Though many staff had to be laid off while the outfit was run on a budget through the 2009 season, the 001 car featured the innovative double diffuser design, which gave it an edge over most of the field.
With Honda looking to make up for its dreadful 2007 and 2008 cars, it had abandoned the latter year to focus on ’09. As a result, and despite Honda pulling out, the 001 was also well-developed in all other areas, meaning the rest of the grid had some serious catching up to do when the season got underway.
“The problem was we didn’t really know how quick it was,” Button told Motor Sport of initial tests. “We had all our simulations of what the car should do and we looked at the first test – which we weren’t at, we missed it. We hadn’t even shaken down the car yet.
“And when we saw the lap times from that first test we thought ‘Oh no, we’ve got our simulation wrong because it’s saying we’d be 1.5sec faster than that’. Then we turned up in Barcelona and on the first run were 0.6sec quicker than anyone…”
Brawn arrived at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix ready to race at the front – against all the odds
Button would win six of the first seven races that year. Though the competition, particularly Red Bull, would edge closer throughout 2009 as Brawn’s lack of budget told, Button held on to take a memorable championship win in Brazil that season. The team was then sold to Mercedes for 2010.
