#3; Normal service will now be resumed

Brawn GP. Ahh such asweet words. After 3-4 months of back and forth rumours, of announcements being false and of deadlines being pushed aside, Honda Racing finally have a future under the guise of Brawn GP. As a Honda fan, the news comes as a startling relief and a fantastic chance to forget about the troubles and annoyances of the winter concerning the team and now the chance to look forward to a bright future. even better was the fact this news came with the confirmation that Rubens Barrichello will get at least another year in Formula 1 alongside Jenson Button, so the Honda team pretty much are all sticking together with a new name both in the car and outside of it. Although being told the news by a fellow Honda fanatic at 1am (thanks again Lou!) was the most awakening and unexpected announcement I was expecting to be honest. I mean, the team was surely going to survive, but actually getting the confirmation was the most fantastic feeling.

This seems like a good opportunity to express why I personally feel so devoted to this team. Why is it that a team that only stood on their own two feet for 3 years recently in F1, as well as their partnership with British American Racing for 6 years before that, mean so much to me? They only achieved 1 win in this time and several podiums, and they never blew the grid away with startling performances consistently and always found space to qualify towards the back of the grid more than at the front. They have a reputation for picking themselves up and walking out of the sport with their tails between their legs when things get rough in the sport for them. Yet I could easily tell you that Honda mean a lot more to me as a fan of a team than the rest of the grid right now.

I'm too young to know what they as an engine supplier in the 60's and 80's. Formula 1 started for me in 1995 when I started watching the odd grand prix before really getting into the sport in 1997. Under British American Racing, Honda didn't do miracles as an engine supplier there. BAR had Craig Pollock running the team which meant he gave a stupid amount of bias towards his overrated former world champion jacques Villeneuve. It may seem harsh to Jacques because in 1997 he did a great job for Williams and we had that epic showdown between him and Schumacher in Jerez. But apart from that year, I feel that Villeneuve did nothing to improve his reputation and skill as a driver, and his career went downhill before it had the chance to peak. But anyways, back to Honda. When dave Richards came into the team in 2002, things started to pick up. He managed to get Jenson Button after a disappointing year with both Villeneuve and Panis, and soon into 2002, Villeneuve was dropped from the team and replaced with the inexperienced Takuma Sato. 2004 though was when Honda, still under BAR, really started to catch my attention as a racing fan.

The year was a considerable success for Richards and the team. Several times throughout the year, Jenson managed to get podium finishes. The San Marino GP at Imola saw Jenson get his first ever pole position in Formula 1. Amazingly, the team finished 2nd in the constructor's championship this year behind the ever dominating Ferrari. The irony of this personally is that this saw me torn between these two top teams; I was never a big fan of Ferrari yet they were the team responsible for my favourite driver on the grid, Rubens Barrichello. At the same time, I had a great deal of admiration for BAR Honda here as they had made massive improvements, they seemed like a team willing to go all the way to succeed and they had a great driver in Jenson Button who was really starting to show just how much the team needed a driver like him and how replacing Panis with Button and eventually Villeneuve with Sato was making a huge difference in the team. 2004 was an amazing year; 7 podiums for the team (6 Button, 1 Sato), a pole position and 2nd in the championship. But no win. And sadly 2005 wasn't to be that year we'd see the team get that win. 2005 was very much not what BAR Honda were expecting... disqualifications for car weight issues, poor performances, and unreliabaility. By the end of 2005, things changed... Sato had gone and British American Tobacco had gone. Now it was just Honda, and now things were about to change.

2006 saw Jenson get a new teammate, and as stated previously in this entry, it turned out to be the man I most enjoy watching in F1 - Rubens Barrichello. Now they had a team with a solid engine, a solid setup and surely success in the near future. Honda were now a constructor, they weren't a supplier or anything, but they were the team. It started amazingly in 2006; in Melbourne Jenson pulled out all the stocks in managing to get pole position for the opening Grand Prix. It didn't result in that maiden victory but it was still a sign of what the car could achieve. It did take a while for the team to settle, admittedly especially for Rubens as he adjusted from life in that luxurious Ferrari to a 'new' team showing what they could do. Jenson managed to get points from the get go, and as the season progressed, both drivers started to pull in vital points. In the midseason of 2006, reliability began to frustrate the drivers and no doubt the fans such as myself; both drivers had retirements for several races and performance of the car was slowly falling. That was until August 6th, 2006 and the day that Jenson Button (in the most extraordinary of circumstances) pulled out both his and Honda's first win. You can almost laugh at the fashion in which it happened; Both Rubens and Jenson had managed to qualify in a fantastic 3rd and 4th position respectively, but this was until Jenson was forced to have an engine change demoting his starting position down to 14th. Despite this, the manic conditions on the day involving rain, safety cars and incidents coming and going pproduced a fantastic performance from Jenson as he rose from this position to challenge Fernando Alonso after a key choice not to pit during a safety car was out. Alonso soom decided to pit for dry tyres from the drying conditions and had a big enough lead to do this comfortably. As he came out of the pits and went around the first corner, his car was looking erratic. Soon enough, the World Champion simply stroll off the circuit due to the failure of his driveshaft and Jenson had the lead. From here in, it was a simple formality for Jenson and he had managed to bag his first win producing celebrations within the Honda paddock and around the UK for fans watching at home on a beautiful summer's afternoon. Despite Rubens' fantastic starting position of 4th, a 1-2 could've been the icing on the cake but it wasn't to be; Barrichello still achieved a respectable 4th position and more points for Honda that were always welcome. The sheer adjulation of Jenson's eyes as he got out of his car and faced the crew at Honda is a sight us Honda fans will never, ever forget.
The remainder of the season was a success as high point finishes came flooding in for the team; once again in the final race of the season Button started in 14th and this time didn't win but ended up on the podium in a magnificent 3rd place, as well as Rubens picking up points in the background. By the end of the season, 4th position in the constructors was a great start for Honda. Sadly, this would be their best year as from here on in, aerodynamic issues and more performance problems would constantly plague the team.

