Button – the Man Who Would Be World Champion – Brawn had a driver with a dash of old-fashioned Gentleman Racer about him.

The fact that an Abu Dhabi investment company is involved in the takeover means the new set-up has a much more ‘corporate’ look about it. Yet Mercedes is a name of great tradition – Fangio taking the driver’s title for them way back in 1955. And this is perhaps the consolation for Brawn followers: that the latest incarnation of the Mercedes Silver Arrow may build on what Brawn achieved by enabling the team to stay in contention in years to come with powers like Ferrari and McLaren (whose 15-year partnership with Mercedes has meanwhile been re-assessed) and any other would-be title challengers. Otherwise, there was always the risk that Brawn would fade away to also-ran status in the F1 mid-field, unable to live up to their one great season in the limelight. Sustained success for Mercedes racing under its own name would represent a fundamental shift in the F1 landscape – and that would be Brawn GP’s enduring legacy.