"The Bear."
After successes in Sportscars with Jaguar, Ross Brawn moved to Formula One with Benetton, where his strategical understanding of how to use refuelling pitstops effectively helped Michael Schumacher to his first two titles. He then moved to Ferrari, helping Schumacher to another 5 titles, before going on a sabbatical for 2007.
He showed up at Honda in 2008, quickly deciding to abandon the season in favour of being the best placed to capitalise on the 2009 rule change. Though Honda pulled out, Brawn GP (as they became) had easily the best car at the start of the season, largely due to the Double Diffuser loophole Brawn had pointed out to the FIA and the FIA had decided to ignore. This allowed Jenson Button to rack up enough points early on that the inevitable decline of the under-budgeted team failed to cost them either title.
Enter Mercedes. Schumacher came out of retirement to join Brawn, but he has thus far been outperformed by his team-mate Rosberg. Has Brawn allowed sentiment to woo him?
The biggest credit I think you can pay to Brawn, though, is that the leading two cars after a major regulatory rethink have been from the teams containing him and Adrian Newey. And that is quite the company to keep.
After successes in Sportscars with Jaguar, Ross Brawn moved to Formula One with Benetton, where his strategical understanding of how to use refuelling pitstops effectively helped Michael Schumacher to his first two titles. He then moved to Ferrari, helping Schumacher to another 5 titles, before going on a sabbatical for 2007.
He showed up at Honda in 2008, quickly deciding to abandon the season in favour of being the best placed to capitalise on the 2009 rule change. Though Honda pulled out, Brawn GP (as they became) had easily the best car at the start of the season, largely due to the Double Diffuser loophole Brawn had pointed out to the FIA and the FIA had decided to ignore. This allowed Jenson Button to rack up enough points early on that the inevitable decline of the under-budgeted team failed to cost them either title.
Enter Mercedes. Schumacher came out of retirement to join Brawn, but he has thus far been outperformed by his team-mate Rosberg. Has Brawn allowed sentiment to woo him?
The biggest credit I think you can pay to Brawn, though, is that the leading two cars after a major regulatory rethink have been from the teams containing him and Adrian Newey. And that is quite the company to keep.
