Brawns and Buttons

 
I live in Italy where in Formula 1, Ferrari is a national team and I am no different in supporting them whenever they race but ever since the departures, first of Ross Brawn and then Jean Todt, one gets the feeling that the wheels are not turning as quickly as before. That is sport I guess with its improbables, ups, downs and surprises but with six races won in its first year, BrawnGP is injecting some variety into what had become a predictable three horse event between the big-spenders: Ferrari, Renault and McLaren.

I wouldn't say yet that Stefano Domenicali isn't a sound manager but he does seem to be wanting in the two essential instinctive qualities that are required of a racing team leader. The first is to do with appreciating the power of design. With the radical changes to the car design that the new rules brought in - it was critical that the project for the 2009 car began from nought - in order to produce a balanced result. From appearances anyway, the F60 looks too much like an evolution of the previous models with the modified wings attached and from the results, it is quite clear there is something fundamental that's not working.

The Brawn car on the other hand, born as it was to be the new Honda, bears no resemblance to the previous car. The fact of poor performances in the previous seasons obviously encouraged the idea of building anew using completely different concepts. Good design of anything is based on the principle that the quality of component parts must serve to attain the all-important balance in the whole. Not surprisingly, the BGP 001 is the only car on the track that looks right with the modified 2009 wings. There is also a hint of provocation in the wheel flanges painted lime-yellow and evidently driver comfort is no small matter! They say that Adrian Newey of Red Bull is the genius on the track but his design looks so ungainly, it's hard to believe that under temperate conditions it is supposed to be faster than the Brawns.

The second managerial quality is even harder to pin-point why some people have it and others don't and that is the racing instinct. The ability to feel intuitively how tactics will work out and also a wit that reacts quickly but calmly to unforseen events. The Turkish Grand Prix confirmed the inner strength of Ross Brawn and the composure of Jenson Button as the two critical phenomena of the 2009 season. We forget that Formula 1 is just as much about inspiration as raw technology and speed. It is also about team-play. Brawn and Button are well named for the motor-racing of today. From a sporting point of view, they seem to be taking F1 into a whole new era. Congratulations to them for giving us a refreshing change and for all the excellent racing thus far.