Brawn eager to keep Jenson

Jeson has a 3 year deal with the BGP outfit which he amended taking a major pay cut when Honda decided to bow out. Jensons contract with Honda was rumoured to be in the region 8-10 Million. When Honda bowed out Jenson decided it only fair to help the team and take a pay cut helping to safe guard the teams future. Brawn GP obviously realise that Jenson is a fantastic asset to the team and have decided to renegotiate his contract which is currently muted to be around 5 Million per year. The team are eager to fend off any larger teams and also reward Jenson for the work he has done for the team thus far.

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Brawn GP - Wuppertal?

New livery sported on the rear wing again this weekend. The clearest picture I have yet to get shows Wuppertal which a Google Search reveals is a town in Germany, now what I can't currently make out is the web address that runs beneath the town name on the wing. Can anyone enlighten us?

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Brawn GP Being patient over sponsors

The team have already secured the following log term partners MIGFX, Perkin Elmer, Henri Lloyd, Ray Ban, Willans, Endless & NCE. Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group made their entry to F1 after years of teams trying to lure him towards the sport with a what was muted to be a race by race deal drawn up with the team. The last race at Barcelona saw a decline in the amount of livery designated to the Virgin brand and we saw a tie in with the movie Terminator Salvation which would have come via a deal with Sony Pictures. Brawn GP are in no rush to secure sponsorship as this year is being funded by Honda and the team is well on the way with the money they have secured from the aformentioned deals. The BGP001 is hot property with mass media interest so it's ideal at present to be making race by race deals to create maximum exposure to both the team and the sponsor. Whilst doing this long term partners are being found but those kind of deals take a longer time to fulfil.
Nick Fry spoke to Autosport earlier in the week and had the following to say:

"We have a lot of offers on the table and we are not badly off for this year. We can do the job with the money and resources that we have got at the moment.
"What Ross and I are looking for is the best solution for the next five years, and we don't need to hurry. We have obviously had a kind offer from Virgin but there are other offers on the table from big companies who perhaps can't move as quickly as a company as entrepreneurial as Virgin.
"We are biding our time, not panicking, I am sure you will see more sponsors on the car but it will be done in a considered way."

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Brawn GP - Virgin staying on board

With Barcelona rapidly approaching Richard Branson has made it clear that he intends to stay on board as a sponsor. His level of interest is said to be Title Sponsor however he has also said that should a more substantial offer come BGP's way then he won't stand in the way. This could give the team a total rebranding should the funds be sufficient. I love the current livery but it is a bit marmite and I know a few BGP fans hate it so with Virgin on board those fans could get what their after with a facelift to the car scheme. We may even still see another name change to include the Virgin branding. Branson will undoubtedly have to have adjusted his tact to secure sponsorship with the team as with 3 wins in 4 BGP are a team to be in bed with. Barcelona will also see a raft of updates to the car which are said to offer around a further 3 tenths, this should keep BGP towards the sharp end of the field thus offering great exposure to Virgin.

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Car Weights announced by FIA ahead of race

This year the FIA will release the cars weights ahead of the race so that fuel loads are no longer guesswork. Minimum weight of the car is 605kgs.

Pos. Driver Car weight
1. Jenson Button 664.5kg
2. Rubens Barrichello 666.5kg
3. Sebastien Vettel 657kg
4. Robert Kubica 650kg
5. Nico Rosberg 657kg
6. Felipe Massa 654kg
7. Kimi Raikkonen 655.5kg
8. Mark Webber 662kg
9. Nick Heidfeld 691.5kg
10. Fernando Alonso 680.7kg
11. Kazuki Nakajima 680.5kg
12. Heikki Kovalainen 690.6kg
13. Sebastien Buemi 675.5kg
14. Nelson Piquet 694.1kg
15. Giancarlo Fisichella 689kg
16. Adrian Sutil 684.5kg
17. Sebastien Bourdais 662.5kg
18. Lewis Hamilton 655kg
19. Jarno Trulli 660kg
20. Timo Glock 670kg

Analysing the figures it just proves how fast the BGP001 is as they have easily out qualified teams with much lower loads.

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Virgin Sponsor, Virgin Pole

That's right Sir Richard Branson has joined the team sponsorship lineup as was once touted. I feel the Virgin brand can bring so much to the world of F1 in terms of money and exposure. However Richard is doing his level best to neither confirm or deny his level of interest in the level of sponsorship being offered. It was a deal that was done at the very last minute (4 hours before his flight out to Melbourne so the reports say) but at what level is he entering the sport? Sponsor, Title Sponsor or Team Owner? It would appear that all the options may be on the table and although I can see the magnitude at what Virgin operates I wonder if owning a team at the moment is the best thing for Sir Richard. Perhaps this year will be the eye opener/toe into water scenario where the livery is where Virgin are involved and things progress further next season. It would be interesting to know if any clauses were put in place by Honda about imminent future ownership.

Photo courtesy of www.autosport.com

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FIA, Brawn GP, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Force India and Torro Rosso.....

Bit more than a love/hate triangle.

It has been bought to my attention by one of our rather astute fans (John Phillips) regarding a comment made by our friend Max Moseley.

"The current rule limiting manufactures to supplying engines to one additional team will remain in place."

Now this obviously brings in a problem for Brawn as we are the 3rd team to be supplied by Mercedes. I have since gone to the regulations to check and this is indeed the case:

"A major car manufacturer may not directly or indirectly supply engines for more than 2 teams with 2 cars each without consent of the FIA."

Before you all pipe up, I had already thought about this situation and think back to last season when Ferrari supplied theirselves, Force India and Torro Rosso. Now behind the scenes this must be why Vijay made the switch to Mercedes this year as Ferrari decided to back Torro Rosso. With Mercedes already supplying McLaren and Force India I assume that Ross has cleared the Merc engines with the FIA for this year. I assume that this is a 1 year thing whereby the next year only 2 teams are allowed the supply. So that means Brawn either need to secure new engines for 2010 or out perform Force India to continue with Mercedes. Make of it what you will.....

What are your thoughts?

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