Brawn GP - Updates

Not only will BGP make updates to the BGP001 in Barcelona a few updates will occur around the site in and around now and Barcelona with updates to the driver profiles and a weekly podcast will be coming to the site.

Race fans will all know that the return to Europe normally brings changes to the cars and this can impact the championship. This year will see the biggest change around ever in my opinion with all the teams amassing a raft of aero changes to the car. For Brawn GP this is the ideal opportunity to fully integrate the Mercedes powerplant. Leading upto the start of the season the Mercedes engine was drafted in as a quick replacement for the Honda engine that the team couldn't use. This lead to some packaging compromises to integrate the engine quickly with as least initial cost to keep the team racing. The only real showing of this from our perspective as fans is that the gearbox integration solution lead to Rubens having to have a gearbox changed (The Mercedes engine does not lubricate the gearbox like the Honda engine did and has a separate system) and also suspension travel was compromised at the last few races causing issues not only to the engine/drivetrain but to the overall aero setup.
Looking at advancements for Barcelona and the biggest advantage being bought forward will be the repackaging of the engine/drivetrain as this will increase balance/weight distribution Ross commented on the BBC forum programme post Sakhir that there will be a weight reduction because of this too which will help the drivers to place more ballast in the places they need it. Aero wise it's been remarked that BGP have a trick up their sleeves that no-one else will be able to follow so it must be an inherent design component of the setup they already run thats been redeveloped. I also expect some revisions to the front and rear wings and talks of revisions to the sidepods has already been mentioned by Ross. Expect an asymmetrical design to feature just as McLaren used last season as the Mercedes engine is much better at cooling than it's Honda counterpart. I will update the BGP001 analysis after the Barcelona outing to show the difference (where I can) to the first iteration of the car.