{"id":50732,"date":"2014-12-16T16:11:16","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T16:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/issue_content\/michael-and-i-had-been-in-the-trenches-together\/"},"modified":"2023-03-29T17:07:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T16:07:03","slug":"michael-and-i-had-been-trenches-together","status":"publish","type":"issue_content","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/archive\/article\/may-2014\/30\/michael-and-i-had-been-trenches-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Brawn’s F1 journey: ‘Schumacher and I were in the trenches together’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Ross Brawn and Adrian Newey have won all but three of 22 world championships for constructors since 1992. The current score is Newey 10, Brawn 9. These two, more than any drivers, have provided F1\u2019s<\/a> competitive thrust for almost a quarter-century. Yet they could hardly be more different in their abilities and personalities. Title-winning teams have been formed around their differing strengths and weaknesses, and have risen and fallen with their arrivals and departures.<\/p>\n

Yet Ross currently sits on the F1 sidelines, eased out of Mercedes F1 just as it is apparently poised on the verge of success built upon foundations he laid. We\u2019re sitting in a hotel reception the morning after his induction to the Motor Sport Hall of Fame<\/em> and he\u2019s in standard-spec jovial, relaxed form. Given the immensity of his achievements, his induction and his current non-participation, it seems an apt time to look back on title success over two decades, to a career built upon a controversial partnership with Michael Schumacher<\/a> and encompassing championships with Benetton<\/a>, Ferrari<\/a> and Brawn Grand Prix<\/a>. If Mercedes<\/a> should go on to win the 2014 title, he will have played no small part in that on the 20th anniversary of the first championship with which he was involved \u2013 Schumacher\u2019s controversial \u2018option 13\u2019 launch control tainted, Damon Hill<\/a>-nerfing season with Benetton in \u201994.<\/p>\n

\n \"Ross\n
\n

Bond with Schumacher was formed at Benetton<\/p>\n

\n Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

\u201cWe had some tough times,\u201d says Ross, smiling. \u201cWe grew up together at Benetton. My formative years as a technical director were his as an F1 driver and we both made mistakes, were both wet behind the ears. That really made our relationship very special; we went through all that controversy together and stood by each other. It was a bit traumatic at times. It was like we\u2019d been in the trenches together; we came out the other side after a lot of pain and aggro.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael by his own admission made some questionable moves on the track. At Jerez in \u201997<\/a> when he hit Jacques Villeneuve<\/a>, he came back to the pits and said, \u2018That bastard had me off\u2019. I replied, \u2018Michael, stop. You need to look at what went on\u2019. When he did, he said: \u2018Oh shit, that was me, wasn\u2019t it?\u2019 At that level of commitment to win, it\u2019s right on the edge. That\u2019s what makes him so special. He\u2019d been through those situations and, although I didn\u2019t like it, I stood by him in support. Similarly at Benetton, there were things the team and I did that he didn\u2019t like, but he stood by and supported regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I was shocked when I discovered the Ferrari veto existed”<\/blockquote>\n

That last sentence is particularly interesting. Ross is speaking specifically of the Benetton phase of their partnership, a chapter of F1 that has yet to be fully mined and exposed. The main players \u2013 and Ross would have to be included as one \u2013 are not about to go into detail. But something was going on behind the scenes, a bigger picture than just Benetton perhaps. Ayrton Senna<\/a> had joined Williams<\/a>, the world\u2019s greatest driver getting into the dominant machine of the previous two seasons; a whitewash looked on the cards. But it didn\u2019t happen that way. The Williams was flawed, the Benetton improbably fast and Senna went to his death believing he was competing against an illegal car. Tom Walkinshaw<\/a>, a man who prided himself upon not being too constrained by what the rulebook said, was in charge at Benetton. That\u2019s how Ross, who had overseen the blockbusting Jaguar XJR-14 sports racer for Walkinshaw, got his big F1 break.<\/p>\n

Something enabled Schumacher to get out of his Benetton contract one year early; it was supposed to expire at the end of \u201996, just like those of Brawn and Byrne. Instead he was able to walk at the end of \u201995, after winning his second consecutive title, in less controversial fashion. Why did he want to get out and what clause was invoked? After the FIA had Benetton\u2019s Imola \u201994 software analysed. It was found to contain an \u2018option 13\u2019 that could trigger the banned launch control. But the FIA said it could find no evidence that it had been used, which seemed a fairly soft conclusion under the circumstances. The reader should fit all those pieces together to come up with their own most likely story. For the moment, that\u2019s all we have.<\/p>\n

\u2248<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

From the archive<\/h2>\n \t\t\n\t\n
\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArchive<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Ultimate Underdog: Brawn GP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t

It\u2019s always the same when a fresh group of Formula 1 regulations is implemented. Cars appear slightly odd when the first publicity shots appear, but after watching for a few…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSimon Arron<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
\n

