Brawn BGP 001/02 - The autobiography of Jenson Button's World Championship winner

Formula 1’s ultimate underdog success story. Created in adversity, the Brawn GP team won the Drivers’ and Constructors’

Championships in its first and only year in Formula 1 – a story that is unique and unlikely to ever again be repeated at the

highest level of motorsport.

This book is a thorough examination of Brawn BGP 001/02, the car driven to the World Championship in 2009 by the popular

British Formula 1 star Jenson Button, and the factors that went into its extraordinary success. The story is supported by interviews with key members of the team, including team principal Ross Brawn, and a wealth of images and official  company documentation never before seen in public.

It is a genuinely heroic tale based on foresight, resilience, fortitude, dedication, determination, engineering, innovation, application, great management, a high degree of talent on many levels, and intensive research and development – the very cornerstones of teamwork and race car design excellence.

This team’s achievement is one of the greatest and most unlikely triumphs in modern Formula 1, and it is fully detailed, from beginning to end, in this book, the 18 th in the Great Cars series from Porter Press.

KEY POINTS

Comprehensively illustrated with over 300 photos, the majority of which have never been seen before.

Specially commissioned studio photographs of the car today.

Interviews with the major players of the Brawn team – mechanics, aerodynamicists and the team principal.

Detailed diagrams and official company documentation.

Recollections and contributions from Brawn team principal Ross Brawn; team CEO, managing director, and chairman

Nick Fry; 2009 World Champion Jenson Button; and 11 Grand Prix-winning racing driver Rubens Barrichello.

Detailed race reviews written by the author, covering all 17 races in the 2009 season.

THE AUTHOR

David Tremayne is a well-known motorsport writer who has reported on every round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship since 1988 for a variety of clients — over 650 Grands Prix — including his own GrandPrix+ ezine, which is published within hours of the cars crossing the finish line of each Grand Prix. 

The author of more than 50 motorsport books on F1 and speed record-breaking, his works include Donald Campbell: The Man Behind the Mask, the definitive biography of his boyhood hero; The Lost Generation: The brilliant but tragic lives of rising British F1 stars Roger Williamson, Tony Brise and Tom Pryce; and Jim Clark: The Best of the Best.

His writing is recognised for its soul and passion, along with a deep understanding of the racer’s psyche and an encyclopaedic knowledge of motorsport history. He is a three-time winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Journalist of the Year award.

In what little spare time he has, and to keep himself sane, he also runs his own STAY GOLD jet-powered dragster project to challenge the 301mph UK land speed record. After peaking at 297mph at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire in August 2017, he walked away from a 250mph accident with just a skinned knuckle following parachute problems, and after being rained off following preliminary trials in the rebuilt car in September 2023, he is preparing a fresh effort.