by VALERIO BARRETTA
The “first” of Brawn GP
Fifteen years ago, the world was turned upside down, at least in F1. If there could be a watershed date between the past and current events, March 29, 2009 would be an excellent candidate. The winner 15 years ago was Jenson Button on the Brawn GPthe team just born from the ashes of Honda which was then purchased by Mercedes for its return to F1 and therefore formed the basis of the domination of the turbo-hybrid era from 2014 to 2020. Following the Briton was the Red Bull by Sebastian Vettel, who held second place until contact with Robert Kubica which put them both out of action with three laps to go.
Had it not been for this accident, on the podium in Melbourne 2009 we would have had a complete snapshot of the future. A photograph that was not long in arriving, however, as Red Bull closed the gap over the course of the year and won six races against Brawn GP's eight: it was a Copernican revolution, which began to shift the reference points of Formula 1 from the Ferrari-Ferrari combination. McLaren to Mercedes-Red Bull, a diarchy that has shared power since 2010 despite Ferrari's attempts to enter.
Revolution, yes, but which however rewarded one of the most underrated champions in recent history, who paid for his low profile, his lack of showiness, and perhaps also the image of Brawn GP as that of a team that took advantage of a gray area of the regulation. At the beginning of 2009 we started talking about double diffusers and 'hole band', given that Toyota was also exploiting the same concepts. The principle was to increase the size of the diffuser and thus improve adhesion, with two holes hidden by the bellies which conveyed the air precisely towards the offending area. Precisely on March 29, 2009, at the end of the Australian GP, Ferrari, Red Bull, Renault and BMW Sauber lodged a complaint regarding the shape of the extractor profile. The FIA considered the solution to be correct also following the teams' complaint on 14 April. However, it was banned in 2011: according to Adrian Newey it was a political decision by Max Mosley to oust Ferrari and McLaren from the title.
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