F1 rivals rally round to help new Brawn team as cash fears grow

Ross Brawn has praised a new spirit of co-operation in Formula One, inspired by a need to protect the sport from the effects of the global financial crisis, that kept the former Honda team on the track.

Brawn, recognised as one of F1's greatest engineers and pit lane tacticians, concluded weeks of protracted negotiations by taking control of Honda's headquarters in Brackley, Oxfordshire, and confirming that Jenson Button would lead the re-named Brawn GP team's assault on the 2009 world championship.

The fact that Briton Button and Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello will be on the starting grid for the first race in Australia on 29 March is testament to the sport's acceptance that old practices had to die if F1 was to survive.

When Eddie Jordan launched his F1 team back in 1991, he famously received a stark message from McLaren's Ron Dennis that read "Welcome to the Piranha Club", a reference to the fiercely competitive nature of F1 in which no quarter was given on or off the track.

But a need to cut the grossly excessive costs involved in keeping the F1 show on the road has led to unprecedented co-operation between former rivals. And that has included helping Brawn establish his own title challenger.

Brawn said: "It would be impossible to mention all of the people without whom today's announcement may not have been possible."

Among those he said he supported the new team were Mercedes-Benz, the aFIA, Bridgestone, FOM (Formula One Management) and the new Formula One Teams Association, FOTA.

Martin Whitmarsh, who has succeeded Dennis as McLaren's team principal, has been impressed with the way the traditional rivalry between the teams has been put aside.

He said: "Historically, Formula One has been a collection of secret societies. Previously, be it over legalities of cars and other issues, the environment in Formula One has not been conducive to co-operation and understanding. I think it's clearly very different now.

"Can I tell you and predict this harmony that's broken out is going to be enduring over the next decade? Of course I can't. But I think anyone who's been around Formula One for some time has never witnessed it before."

As an example of of the co-operation vital to the survival of Brawn GP, Force India boss Vijay Mallya had to give special approval for Mercedes-Benz, whose engines power both his own team and McLaren, to supply the new team with engines.

F1 regulations do not allow a car manufacturer to supply engines to more than two teams without the full consent of the FIA. That regulation meant that, in theory, Mallya could have vetoed Brawn's Mercedes deal.

Mallya said: "I could have objected but I chose not to because it is good for F1. Nobody likes to see a team disappear. We all have to recognise that we have to sometimes be more positive to keep the sport intact."