2007 and 2008 were not the best of years for Honda at all. An incredible risk was taken by not having any proper advertising on the car minus an evironmental awareness setup under the name Earth Dreams showing the team's environmental message despite the pollution and carbon footprint that many environmentalists complain about within the world of Formula 1. This new look and message didn't provide anything as nightmares rather tham dreams were the keyword to explain the team's performance in 07; only 3 points finishes and 6 points in total were the tally of the 2007 season and 2008 only produced 14 points for the team and yet ironcally a lower finish in the constructors championship. The one bit of glory within these two years saw a fantastic drive from Barrichello in completely manic wet conditions result in a 3rd position finish thanks to a strategy from the team that obviously paid dividends. Funnily enough this would've resulted in 2nd if a pti stop refuelling issue didn't slow down Ruben's final pitstop but the team happily took the 3rd place they achieved and mass euphoria greeted Barrichello as he left the cockpit and happily celebrated much in the same way with jenson two years earlier at the Hungaroring. In this season, Rubens broke the record for the most grand prixs driven by any driver in the sport, beating Ricardo patrese's record of 256 races.

So what is it about this story that makes Honda such a team to deserve this kind of recognition? As a fan of several components of the more recent team such as Barrichello, Button and Ross Brawn behind the scenes, the fact they hold so many pieces together in terms of the personalities that have made me love F1 is a huge factor. It was frustrating to see the team struggle so much after those few years of moderate success in 04, 05 and part of 06. The Honda name itself is a name synonomous with motorsport and seeing this team come from a mere supplier to the likes of a dying Jordan team and British American Racing to the likes of Button and Barrichello getting the best out of the car was something that always attracted me. It's a fantastic relief to see that everything has finally fallen into place for everyone here; Brackley have managed to keep most of it's workforce and continue on with a car it's been developing over a winter of disrespute in 2008 and 2009, Ross Brawn has managed to finally secure the deal to run the team and Button and Barrichello once more team up to do what they can for the team and it's fans. That is another factor for me in those two drivers; since Barrichello joined the various press shoots and events that the team have been involved in have seen both Rubens and Jenson seem to enjoy each other's company and share their knowledge of the car to do whatever they can to improve it. Whilst the final 2 years of Honda weren't anything to write home about, the dedication of these two drivers shows that success isn't everything to be happy about; both jenson and Rubens shows plenty of hard word to improve what they could in a difficult car. rubens himself is widely regarded as one of the nicest guys to grace his presence in the sport of F1 and Jenson still has plenty of years ahead of him to achieve the success I feel he fully deserves. Over this winter where both drivers had no idea whether they had a future anymore for various reasons, they stuck by the team that they'd served for years now. For Rubens it was potentially the idea that the young nephew of the late, great Ayrton Senna could take his place in the team and that the new Honda team would bring in youth over experience with Bruno, whilst for Jenson the lack of testing and no clear indication of a future for the team could easily have seen him moved to a team such as Toro Rosso and know he'd definitely have a future. Some may call it stupid to wait so long for a decision and news about your future but I truly respect the dedication they've served towards this team despite all the issues and problems of the previous 2 years.

So that's Honda from my point of view. Onto the future and the life of Brawn GP and hopefully success in the future. As I type this I've seen a picture on autosport of jenson back out there testing for the team and it fills me with such a sense of happiness to see this that I can't describe to you just how it feels. I'm personally not expecting Brawn GP to have huge success in 2009 due to the constraints of the winter and the long winded affair with this deal but I'll definitely be behind the team 100% once more, and I hope that others will soon join me in supporting Rubens, Jenson, Ross and the entire team at Brawn GP in a successful future.