Perhaps inevitably post-Benetton, insinuations followed the team about traction control and at times there was audible evidence that the Ferrari had some electronic help in getting its power down. But what Ferrari had during this time was not traction control in the strictest sense of the term, but rather a clever interpretation of the regulations that forbade any torque reduction reaction from the ECU to a spinning wheel. What the Ferrari system was doing was anticipating wheelspin rather than reacting to it and was thereby technically legal. Other engine manufacturers came to realise this in time and at least one was using a similar system before the technology was re-admitted in 2002.<\/p>\n

These are the murky waters of F1, pushing the rules and politicking. Everyone plays them, but Brawn perhaps most adeptly of all. But there was one area of advantage he claims not to have known. Many years later it emerged that Ferrari had enjoyed a rules veto since 1998, something Todt had negotiated with Max Mosley. \u201cI was quite shocked when I discovered that existed,\u201d says Ross. \u201cIt was never used to my knowledge and I couldn\u2019t see how you could use it. Perhaps the threat of a veto had more impact [on the FIA] than ever using it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"Ross\n
\n

Brawn’s formative Benetton years were spent under Tom Walkinshaw<\/p>\n

\n Paul-Henri Cahier \/ Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

In 1999<\/a> \u2013 Brawn\u2019s third year at Maranello \u2013 a constructors’ title finally came Ferrari\u2019s way, the first in 16 years. Prior to that, the obstacles were always the designs of Adrian Newey, firstly at Williams and later at McLaren<\/a>. Michael took a few against-the-odds wins during this time, when it was difficult to see the join between his own extraordinary skills and Brawn\u2019s strategic nous. \u201cIt was a golden era for race strategy,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI\u2019d had the good fortune of getting involved in strategy through sports car racing<\/a> for a couple of years before F1. So I had a better insight. It was a small group and we were quick, nimble on our feet. We probably missed a few opportunities because we didn\u2019t have the capacity to look at everything, but our hit rate was better than 50\/50. It worked for a number of years \u2013 and at crucial times. The impression I got of the McLaren system was that it was broader-based and less dictatorial and sometimes that let them down, though occasionally it was to their advantage because they would have scanned and understood the broader situation. In later years, with the speed of communication with the factory and the enormous modelling, there was less scope for an innovative decision to swing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2756<\/p>\n

Schumacher narrowly defeated McLaren\u2019s Mika H\u00e4kkinen<\/a> in 2000<\/a> to become the first Ferrari-mounted world champion for 21 years \u2013 and from there the team bestrode the sport for several seasons. The energy eventually began to wane as first Rory went into retirement, then di Montezemelo, in trying to plan for a post-Schumacher future by signing Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen<\/a>, triggered Schumacher\u2019s reluctant retirement at the end of 2006. Months earlier, Brawn had already decided he was going to take a sabbatical in 2007.<\/p>\n

\n \"Michael\n
\n

Schumacher\/Brawn era at Ferrari brought unprecedented success<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Negotiations regarding his Ferrari return broke down and Brawn opted instead for the altogether more difficult challenge of trying to make something from under-achieving Honda<\/a>. He would be in the team principal role this time \u2013 and without Schumacher or Byrne. It was quite a test. The 2008 car was woeful and he spent much of his time trying to keep the input from Japan from compounding the difficulties faced at the Brackley factory. The course of events there would directly impact upon the fortunes of Mercedes to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes three years in my view to build a team,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I joined Honda I tried to accelerate that process by not wasting time in the first year, just accepting what was there, bringing people in, getting to build a team up. That got abbreviated because they withdrew [at the end of 2008 following the world financial crisis], but that impetus and inertia just carried us through into the Brawn GP year.\u201d Incredibly, Brawn GP won both world championships<\/a> in its only year of existence.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

From the archive<\/h2>\n \t\t\n\t\n
\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Great\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGreat Read<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArchive<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdrian Newey drives his own F1 creations \u2014 on track in a Leyton House and Red Bull\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t

Early September, a couple of days after the Belgian Grand Prix and a few before the Italian at Monza. Christian Horner has just walked into the Silverstone garage, still sporting…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 2012\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDamien Smith<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
\n

\u201cHonda had made a huge investment and a massive effort had gone in to that car. That became Brawn GP for a year but it wasn\u2019t sustainable \u2013 we couldn\u2019t continue that momentum because there weren\u2019t the resources any more. We only had two cars for half the year, the spare didn\u2019t appear until mid-season. We were actually OK financially but concerned we might have to do a second year without a major sponsor. It was a finely judged year and we didn\u2019t spend anything more than we had to. Which meant there wasn\u2019t a lot in the coffers in terms of technical innovation, development for the following season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technically, there were two crucial components to Jenson Button\u2019s<\/a> championship that year in the Brawn BGP 001. The Honda engine for which the car was designed was replaced by a customer Mercedes unit that proved rather better. Secondly, the car had a double diffuser \u2013 getting around the intention of new regulations that limited diffuser size and steepness of ramp. This cunning interpretation had left designs from such rivals as Ferrari, Red Bull<\/a> and McLaren essentially obsolete before they raced. Adrian Newey was furious and remains adamant that the only reason the sequence of Red Bull titles didn\u2019t begin in 2009 is that the Brawn was not legal. In looking at the long-running struggle between these two giants, there\u2019s a sense that Newey finds it frustrating to have his creative design genius constantly thwarted by Brawn\u2019s interpretive skills, rather like the gifted striker who\u2019s forever being taken down by the burly defender.<\/p>\n

