Filed under: Motorsports, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Honda, Ferrari
Ferrari F1 guru Ross Brawn defects to Honda
When Ross Brawn took a sabbatical last year from Scuderia Ferrari, the rumors started flying. Would he return to Ferrari? Would he sign with another team? Or would he retire from racing altogether? The rumor mill can stop churning now, as the mastermind behind Ferrari's dominance of the Formula One circuit, it has been announced, is heading over to Honda.
When Schumacher moved to Ferrari from Bennetton ten years ago, Brawn came with him and took up the position of technical director, the number-two spot on any F1 team, and together the pair built the team up. But when Schumacher retired, Brawn took a sabbatical, leaving his options open for a return. Some pundits speculated that Brawn would return to Maranello and take over management of the team from overworked CEO Jean Todt, but in the post-Schumacher era, Brawn will be hawking his wears elsewhere.
Following the revelation, Ferrari announced some changes of its own, promoting Stefano Domenicali from sporting director to team principal, allowing Todt to focus on the bigger picture. Several other changes in the technical staff were also announced.
Honda, meanwhile, has one of the biggest budgets in F1, but has seen little success in return. This past season, the Honda team has been embarrassed by the comparative success of their B-team Super Aguri... along with just about every other team, big and small. With Brawn behind the proverbial wheel, however, Honda is bound to become a force with which to be reckoned.
[Source: Autosport]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ducky 6:58PM (11/12/2007)
If by "one of the biggest" budgets you mean "as much as all the other manufacturers", you're quite correct. However, Ferrari, McLaren and Toyota all have larger budgets
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hashiryu 7:54PM (11/12/2007)
nope. They called it correctly.
Warren 9:54PM (11/12/2007)
I thought it was Toyota with the absolute largest budget??
But Honda is "one of the largest"
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FamilyGuy 10:07PM (11/12/2007)
Nice.. I want to see what comes out of this.
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blogged to death 12:53AM (11/13/2007)
Honda has one of the top 5 budgets as they change from year to year. Honda actually had a major increase when they built their own full scale wind tunnel last year. However the top spending teams are Toyota (largest of them all by a substantial amount) / Ferrari / McLaren / BMW / Honda.
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nagmashot 5:03AM (11/13/2007)
Honda has a high budget but not the highest
2007
Toyota 350million Euro
Mercedes 325million Euro
Ferrari 300million Euro
BMW 280million Euro
Honda 270million euro
Renault 240million Euro
Williams 180million Euro
Red Bull racing 150million Euro
Torro Rosso 120million Euro
Super Aguri 120million Euro
Spyker 100million Euro
seeing the money Toyota and Honda has used in 2007 and the result they would have done better to burn the money..
Toyota + Honda 2007 manufactor points
13+6= 19points for 620million Euro
toyota and Honda engine customers
Williams + Super Aguri 2007 manufactor points
33+4 = 37point for 300million Euro
They badly need a brain leading the team through a race weekend....
Dondonel 3:08AM (11/13/2007)
Toyota is one of the few major manufacturers devoid of any racing pedigree (with the sole exception of rally Celicas). That says a lot about the cars they built.
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Vexorg 5:14AM (11/13/2007)
Toyota also had a fair bit of success in the IMSA GT series back in the late Eighties.
FamilyGuy 10:32PM (11/13/2007)
Haha. That's a pretty funny comment.
http://www.supercars.net/cars/1804.html
D 5:24AM (11/13/2007)
Nice going for Honda F1.
And you autoblog people need to learn how to write. "Wares" and not "wears."
Get an editor. Or five.
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MikeInNC 9:13AM (11/13/2007)
This is a great move by Honda. Braun is a master of strategy and after the absolutely dismal season Honda had this year, they really needed this shot in the arm. It would be good to see a team with an F1 heritage like Honda back in the front of the pack instead of the rear. Picking up Braun is a great first step.
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adrian 4:08PM (11/13/2007)
Brawn moving to the Honda will give a much needed boost to the team. Maybe we might now see something from Honda like we did in the 1990's.
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