Rubens Barrichello - BRAWNGP - Team

Rubens is probably best known for his time at Ferrari but he is far from a 1 dimensional character and is now the most experienced driver in the F1 field with 267 starts. Another driver that started out in Karting he started his Formula career in 1990 in the Vauxhall Lotus series in which he won at the first asking a feat he followed in 1991 in the British Formula 3 championship in 1992 he nearly entered F1 but decided to compete in Formula 3000 and finished 3rd.

1993 Rubens joined Jordan unfortunately the Jordan was unreliable and suffered badly towards the end of most races. He finished 18th in the Championship and scored 3 points (Scored in Japan ending the race in 5th)

1994 Continuing at Jordan, Rubens was in great shape at the start of the season scoring a 4th place on home soil (Brazil) and his first career podium at Aida (3rd). However at the next race San Marino, Rubens career was nearly ended when he suffered a violent crash in Friday practice. This was a very unfortunate weekend for F1 as both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna both crashed and died. Rubens continued to score points throughout the rest of the season taking 4th place in Britain, Italy, Portugal and Australia to leave him with 19 points and 6th place in the Championship.

1995 Again at Jordan, The Jordan was even less reliable than the 94 season and Rubens struggled to bring the car home on 9 weekends. Notably in Canada Rubens climbed the podium with a 2nd place finish. He scored the rest of that seasons points (11) in France and Germany with 6th place finishes. He finished the season in 11th position.

1996 To be Rubens last season with Jordan, the team were optimistic that their fate could change as they brought on board new sponsorship and took over the works peugeot contract from McLaren. Struggling once again with the cars consistency when the car managed to survive the race he gained points in all but 2 races and completed the season with 14 points and 8th in the Championship.

1997 Rubens made the switch to Stewart a team in it's Rookie season and this showed by the poor consistency from the car's performance. The stand out performance came at Monaco where Rubens bought the Stewart home in 2nd. It would be his only points paying position of the year with only 2 other finishes in Italy and Austria. He finished the season in 13th with 6 points

1998 Another lacklustre Stewart left him with only 5 finishes 2 of which he piloted to 5th (Spain & Canada) scoring 4 points for the season and placing him 12th in Championship.

1999 The team had finally produced a decent car for Rubens to score points. He had 3 3rd place finishes at San Marino, France and the European GP with a spattering of points paying positions throughout the rest of the season. He steered the car to 7th in the Championship and 21 points.

2000 Was Rubens maiden year with Ferrari and he joined up with Michael Schumacher who he had been racing against since his inception to F1 in 93. It was a great years for Rubens topped only by his maiden F1 win at the German GP. He made 9 trips to the podium scoring 62 points along the way giving him 4th position in the Championship.

2001 Another great season at Ferrari for Rubens but the top spot eluded him this year with 10 trips to the podium scoring 56 points along the way and finishing 3rd in the Championship.

2002 For Rubens great season with 4 wins and 10 podium finishes in all, without his 3 retirements and DNS he may have had some challenge to the rampant Schumacher. He scored 77 points and finished 2nd in the Championship. The talking point of the year was when at Austria Ruben's let Michael pass to take the victory on the start/finish straight. This was the end of team orders from here in.

2003 Again at Ferrari, Rubens had wins at both Silverstone and Suzuka, he climbed the podium a further 6 times that season to accumulate a Tally of 65 points and 4th in the Championship.

2004 Another staggering year for Rubens with wins at Italy and China and podiums at 14 races in total. He scored an Almighty 114 points and was only eclipsed by his team mate Schumacher to take 2nd position.

2005 To be Rubens last at Ferrari, the Ferrari struggled this year with it's Bridgestone tyres as the Michelin teams seemed to have more of the rub of it. With 4 podiums he scored 38 points and finished 8th in the Championship.

2006 Rubens joined Honda Racing F1 and teamed with Jenson Button. Rubens struggled with the car initially as it didn't suit his driving style, once some modifications were made to the braking system he became more at home with the car. Rubens scored 30 points and took 7th place in the Championship.

2007 Was a bad year for Honda and this reflected in Rubens pace/finishes. He scored no points in 07 but managed to finish all but 2 races. His best position of the season was at Silverstone where he finished 9th.

2008 Another lacklustre Honda for 08 but still Rubens plugged away only retiring 3 times. He finished 6th in the first race of the season but was later Disqualified for ignoring a red light exiting the pit lane. He made a stand out performance at Silverstone in the soaking rain where his experience shone through. It seemed at first I was the only Honda fan in Beckett's realising what Rubens was achieving, shouting every lap he progressed and beating the odds but others soon realised and a giant cheer went up every time he came around. He finished 3rd at Silverstone and collected further points at Monaco and Canada to bring home 11 points and 14th in the Championship.

2009 The most experienced head in the field demonstrated by his tyre decision made at Silverstone in 08. Rubens will undoubtedly bring great things to BRAWNGP .

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Jenson Button - BrawnGP - Team

Jenson Button now racing under BRAWNGP has been around motorsport since a very young age. Progression from Karting to Formula Ford at the age of 18 and moving onto Formula 3 in 1999. He finished 3rd in the Championship that year and gained interest in the Formula 1 world. Frank Williams signed him to the Williams team for 2000 where he finished 8th in his maiden season.

Still under contract with Williams he drove for Benetton in 2001 and had a dismal season with the only consolation coming in the form of 5th place at Hockenheim.

2002 saw the Benetton team being renamed to Renault F1 and Button drove the Renault well with notable fourth places at Malaysia and Brazil.

