Ross Brawn is a name that will forever be etched into the annals of Formula One. While he may no longer be active within its complex world, the tremors of his ingenuity are still being felt.
There would be no team feeling the tremors more so at the moment than Mercedes AMG Petronas, who at the Russian Grand Prix clinched their first constructors’ championship as a marque.
This incredible feat, which was achieved with three races still to spare in the season, can be credited to the 12 out of 16 victories so far achieved thanks to their championship leading drivers in Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Nine of those occasions were also one-two finishes for the Silver Arrows.
Felicitations duly go out to the team’s management in Toto Wolff, Paddy Lowe and Niki Lauda, as well as Andy Cowell who is the head of the Mercedes-Benz power-unit development at their Brixworth facility.
For sure, all the staff and engineers at Brackley and Brixworth have rightfully earned this championship.
However the seeds for 2014’s success story were planted much earlier than many might think, hence the crediting of Brawn, as this operation very much begun with him in 2010.
Coming off the surprise success of 2009, which saw Brawn pick up the pieces left over by the defunct BAR Honda team and then claim both the constructors’ and drivers’ championships, Mercedes-Benz decided to integrate themselves back into Formula One more than 50 years after leaving.
The newly branded Mercedes AMG squad saw the return from retirement of Brawn’s old colleague Michael Schumacher, who had won all seven of his championships with the Briton engineering him. Young Rosberg too was recruited and paired alongside the German legend.
Between 2010 and 2014 Red Bull Racing, along with their engine supplier Renault, dominated the sport. Sebastian Vettel became the youngest-ever world champion in 2010 and continued to rewrite the history books, piloting an Adrian Newey designed chassis.
During this time, Brawn began accumulating various personnel for the year 2014. By this time, it had been made clear a big shift in the regulations would be coming that year, which would involve a switch to smaller, turbocharged and hybrid engines.
Aldo Costa, who was big at Ferrari, was plucked and brought over to Brackley. Not long after he was made a deputy team principal at Williams, Toto Wolff announced he’d be on his way to Mercedes AMG too.
It was unclear from the outside why there was such a mass poaching of key engineers and management people going on. But inside there was a plan.
The biggest fish that Brawn caught however was Hamilton in 2012, who announced he’d be leaving his long-time home at McLaren. And for McLaren the news got even worse, with their technical director Lowe also leaving for Mercedes AMG.
While there were glimpses of speed from the team from 2012, there was no real championship threat. Rosberg claimed his maiden pole position and race victory in China that year, and while Schumacher endured a fair share of rotten luck, his third place finish in Valencia showed his ability to drive the car well.
With Schumacher out and Hamilton in, in 2013 questions were asked during the first half of the season if a genuine championship pursuit would be made. Seven pole positions and three race wins didn’t put them close to winning the title, but ensured they finished second in the constructors’ standings ahead of Ferrari and Lotus.
So while the drivers’ championship is still being hotly contested by Hamilton and Rosberg over the final three races of the season, the team can certainly pat themselves on the back for coming into this new generation prepared.
And even though he may not be around anymore, credit must be given to Ross Brawn, who helped the team at Brackley win this championship, four years in the making.
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