Ross Brawn

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Ross Brawn 2006 as Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari

Ross Brawn , OBE (born November 23, 1954 in Manchester , England ) is a British engineer and motorsport manager who held several important positions in Formula 1 . Among other things, he was technical director of Benetton (1991–1996) and Ferrari (1997–2006). As team boss of Honda Racing F1 (2007-2008) he took over the racing team himself in 2009 as Brawn GP and immediately won the drivers and constructors championship. After the takeover by Daimler AG in 2010, Brawn remained team boss of what is now the Mercedes Grand Prix racing team until he temporarily withdrew from Formula 1 after the 2013 season. Since 2017 he has held the position of Formula 1 Sports Director.

Brawn was instrumental in his career in a total of 119 Grand Prix victories and was also responsible for winning eight driver and constructor world championship titles. He became known to a wide audience in Germany primarily through his participation in almost all of Michael Schumacher's successes in Formula 1 as technical director at Benetton and Ferrari. His name was often used in connection with strategic decisions that were ultimately decisive for victories in conjunction with Schumacher's driving skills. This reputation earned him the nickname “super brain” in German reporting.

Career

In the early 1970s Brawn was a trainee engineer at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority in Harwell , Oxfordshire , where he studied instrumentation . His Formula 1 career began in 1976 when he was working on a milling machine at March . Soon after, he joined the Formula 3 team as a mechanic.

Brawn was hired by Frank Williams as a technician on his Williams team in 1978 . Soon after, he was promoted to aerodynamics in the team's own wind tunnel .

Further stations were the FORCE design studio, which designed the Formula 1 cars for the American team Haas ( 1985 and 1986 ), the Arrows team and, since 1989, the Jaguar sports car team . There he designed the 1991 world championship cars .

In the course of the year he switched back to Formula 1 at Benetton . As technical director, he played a key role in Michael Schumacher's Formula 1 world championship titles in the 1994 and 1995 seasons and in the Benetton constructors' championship, which he also won in 1995.

Ross Brawn followed Michael Schumacher to Ferrari in late 1996 - a year after Schumacher left the Benetton team as world champion. Brawn rebuilt the team technically and thus enabled the winning streak from 1999 to 2004, with Ferrari six times in a row constructors' world champion and Michael Schumacher five times in a row driver world champion from 2000 to 2004.

One of his greatest tactical achievements at Ferrari was probably working out the racing strategy at the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours in 2004, in which he helped Michael Schumacher to win despite a four-stop strategy that had not been practiced until then. His commands to Michael Schumacher also became known, for example at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 1998 , when he instructed the Ferrari star to gain a lead of more than 20 seconds in 18 laps in order to stay in the lead after the pit stop .

On October 27, 2006 Brawn temporarily ended his engagement with Ferrari and announced a private year. He was involved in 88 of Michael Schumacher's 91 Formula 1 victories. However, the Englishman stated that this time-out was not intended to be permanent and that he would like to work in a higher position at Ferrari in Formula 1 again in the near future. Because the negotiations with Ferrari did not lead to the desired result, Ross Brawn took over the position of team principal at Honda Racing F1 on November 26, 2007 .

In March 2009, the UK-based Honda GP Holdings Ltd, which had managed all of the Formula 1 team's activities, sold all of the shares in Brawn, who renamed the team "Brawn GP Formula One Team". Brawn stuck to the previous drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello .

In the first race in Melbourne there was a double victory and Jenson Button won six of the first seven races of the year and finally the drivers' world championship. On November 16, 2009 it was announced that Brawn is selling a total of 75.1% of its shares in Mercedes-Benz and Aabar Investment . In the 2010 Formula 1 season , he remained team boss at the new Mercedes GP team and held a 24.9% stake in the team. Brawn also sold this share to Mercedes at the beginning of the 2011 season . However, he remained team boss.

He left the team and Formula 1 after the 2013 season. After speculation about an imminent commitment to McLaren Racing , he confirmed the final end of his career in February 2014.

In March 2016, his former rival Christian Horner , head of Red Bull Racing , suggested Brawn as a leader with regulatory authority in Formula 1. In an interview in October 2016, Brawn stated that he would be available in a strategic role for a return to Formula 1. In January 2017 he was appointed Formula 1 Sports Director.

Stations

  • 1976–1978: Mechanic at Williams and March in Formula 1
  • 1979–1983: Manager Research & Development and aerodynamicist at Williams (F1)
  • 1984–1985: Aerodynamicist at Team Haas (F1)
  • 1986–1988: Chief Designer at Arrows (F1)
  • 1989–1990: Technical Director TWR / Jaguar Racing in the World Sports Car Championship
  • 1991–1996: Technical Director Benetton (F1)
  • 1997–2006: Technical Director Scuderia Ferrari (F1)
  • 2008–2009: Team Principal Honda Racing (F1)
  • 2009: Team principal Brawn GP (F1)
  • 2010–2013: Team Principal Mercedes Grand Prix (F1)
  • since 2017: Formula 1 sports director

Personal

Brawn is married and has two daughters. He lives with his family in Henley-on-Thames . His hobbies are fly fishing and rose growing. He's a fan of Manchester United .

Web links

Commons : Ross Brawn  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ auto-motor-und-sport.de: Mercedes takes over 100 percent of the F1 team , accessed on April 15, 2012
  2. ^ Daniel Johnson: Ross Brawn announces retirement from Formula One to end speculation linking him with McLaren. The Telegraph, February 1, 2008, accessed December 23, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Ben Hunt: Christian Horner: Ross Brawn can save Formula One. The Sun , March 14, 2016, accessed October 29, 2016 .
  4. ^ Daniel Johnson: Ross Brawn reveals he is ready to get back in Formula One's driving seat. The Daily Telegraph , October 28, 2016, accessed October 29, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Brawn and Bratches join F1 in sporting and commercial roles. formula1.com, January 23, 2017, accessed June 29, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Brawn, Ross
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British motorsport manager, team principal of the Formula 1 team Mercedes GP
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester , UK