 Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn has been
a major influence on the resurgence of the Ferrari team. Brawn is the brains behind the
driving of Schumacher and their partnership has brought Ferrari success once again.
Born on the 23rd of November 1954 in Manchester Ross Brawn is one of the reasons why
Ferrari are back on top and winning titles. Married to Jean with 2 daughters (Helen and
Amy) Ross in his role as Technical Director co-ordinates the development of the current
Ferrari F1 car.
The development of the car is Brawn's day to day role within the team but he is better
known for his strategic decisions he makes from the pit wall. Brawn can take the credit
for many victories due to his quick thinking and flexible strategies. Although he often
changes a strategy he has already planned them out and Ross has a solution for almost
every scenario the race can throw up.
Ross Brawn arrived at Maranello in 1996 from the Benetton team. Brawn had always shown an
interest in engineering and how things were built as he grew up in Manchester. He was
particularly interested in Motorsport and the construction of high performance cars and in
1976 he was working for the Williams team as part of their Research and Development team.
His talents were soon spotted by the team, who then assigned him to work on the team's new
wind tunnel. This project was a great success for Williams. Ross was with the Williams
team for 8 years in that time he gained valuable experience in all aspects of the
designing and construction of a Grand Prix car. Ross left Williams to take the role of
Chief Aerodynamicist at the Force team, 3 years later and Brawn was on the move again to
Arrows.
Brawn's second creation in the 1988 season helped the Arrows team to take fourth place in
the Constructor's Championship, his talents once again caught the eye of those watching.
Tom Walkingshaw commissioned Brawn to aid in the set-up of the new TWR Design Centre and
to oversee the design of his sportscars. The end result of this project was the amazing
Jaguar XJR-14, which was an innovation at this time and went on to win the 1991 World
Sportscar Championship.
In 1991 Brawn was lured to Benetton to become the team's Technical Director and this move
brought about plenty of success. In a role similar to the one he is in at Ferrari now Ross
oversaw the development of the Benetton challengers, this brought about the Championship
win in 1994 and 1995, with Michael Schumacher winning back to back driver title's and
Benetton won the 1995 Constructor's title. During his time with Benetton Ross worked
alongside designer Rory Byrne and it was this partnership that was to be lured to Ferrari
alongside Michael Schumacher in late 1996. After Brawn and Byrne left for pastures new the
Benetton team fell back from the top.
In the years Ross has been at Ferrari the team has grown to become one of the top teams
once again, victory in the Constructor's title in 1999 and the 2000 - 2001 double success
has shown that Ferrari made a wise decision when employing Brawn.
Brawn was once again influential in the success that arrived at Ferrari in 2002. His pit
wall strategy was not called into the 'genius' range at all as the F2002 proved all too
powerful, but as always Ross on the pit wall kept everything running like clockwork in the
races even with Ferrari so far in front. However 2002 would also see Brawn miss his first
race for the team as back problems left him at home, but with modern technology so
advanced Ross was practically in the garage although he was in England!
2003 gave Ross Brawn a lot more strategy work to consider as the new
rules did not allow for re-fuelling after Saturday qualifying. This gave
Ross the chance to test his strategy's out in full as he had to not only
find a race winning one but also put-smart his rivals in the pitlane.
Some mistakes were made but they were never to be repeated and Ferrari
went on to win both titles once again.
2004 saw Brawn engineer more race wins from the pitwall and with race
strategies that brought out the best in the Ferrari driver's. A 4 stop
win for Schumacher in France being one of the major moments for Brawn as
he helped secure yet another season of success for Ferrari. In 2006
Brawn announced that he would be taking a break from Formula One after
nearly guiding Ferrari to yet another title only to lose out on the last
day to Renault. Michael Schumacher's retirement may well have affected
Ross's decision to have a rest, how long the rest will be and will he
return to Ferrari remains to be seen.
Brawn was to return to Formula One but not with Ferrari, instead seeking
a fresh challenge with the under-achievers Honda. Who knows if Ross will
one day return to Maranello.
Away from the hectic world of Formula One Ross likes nothing better than to go fishing
which is a hobby he loves almost as much as he does F1, a keen gardener also and in Ross's
garden everything is definitely rosy!! |
