MARCH 31, 2009

Brawn already looking ahead to 2010, but jobs must go

Brawn GP's stunning victory in Melbourne was achieved despite errors by both drivers and this bodes well for the races ahead. At the same time, the team is very aware that the rival F1 outfits are going to be working on diffusers and other developments long before there is a decision about the legality of the systems from the FIA International Court of Appeal.

Brawn GP's stunning victory in Melbourne was achieved despite errors by both drivers and this bodes well for the races ahead. At the same time, the team is very aware that the rival F1 outfits are going to be working on diffusers and other developments long before there is a decision about the legality of the systems from the FIA International Court of Appeal. There is no reason to suggest that the court will have differing views from the Australian GP stewards and the appeals are generally viewed in F1 as more to do with providing an excuse for the teams that failed to think of the idea, than being a real threat to the results. At the same time, Ross Brawn knows that next year the team needs to maintain its momentum and with the 2010 regulations being quite different to those of 2009, he is keen to get the new car started as soon as possible. With no refuelling allowed in 2010 the cars will have a lot of different demands being made on them and the teams are designing them to meet these requirements.

At the same time, the team must downsize to meet its budget. At the moment the team has 700 people but the budget requires the management to reduce this by 40%, with as many as 275 jobs being axed. The Banbury Guardian, the team's local newspaper, is reporting that everybody in the team has received a letter saying that staff has to be cut from the payroll. The package on offer is reported to be generous and the team hopes that the process will be as painless as possible with voluntary redundancies being used as much as possible. There will, almost certainly, still have to some lay-offs that cannot be avoided.