Many race teams have spoken of Brawn GP and they say they are a big competitor for the upcoming season. Tests are very promising and frequently there is a Brawn driver on top of the table. Brawn GP is not very well known yet. This is because it’s the former Honda team. After the 2008 season it soon became public that Honda would quit in Formula 1 and people thought we would only have 18 cars on the grid in 2009. However Honda was saved and the team is now called: Brawn GP.

Brawn refers to the team boss: Ross Brawn. Ross Brawn is very well known. He was at Ferrari at the Schumacher era. He had so much success and after Schumacher’s retirement he decided he needed a new challenge. Honda was not a competitive team at the time he stepped in 2006. They had confidence that Brawn would make a difference in 2007, but the car didn’t improve and filled the back of the grid. The same goes for 2008 and it was really disappointing after the success they’ve had numerous years ago. Now in 2009 things are finally turning the right way for Brawn GP. Two times world Champion Fernando Alonso was not surprised by the speed of the new car of Brawn GP. he said in the Spanish newsletter: AS. They’ve been developing the car in 2007 and 2008. Their focus was not on the current seasons they were in but the focus was somehow on 2009. That would be the year that Honda should be competitive. It seems now they’re going to live up to that promise. Although the season hasn’t officially started yet it is surprising to say the least that the Brawn drivers are doing so well.

It is even so surprising that McLaren is not doing well. They admitted they haven’t had the pace for a while and they only have one test left to get things on the road. McLaren has been driving with the old rear wing for a while, where other teams already adapted to the new wing standard for 2009. This seemed strange. McLaren is using a weird strategy and we must see how it will work out for them in Melbourne this month. Both teams (Brawn GP and McLaren Mercedes) can turn out to have different roles in Melbourne during the first racing weekend. McLaren is a top team and they will have a different role. They’ll work things out. You can’t earn points for being on top of the table during practice weekends. Of course you have to test the pace of your car a little and push to the limit, but you also have to analyze how your car will hold in the long run.

It’s interesting to see if Brawn GP is able to live up to expectations that have already been created during test success. So although there is absolutely no point credited for a top on the table result during a test, people automatically expect that everyone went to the limit with best efforts. There are however more factors involved and circumstances could be responsible for a slow team. In race weekend there’s no excuse for being slow. You’ll have to use the practices to prevent this.