2003 and Button left Renault for BAR where he has stayed although the team name has now changed several times. 2003 saw button alongside Jacques Villeneuve however the ex tyrrell car was still in need of much development. Button finished the season in 9th with 17 points. with Jacques finishing in a lowely 16th on 6 points due to many retirements.

2004 was a turning point for the then BAR team and Jenson's fortunes, he scored a pole position in San Marino and leaped onto the podium 10 times scoring 85 points and finishing 3rd in the Championship.

2005 was a bad year for BAR and Jenson, not only did the season get off to a bad start with the contract wrangling involved with Williams but BAR were disqualified at the San Marino GP and issued with a 2 race ban due to a weight issue with the car and holding fuel in the tanks. This led to a mediocre season for Jenson and the team scoring just 37 points and finishing 9th in the Chamionship with the Highlights of the season coming via 3rd places at both Hockenheim and Spa. 2006 bought another new team mate to partner Jenson in the form of Rubens Barichello of Ferrari fame.

2006 was full of highs and lows for Jenson with him scoring 6th overall on 56 points but having his first career victory at the Hungarian GP other notable finishes were 3rd at Malaysia and Brazil.

2007 was another dreadful year for Honda Racing F1 with aerodynamics being overlooked the 'package' just wasn't good enough to compete against the rest of the field and left Jenson looking further down the field with his best result coming in China (5th) and him scoring a season total of 6 points.

2008 was no better for Honda Racing F1 the 'package' was flawed once again leaving Jenson to scrap the car around, the decision was made mid way through the season to take all further development forward for the 09 car leaving Jenson way down in 18th on the driver standings only scoring 3 points with a best position of 6th.

2009 - With the retraction of Honda and many months in dark Jenson stood strong in the belief with what he and the team had ready for 09 would produce great things. He patience have paid off with a maiden pole in Melbourne followed by a great win for Jenson and the team, Off to a rain drenched Sepang, Malaysia in qualifying the weather was ok and Jenson notched up another pole position for himself and the team. To the race and the heavens opened Jenson and what followed was described by Jenson as 'a crazy race' the race couldn't go the full distance so even though Jenson won the scores were made at half, giving Jenson 5 points. Shanghai saw another wet weather scenario for BGP who hadn't been able to test wet weather setups during pre season. The RB5 of Vettel and Webber was superior in the wet and they took 1st and 2nd respectively. Jenson still made the podium in a great show of his driving ability taking 3rd. Bahrain is the next stop on the F1 whistle stop tour and BGP and Jenson were playing down their chances saying the other teams (mainly RBR) had caught them up. Jenson went on to place the car in fourth in qualifying, for the first time he had a KERS competitor close by and lost ground because of this into the first corner. With the more balanced car and great driving skill Jenson retook Lewis Hamilton at the start of the next lap, he consistantly hammered the car behind the Toyota's til they made their pit stops and he progressed back into 1st with a combination of both great driving and team strategy.

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History of BRAWN GP

A little insight into a team that has had many guises and can be traced back all the way to 1968.

Tyrrell Racing had been around in Formula 2 & 3 since 1958 but in 1968 they made the leap to F1. Tyrrell won 1 Constructor's Championship (1971) and helped Jackie Stewart win 3 Drivers Championships (1969,1971 & 1973). Unfortunately for Tyrrell this was to be last Championships the team would win, although they did win many other GP's. In 1997 the team was purchased by British American Tobacco and so completed it's last season as Tyrrell in 1998.

BAR (British American Racing) 1999 and the team had managed to lure Jacques Villeneuve into the driving seat for their maiden season. The team were using the Supertec engines. 99 was a disatorous start for BAR with Jacques not even managing to finish in the first 11 races. Zonta his team mate was injured for 3 races of the season, while sidelined Mika Salo filled in and managed their best result of 99 with a 7th place. 2000 was the first time the partnership of Honda showed through with them now supplying the engines. It wasn't until 2004 that BAR really started to show promise with both Jenson Button and Takuma Sato at the wheel. Button and Sato brought BAR in at 2nd come the end of the season mainly due to Jensons regular visit to the podium (10) and a score of 85. Button himself finished 3rd in the Championship that year. In November 2004 Honda bought a 45% share of the BAR team which was in 2005 increased to the full 100% and Honda Racing was born. 2005 was a poor year for BAR and they managed just 6th in the constructers championship.

Honda Racing F1 with Honda now owning 100% of the team things should have looked up, 2006 and they were said to have the most powerful engine in the field. This means nothing if all the other components don't add up leaving Honda down in 4th in the Constructors table. 2007 saw the new 'Earth Dreams' livery which was devoid of sponsors and tried to convey a green message. Whilst everyone else had worked extensivly on aerodynamics it appears Honda's 2007 car was rather lacking and suffered because of this with the team only managing 8th in the constructors championship. 2008 saw a continuation of the Button & Barichello partnership with Ross Brawn of previous Ferrari and Bennetton famebecoming team principle. 2008 was yet another dreadful year with focus being switched mid season to the 09 car to get ahead of the other teams. With 08 being such a dreadful year and the world in middle of recession Honda decided to try and move the team on. After months of speculation about different buyers/backers it was finally a management buy out that has saved the team, which bring us to the latest incarnation:

BRAWN GP the name says it all really as Ross was spearheading the management buy out. 09 will be an interesting one for BRAWN GP as although under Honda it had commenced development for 09 way back in 08 it now has to redevelop the car to take on board the Mercedes engine it will now use instead. Fingers crossed for a helf decent season and that the team can find some decent sponsorship to carry them over into 2010.

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