The Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story is out, and it previews a documentary packed with adrenaline and controversy. It is a story of love and hate for the team that defied all odds, winning the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship Titles in its single season in the sport. The docu-series is presented by Keanu Reeves.
It started out as a matter of surviving in Formula 1, and then the team went big. Brawn GP is the only team in sport, which qualified from pole position on its debut race in its first season in the sport and then went on to win the Grand Prix. Jenson Button took the checkered flag at the Australian Grand Prix with his team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, right behind him.
People in the sport called it "the one-pound team." Ross Brawn, the founder of the team, explains that, in 2008, he gave one pound to the Honda executive to allow him to buy the team. Affected by the global financial crisis, Honda had just announced its retirement from the championship.
But Brawn GP might as well be called "the one-season team," because that is how long it remained on the starting grid. The team won eight of the 17 races that season.
"Best way to become unpopular very popular is to start winning," says Christian Horner, Team Principal of Red Bull Racing, who calls Ross Brawn a "smiling assassin." Red Bull Racing tried to keep up with Brawn GP in 2009, especially during the second part of the season. But they had to admit they were not fast enough that year. Brawn won both the Drivers' and Constructors' World Championships titles.
The Brawn racing cars, developed by Honda in 2008 with a $100 million budget, were powered by Mercedes-Benz engines. Actually, Daimler AG went on to acquire a 75.1 percent stake in the team, in partnership with Aabar Investment for allegedly 100 million pounds ($134.4 million).
Following the transaction, the team competed as Mercedes GP in the 2010 season, with Ross Brawn as team principal until the end of 2013. The team had already become Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 with Toto Wolff as a shareholder (currently owning 33 percent of the team) and, after Brawn's departure, as Team Principal, a position that the Austrian businessman still holds today.
The documentary goes behind the scenes of the team's ups and downs, on the track, in the garage, and the boardroom, showing exclusive access to the Formula 1 archives, most of it never seen before, plus interviews with Ross Brawn, Formula 1 World Champions Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, but also former Chief Executive Bernie Ecclestone and ex-Ferrari Chairman Luca din Montezemolo.
The four-part docu-series hosted by Keanu Reeves will make debut on Hulu on November 15.
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