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From what I have read Honda were so concerned about the bad PR of pulling the plug on the team they gave Brawns management enough, a large sum, to run the team for the year, hopefully until a buyer could be found. Mercedes stepped in and everything worked out. This was possibly cheaper than paying everybody redundancy money. That's what I read anyway.

drledford93 wrote:

JamesB wrote:Well, pulling the question back towards BRAWN, I'd say (even at risk of repeating something said lots of times by others ) that it was past and not future boosting Brawn: it was the millions invested by Honda that produced output in 2009.

So Honda had already developed the '09 car when they left? What about the day-to-day operational costs since there were virtually no sponsors? That's what I was more concerned about.

Yes, the car was designed prior to Honda pulling out. My neighbor, when I lived in Oxford, worked on the design of the rear-end of that car (and still works there). The operating budget for 2009 was paid for by Honda as well. The cost for Honda to completely shut-down the operation and pay for all the severance to employees was more that the 80 Million Pounds they gave Ross to run the team for the 09 season. Of course that money didn't allow for a lot of development work, plus Ross had to let go ~150 people to keep costs within the budget he had.

d111298pw wrote:

drledford93 wrote:

JamesB wrote:Well, pulling the question back towards BRAWN, I'd say (even at risk of repeating something said lots of times by others ) that it was past and not future boosting Brawn: it was the millions invested by Honda that produced output in 2009.

So Honda had already developed the '09 car when they left? What about the day-to-day operational costs since there were virtually no sponsors? That's what I was more concerned about.

Yes, the car was designed prior to Honda pulling out. My neighbor, when I lived in Oxford, worked on the design of the rear-end of that car (and still works there). The operating budget for 2009 was paid for by Honda as well. The cost for Honda to completely shut-down the operation and pay for all the severance to employees was more that the 80 Million Pounds they gave Ross to run the team for the 09 season. Of course that money didn't allow for a lot of development work, plus Ross had to let go ~150 people to keep costs within the budget he had.

Now that you say that, I remember hearing that as a blurb somewhere (probably one of the broadcasts).

That's pretty cool to have a neighbor work on an F1 team! Oh, the questions I would have...

drledford93 wrote:

That's pretty cool to have a neighbor work on an F1 team! Oh, the questions I would have...

We spent many an evening in the pub discussing F1.

Hmm.., interesting history. It can be hard to follow the teams, as they evolve from one into another. Like the way Stewart evolved into Jaguar, and then into.., Torro Rosso was it..?

Perhaps a bit off topic: would anyone else like to see Dan Gurney's 1962, Rouen winning, 1.5 litre Porsche F1 car in plastic? After all, early VWs and Porches are pretty much the same thing, aren't they..?

Chris

Eagle50 wrote:Hmm.., interesting history. It can be hard to follow the teams, as they evolve from one into another. Like the way Stewart evolved into Jaguar, and then into.., Torro Rosso was it..?

Stewart became Jaguar, then Red Bull. Toro Rosso used to be Minardi. HTH.

Eagle50 wrote: Perhaps a bit off topic: would anyone else like to see Dan Gurney's 1962, Rouen winning, 1.5 litre Porsche F1 car in plastic? After all, early VWs and Porches are pretty much the same thing, aren't they..?

Chris

I'd sell my right nut for any new early 1960s car in plastic!

[quote="Eagle50"] Like the way Stewart evolved into Jaguar, and then into.., Torro Rosso was it..?/quote]
You must be joking!! it's current... RED BULL! with all its might!!

The latest GPI issue had the "DNA" evolution of current Mercedes, with BAR and Honda thru the way, sure...

Red Bull genealogic tree is also interesting, but for me the most interesting, by far, is current Lotus.
Let's see:

Toleman(Hart)-->Benetton (BMW->Ford->Renault->"Supertec")-->Renault-->Lotus.

It's amazing that throughout all their career they've raced against some or all of their further reincarnations at some or more pioints...

HRT itself is not bad: it has no fewer than three managements within its short history, not to mention that the founder didn't make it to the first GP!!
J