Ross Brawn is looking to repeat history by putting together a dream team at Mercedes that can take on Adrian Newey, just as Ferrari did so successfully in the early 2000s.
2010 and 2011 were both underwhelming years for Mercedes after winning the 2009 championship under the Brawn GP moniker. So much was expected when Mercedes took over the outfit, but a lack of success so far is not so surprising, when you bear in mind the circumstances that led to Brawn GP’s fairytale championship.
The restructuring of the team with signings including Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa, along with the earlier signing of Bob Bell, means Mercedes now have a very strong technical team. It was proven at Ferrari that if you put a dream team together then Newey can be toppled. Although repeating history is going to be a mighty task given the current competitiveness of Formula 1.
For Brawn GP to come out of Honda’s ashes and win both 2009 titles was certainly unexpected, and nothing should be taken away from the team’s achievement. However it has to be remembered, that the team started designing the car back in 2007, so had at least a year’s head start on understanding the new aero regulations that arrived in 2009.
Furthermore millions of Honda’s money was spent on the development of the BGP 001. Claims were made that it was actually the most expensive F1 car of all time. They were also one of the teams that started the season with the controversial double diffuser concept, which was the key innovation to have on the car that year.
Alexander Wurz (who used to test for Honda/Brawn) said: “The car was taken in three different directions in the wind tunnel. Two directions were found to be wrong, so the team could just switch. The Brawn is probably the most expensive car with the lowest operating budget ever.”
Jenson Button claims another dominant win with Brawn GP in 2009 (© Brawn GP)
In the early stages of the season Brawn GP made full use of the big headstart they had on everyone dominating the first third of the season.
From then on they slipped back as their rivals got to grips with the new regulations. By this point funds were limited as the true extent of Honda’s withdrawal was felt. The team had to downsize and around a third of their workforce were made redundant.
In the second half of 2009, Brawn were regularly down to being the third or fourth quickest team, which is about where the team have remained over the last couple of years as Mercedes.
The transition after being taken over by Mercedes certainly hasn’t been seamless as most predicted it would be. Plus must remember that as the team had downsized in 2009 they were lacking numbers and strength in depth compared to their main rivals McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Unlike 2009, Mercedes also didn’t have a years head start over their rivals in 2010 and 2011. Although Mercedes have invested significantly, it won’t have been anything like the amount of money Honda was chucking at F1. The current economic climate has forced everyone to be, in pre-2008 terms, frugal with their budgets.
Recently Mercedes have been re-building the numbers including those high profile signings of Costa and Willis back in October. Brawn worked very effectively with Costa during his glittering years at Ferrari. Costa was also a key man in keeping the team competitive when Ferrari’s dream team left.
Having been sacked at Ferrari, Aldo Costa joined Mercedes (© Ferrari)
Willis has had a very successful career. He worked with Newey during the glory years at Williams in the 90s. He also spent a couple years working at Red Bull from 2007 to 2009.
They join Bob Bell who joined Mercedes as technical director a year ago. He has had stints at McLaren and Jordan. However more significantly he played a key role in Fernando Alonso’s back to back titles with Renault back in 2005 and 2006.
Of his new recruits Brawn said: “Geoff is a highly respected engineer with over 20 years of F1 experience.”
He added: “Having worked closely with Aldo for many years, I know that he will bring dedication and championship-winning expertise to the team. Building a winning team is an exciting challenge for us all as we work towards the competitiveness and standards that we aspire to as the Mercedes-Benz works team. With a strong technical structure led by Bob Bell, we are moving ourselves into the best possible position to achieve our ambitions.”
The question is going to be whether this strong line-up with Brawn at the head of it can halt the domination of Newey’s Red Bull. Back in the 90s when Newey was dominating the sport it was Ferrari’s dream team of Brawn, Jean Todt, Rory Byrne and Michael Schumacher that brought it to a halt and started a long and successful run of their very own.
It took three or four almighty talents to join forces to put a stop to the British designer’s domination of Formula 1. Whilst the new look Mercedes team have a great chance of closing the gap, repeating the same feats as that team at Ferrari is going to be very difficult in the current climate of F1.
It’s a much more competitive grid at the front (© Getty Images)
Firstly F1 is much more competitive at the front with Mercedes having four very strong rivals in Lotus, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull who all have the capabilities of designing and building race winning cars.
We also have to remember that the 2001-2006 tyre war helped Ferrari massively. They signed a development contract with Bridgestone, and the two companies effectively became joined at the hip. Bridgestone and Ferrari worked very closely together to develop tyres specifically tailored to Ferrari’s needs.
Ferrari’s main rivals all moved over to Michelin. Michelin had two or three top teams to deal with so were never in a position to give one team the amount of attention that Bridgestone gave to Ferrari.
Currently in F1 all the teams are on the same tyres so it’s not possible to steal a march on your rivals in terms of tyre development.
Ferrari also gained massively from their private test track in Fiorano. They used to do miles of running ever day, even staying out when darkness began to fall. With only one in-season test a year that’s another advantage that teams can’t gain over one another.
Perhaps more importantly is that Red Bull is extracting the most out of Adrian Newey because they have built the team around him. This allows Newey to work in the way he wants and produce his finest creations.
When Newey was at McLaren he very much had to fit into the McLaren way of working. The team wasn’t built around him like it was at Red Bull. They didn’t always make the most of him and this in turn only aided Ferrari’s dominance. In his latter years at McLaren he got increasingly frustrated and left the team at the end of 2005. It would be fair to say Newey is perhaps more formidable now than he has ever been.
Adrian Newey is highly regarded as one of the best designers (© Getty Images)
Horner told BBC Sport: “Unlike Williams and McLaren, who already had structures which Adrian just fed into, with Red Bull he started with a clean sheet of paper.”
Another difference from the era dominated by Ferrari is that there is much more talent on the grid, in terms of drivers.
You also have to question whether Mercedes have a strong enough driver line-up to win the championship. Back in the Ferrari days Schumacher was at his ultimate peak and regularly delivered devastating performances.
Although he proved in 2011 that he is still a very competent driver, he certainly isn’t as fast as he used to be. It’s still very hard to rate Nico Rosberg. He appears to be a very good qualifier, but question marks have to hang over whether he has the race pace to win races regularly. Last year we saw Schumacher come from behind in races to beat him on numerous occasions.
Compared to the Hamilton/Button partnership at McLaren, Vettel/Webber at Red Bull and then the extremely formidable Alonso at Ferrari, you have to say that Mercedes’ driver line-up isn’t as strong as their rivals.
There is no doubt both men would be capable of race wins if they are given the car, but it’s hard to see them beating the might of Vettel and Alonso to the championship over a full GP season.
One thing is for sure. Mercedes didn’t part ways with McLaren so that they could finish behind them in the championship every year.
At Ferrari it took three or four years for their dream team to come together and start winning championships. Will the Mercedes board be patient enough to allow something similar to happen?
