Posts Tagged ‘Formula’
Brawn GP Formula One Team History
Brawn Grand Prix is a Formula One team based in Brackley in south Northamptonshire, England which was formed out of the ashes of the Honda Racing F1 team in 6th March 2009. In December 2008 Honda revealed that they were going to pull the plug on their Formula One team in an attempt to save the Honda company money during the worsening global financial downturn.
This left one of the best funded and best equipped Formula One teams in the field in limbo while the management team attempted to find a buyer for the team and save 700 plus worker’s jobs at the teams Brackley HQ. Between December 2008 and February 2009 a number of possible buyers’ names were being thrown about by the media and team boss Nick Fry claimed the management was negotiating with a dozen possible buyers. The media reported that the team was close to being saved a number of times by parties including Prodrive, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and a ‘consortium of Brazilian investors’ however none of these came to fruition and it was soon looking likely that the only realistic option was a management buyout.
In Feburary 2009 it came to light that the Honda management were in negotiations with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and they looked set to buy the team however speculation ended when Richard Branson revealed he was interested in F1 but only once certain conditions were met, mainly that costs were reduced and that the sport was championing green technology.