Ross Brawn back in F1...
After taking a year's 'sabbatical' from Formula 1 last season, former Benetton and Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn has confirmed that he will be coming back to the sport, but as technical director of Honda.
The Brawn-Schumacher dream team that dominated Formula 1 for a decade from 1994 to 2004 was split up at the end of 2006 with the retirement of Michael Schumacher. Brawn decided to take a year out to rethink his future at Ferrari in what was a turbulent year for the Scuderia, a year that saw the firing of long-time Brawn ally Nigel Stepney under a cloud of controversy.
Brawn has decided to move to a fresh challenge with the Honda F1 Racing team, and it will certainly be as big a challenge as he has ever faced. Honda suffered a truly disastrous season in 2007 after promising seasons in 2006 and under the BAR-Honda banner in 2004 and 2005. He has an enormous challenge to turn things around, under what will be a huge weight of expectation from the Japanese manufacturer's big-wigs who have pumped countless millions into the ailing F1 team.
Originally Posted by Ross Brawn
I am very excited to be joining Honda.
Honda has a proud heritage in Formula One and the opportunity to help the team to realise its potential represents a fantastic new challenge for me in the sport.
The team has already done a great job of giving due consideration to its future and has spent a good deal of time putting in place both people and first class engineering resources to achieve its ambitions.
I look forward to working alongside what I know to be some very talented people and helping Honda to rediscover its winning ways.
Nick Fry will continue as Honda's Chief Executive, somewhat surprisingly given the team's shambolic form over the past season...
Originally Posted by Nick Fry
One of my main tasks over the past six months has been to attract new talent to Honda and we have made a number of key appointments in the areas of aerodynamics, design, engineering, marketing and on the racing team.
Today's announcement that Ross Brawn is to join our team is a very satisfying conclusion to the process of refreshing and revitalising a strong and determined team. Ross obviously needs no introduction.
His experience of winning World Championships in Formula One will be crucial as we seek to put Honda back into Championship contention and I am delighted that we will be working together to achieve that.