This Race Car Made Brawn GP Surprise F1 Champions. Now It’s up for Auction.
Jenson Button won the Formula 1 Driver’s Championship in 2009 with an innovative car that took the entire field by surprise in one of the greatest underdog F1 stories ever. Now, one of those title-winning cars — one of just three made for the season — is going up for auction for the first time ever.
The car is officially known as the 2009 Brawn GP Chassis 001/01. It will be auctioned by Bonhams at the Miami Grand Prix in May. Button’s teammate Rubens Barrichello drove chassis 01 to podium finishes at four races in the 2009 season, including at the Grands Prix at Silverstone, Monaco, Spain, and Australia. Barrichello also drove chassis 03, which won twice, while Button drove chassis 02 to the championship.
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All the cars were of the same design, featuring a double diffuser that gave the Brawn GP team a flying start to the season. Button won six of the first seven races before other teams copied the design. Button didn’t win again but hung on just long enough to capture the title.
Chassis 02 was given to team owner Ross Brawn after the season, while chassis 03 was given to Mercedes. Chassis 01, the car up for auction, was given to Button after the season, and it remained in his private collection until last year, according to Bonhams.
Bonhams did not give an auction estimate, but did say that this is the first Brawn GP car to ever be put on sale publicly.
“This car represents the ultimate Formula 1 fairy tale – a revolutionary design that redefined what was possible,” Louis Frankel, Bonhams’ Miami head of sale, said in a statement.
That isn’t overstating things by much. Brawn GP was born from the demise of Honda’s Formula 1 team. Honda called it quits in F1 after a 2008 season in which Button and Barrichello didn’t crack the top ten; a worldwide economic crisis didn’t help matters. Ultimately, Honda sold the team to Ross Brawn for a single pound.
What followed has become legend, with Brawn hastily installing a Mercedes engine and showing up to preseason testing in Barcelona for the 2009 season with the lowest of expectations. There, Barrichello was quickest by a full second, an eternity for an F1 lap time. Brawn GP went on to win the Formula 1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships in its only season.
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