\n \"Brawn\n
\n

Button celebrates ’09 titles<\/p>\n

\n Darren Heath\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Adrian sometimes finds it difficult to hide that frustration, Ross seems to enjoy being magnanimous \u2013 which surely only winds up Adrian even more. \u201cMy nemesis!\u201d says Ross, smile a mile wide, eyes sparkling with mischief. \u201cI don\u2019t know why he gets so caught up on the double diffuser. What is legal? Legal is what the FIA defines. A lot was made of the double diffuser, but two other teams [Williams<\/a> and Toyota<\/a>] also had it and we beat them comfortably. A lot was made of the fact that we were able to optimise our car, but we didn\u2019t hit upon it until quite late \u2013 around August, so our car wasn\u2019t fundamentally designed around it and was still a compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have huge respect for Adrian Newey”<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we\u2019ve been in competition with each other, Adrian and I have been in slightly different spheres. He has operated within the creative side and I\u2019ve been in the operative element. But he is extremely competitive, very innovative, very good at interpreting regulations, a poor loser \u2013 like I am, I think that goes with the territory \u2013 and we\u2019ve been at each others\u2019 throats for 20-odd years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have huge respect for him. He\u2019s very talented but just has a different cross-section of talents to those I might have. You build a team around the people you have and a team built around Adrian would have a different profile to a team built around me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n

Button won six races in 2009, Rubens Barrichello<\/a> another two. \u201cJenson had his fantastic days, then sometimes the odd off-race. On his day, though, he\u2019s very, very, very good; great on the tyres, great in the wet. Put it all together with Jenson and you can do what we did \u2013 which was win the world championship. It got a bit sticky in the middle of the year, yet he really dug down and did the business. He came to me before the race in Brazil<\/a> and said, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re going to be OK today, I\u2019m going to sort it out\u2019, and he did just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brawn GP was bought out by Mercedes, making Ross an even wealthier man, but he was retained as team principal. \u201cDuring 2009 it\u2019s fair to say we had quite a number of approaches \u2013 some of them outside F1 but very big within the sports world. But because we had become close to Mercedes, we informed them that we were moving towards trying to find some commercial security for the future and that might involve other people becoming involved. It was then that Mercedes said, \u2018Well, maybe now\u2019s the right time for us to bite the bullet and have our own team\u2019. If I\u2019m frank it was a very good deal for the shareholders \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t the best deal that was on offer. There were more lucrative alternatives, where we could have had extra money and have it sooner because the Mercedes deal was staged over three or four years, but it was the right deal for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Mercedes could not simply carry on where Brawn GP had left off and even the return of Schumacher could not make the team a consistent winner. \u201cWe all believed the resource restriction was going to bite,\u201d Ross says, \u201cand the size of Brawn GP would be the model for where the big teams would be in the next year or two. Unfortunately, that simply didn\u2019t happen. The 400 people at Brawn GP weren\u2019t enough. We suffered during the first year or two as Mercedes, because we didn\u2019t have the resources. When Toto [Wolff] joined the team he advised us that Williams\u2019s budget was bigger than what we\u2019d been working on as Mercedes. The good thing was that Toto was able to go to the board and say, \u2018Look, you guys better wake up because\u2026\u2019 And the board did wake up. Even before Toto arrived we\u2019d managed to persuade the board to step up because the resource restriction wasn\u2019t going to be effective and, in 2012, we brought Aldo Costa and Geoff Willis on board and upgraded the wind tunnel to 60%.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut somewhere along the way I lost the board\u2019s confidence. We\u2019d not had a good second half of 2012 as I diverted resources to the 2014 project. They brought in first Niki [Lauda], then Toto\u2026 who without my knowledge appointed Paddy Lowe [as technical director, with the promise of team principal later]. I was informed by McLaren that Paddy was coming \u2013 and that\u2019s not the way I think things should be done. Then of course we had a much better 2013, so there was an about-face and the board tried to find a solution to keep me within the team. But I decided I wasn\u2019t very comfortable the ways things were. I think the team is going to be very successful this season and in a way it\u2019s frustrating not to be around to be part of it, but I\u2019m just going to have to be philosophical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philosophical, perhaps, but he\u2019ll be watching and waiting for the next opening. He is not short of offers and his title tally within the last 20 years dwarfs that of McLaren…<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"author":752,"featured_media":1332540,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[118712,124748],"tags":[34586,37569,167,35099,37566,236,34118,36362,35032,34619,34629,36364,34626,34640,115466,34095,228],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121677],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/50732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50732"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/50732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1332626,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/50732\/revisions\/1332626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1332540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50732"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=50732"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=50732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}