Ross Brawn joins Honda & Ferrari announce team changes

November 12, 2007

Finally the cat is out of the bag. Ross Brawn will be joining Honda F1 team as Team Principal, bringing to an end, a year full of, which-team-will-he-join debate. And with equally good timings, Ferrari announced the changes in their top order with Jean Todt making way for Stefano Domenicali as the new Director of the F1 team.

In the past, there has been lots of talk of Brawn’s possible move to many teams, including coming back to Ferrari. Even we reported Brawn’s possible linkage with McLaren. But that was not to be. During the season I did read about Brawn being approached by Honda, but I must admit I never gave it that much of an thought. I always thought that Brawn will go back to Ferrari, possibly as Team Directory replacing Todt. And that is what Brawn had been saying all year round, that his first choice would always be returning to Ferrari.

Now, given the recent development, I just thought are things really the way they look ?

I mean, could it be possible that Ross Brawn had already made up his mind to leave Ferrari, and join some other team. Also his 1 year sabbatical theory could just be the cover up for fulfilling his contractual obligations. It is normal practice, within racing teams, to make sure that senior person does not join their competitor immediately, there is usually some time lag. And not to forget that Brawn joins Honda, which, let’s be true to ourselves, was one of the slowest teams on the grid (this also makes sense). Or am I just going bonkers ?

This brings us back to the same old story. No Ross Brawn. No Michael Schumacher. No Jean Todt. Ferrari looks so different now. But they are still carrying on with their winning ways and that is what matter to the most of us.