Brawn's Second and Final Test Before the Aussie Opener

What a fantastic finish to Brawn GP’s explosive introduction to F1 with the team strong throughout their three day test and finishing on top!

The first day of the new test in Jerez picked up where Barcelona left off, with Rubens Barrichello finishing on top again. The Brazilian machine Barrichello powered around the track to be the fastest of three Sunday runners.

As you may have read in my article or elsewhere the Brawn BGP001 looked very nice, and performed very well last week. This surprised a lot of people and left many believing that the cars were running light. 

However, the encouraging display this week has helped to support an argument that this may well (FINALLY) be the real deal! Rubens’s best time was over half a second quicker than nearest rival, Renault’s ace Fernando Alonso. 

Over the course of the day Brawn GP notched up 107 laps and tested a series of set-up and tyre evaluations, in addition to a number of race start simulations.

Many may well argue that the day would have been Alonso’s if he hadn’t made a small mistake early on causing damage to his R29. 

Though Renault made it back out for the afternoon, it could only manage 40 laps.

Sunday 15th March 2009

1. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn BGP 001, 1:19.236
2. Fernando Alonso, Renault R29, 1:19.819
3. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams FW31, 1:20.015

On day two, The legendary Alonso became the first driver to push the Brawn boys off  the top of the time sheet. The Spaniard may have finished on top but he was only about a tenth of a second ahead of Rubens Barrichello, which was still great news for Brawn fanatics like me!

On Monday Jenson joined Rubens and the team finished a highly exciting and respectable second and third. 

Rubens completed a series of set-up and tyre evaluations and covered 62 laps in the morning. Then the afternoon gave Jenson another chance to drive his new car. 

He began a race simulation before the ever threatening gearbox problem brought his running to an early conclusion after 12 laps. 

The team have said since fitting the new Mercedes Engine that there may well be reliability issues; Jenson was unfortunately the first to experience them.  I wonder what he would have been able to do if he had had more time? (I think he showed us on day three!!).

Monday 16th March 2009

1. Fernando Alonso, Renault R29, 1:18.343
2. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn BGP 001, 1:18.398
3. Jenson Button, Brawn BGP 001, 1:18.892
4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4-24, 1:19.513
5. Nico Rosberg, Williams FW31, 1:19.783

Day three was a brilliant day for Brawn GP.  The FIA formally approved the Brawn GP team’s name change on Tuesday and Jenson Button thought it might be a fitting celebration to top the time sheets! The Brit completed 114 laps sticking in a best time of 1m 17.844s. 

And that was it, Brawn’s final test before Australia!  What an achievement to finish on top!  Jenson along with the rest of the team will now return to Brackley to complete final preparations for the Australian Grand Prix on March 29 (BRING IT ON!).

Tuesday 17th March 2009

1. Jenson Button, Brawn BGP 001, 1:17.844
2. Nico Rosberg, Williams FW31, 1:18.071
3. Nelson Piquet, Renault R29, 1:18.382
4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4-24, 1:19.121

I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am at the moment! Even the ridiculous rule changes announced on Tuesday couldn’t bring me down from my high!  For me it was great to see the team on top, better still to see Jenson, my F1 hero proving to many people that he is just as capable as Rubens.

I may well get some comments for this article saying that Jenson is past it or hasn’t got the skill, but all I have to say is….Let’s see what happens in Aussie! I can’t wait!