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-   -   Brawn GP Series on Hotstar | Must watch for car enthusiasts (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intl-motorsport/276290-brawn-gp-series-hotstar-must-watch-car-enthusiasts.html)

Went to Hotstar looking for something else, and was pleasantly surprised to see this on the homepage clap:clap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD6V9l4gOGE

What an incredible show that has done full justice to the incredible Brawn GP story. Summary: Global financial crisis led to Honda exiting F1. Brawn negotiated a management buyout of the team. They had an innovative car with a double diffuser ready, but no engine. Mclaren-Mercedes agreed to supply them the Mercedes engine as Brawn was expected to be a back-of-the-pack team.

Well, what do you know?! The opening race saw Brawn GP win in 1-2 form!

This doesn't have all the masala of the Netflix Drive to Survive series (although I love that show too). Start watching it today and enjoy! The show's producers had full access to everyone from the Brawn team, Honda and even personalities like Luca di Montezemolo & Bernie Ecclestone.

Only downside is Keanu Reeves who speaks slow & heavy like a total drunkard. But he is a diehard motorsports fan since 15 - 20 years.

I was searching for this last night but ended up watching the nostalgic He-Man Revelations series on Netflix :D

This will be amazing, especially as I remember that season so vividly! Was so heart warming to see Barrichello back on the top of the podium (he won at Valencia I think?). Kimi having that iconic ice-cream moment at the rain washed Malaysian GP, good ol' JB get to the summit (finally!). Not to mention, the rise of Red Bull-Vettel era! Brawn was a genius, pulled off the shock of the decade in 2009 clap:

If you liked this one, do watch the docu-movies 'Faster', 'Fastest' and 'Hitting the Apex' by Mark Neale, former two narrated by Ewan McGregor and latter one by Brad Pitt, both did an amazing job. All 3 are available on Prime Video (on rent though), but worth it.

Hahahaha, spot on GTO, I just finished watching it and can't agree more. there are several instances where the show runner has to prompt from off camera to keep the discussion going.

This show is also a testament to the fact that it has become very difficult to justify F1 as a sport. ( I know the brickbats are coming!!) A botched pitstop can cost you the race, tires need to be put at a high temperature using warmers and weaving on the track before the race, and so on.

I see motorsport also losing its appeal for the masses along the lines of men's magazines....:Shockked:

Hardly the case. Thanks to Netflix and some good marketing investments over recent years, F1 is seeing a huge resurgence and is going from strength to strength. There is no need to defend that argument, it is quite publicly visible and already quite discussed on the forum.

Every sport has such aspects. A toss can change the fortune of a cricket match. A missed catch can also change the game outcome. Or a freak action by a player causing a penalty can make or break a football match. And so on... (one can draw parallels in every sport).


Very true for the magazines, but that is applicable across sports, not just motorsports. That is a problem of the magazine industry/medium, not motorsports specifically.

Nah! The sport has been on a downslide for over a decade now. Everything is about cost cutting be it engines, salaries, tyres, refueling. F1 was at its peak in the late 90s-2000s. You had the BMWs and Jaguar/Ford all in it. That for me was fun. Schumacher was at one time the highest earning sportsman in any form of sport. Compared to today, back in the day there was no dearth of dedicated F1 sites and forums wholly subscribing to F1. Ironically, I would say Brawn GP was the start of F1's decline in some ways.

I binge-watched the series last week. Superb editing and very well made. Anyone who had even a little bit of interest in F1 during the early to late 2000s is bound to really enjoy the series.

What a roller coaster of a year that was for Brawn GP.... Truly a fairy tale come true.

Spot on GTO. It was painful to watch Reeves. There were times he was looking at the crew behind the camera while addressing the interviewee. And his questions were so unprepared. But apart from him, they did a fantastic job with the documentary. I wasn't aware of the whole FOTA fiasco back when I watched the sport. Bernie was one hell of a gangster. He deserves his own show :D

To all the folks saying F1 is on the decline, and all the regulations and downsizing is ruining the sport - I might agree with you to some extent. But all of that goes out the window the moment a race weekend starts. All the arguments fall apart in front of the raw action on the track. I believe F1 will go on to become even more popular than it ever was before. The honest truth is that every motorsport will eventually have to become carbon neutral. Look at the latest Dakar rally victory for Sainz Sr - He just won in a petrol-electric powertrain (electric generator powered by a petrol engine).

For now let's enjoy the sport as it is :)

Viewership has seen a downwards trend over more than a decade, except for a brief resurge in 2018.

Source:https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...bers_over_the/

F1, Keanu reeves. Nuff said.
This is going on the weekend binge list. :)

The current cost cap rules were originally recommended during the time BMW, Jaguar amd Toyota were in F1. The conditions worsened in the 2008 economic crisis which meant many teams pulled out of F1. IMHO, I feel the cost cap rules should have been brought in back then. We would have a bigger grid today. The recent races, especially from 2022 onwards, show how much the competition is fierce -- the midfield is separated by 1 second in most races.

Refuelling was banned because of safety reasons, and I fully support that. It was a Ferrari if I remember correctly that had the fuelling line torn and still stuck on the car.

If anything, F1 has been very exciting now for the midfield battles, development wars (in season and inter season). Team domination was always there, with the field coming closer towards the end of the regulation cycle.:thumbs up

Watched the 1st episode yesterday. It was a great watch. Will continue when I get the time.

Funnily enough, 2008-2009 was the time when I moved to Pune for College in my Hostel. Didn't have access to TV. That's when I stopped following and missed all of this drama happen in real time!

Felt great to continue where I left off. Have watched neither the recent seasons of F1 nor Drive to Survive. No continuity so hard to figure out what's happening. But this was a breath of fresh air.

This is good info but only for consultants :)

Viewership figures might not reflect the spectacle of the sport, it may be one of the factors for sure.

I've watched most of the races since 2003 and below is my summary of the sport as seen and perceived by my senses:

-2003: Extremely competitive season, Kimi just falling short of Schumi

-2004: Boring season, domination by Ferrari, rise of JB

-2005: Ban on tyre changes, titanic Kimi Vs Alonso fight, though Alonso won the WC quite comfortably thanks to the MP4-20's hopeless reliability, but an excellent season

-2006: V10s are replaced by V8s and Ferrari take the fight to Renault butnjust fall short, Mclaren and Kimi are nowhere, rise of BMW

-2007: Again Kimi Vs Alonso, this time in completely different teams! But joined by a certain Lewis Hamilton, very competitive season and one of the closest finishes ever, Kimi-110, Lewis & Alonso-109

-2008: Ban on traction control, Mclaren and Hamilton rise, Kimi loses his mojo, Massa challenges Hamilton and just falls short, thanks to Glock and Toyota

-2009: Major rule changes, narrower rear wings, KERS, slicks return, Brawn pull of the shock of the decade and Red Bull-Vettel rise, Ferrari steal a lone win at Spa with Kimi fending off an excellent drive by Fisico in the Force India (who got pole!)

-2010: Kimi exits F1, Ferrari and Alonso take the fight to Red Bull-Vettel but just fall short, thanks to Petrov and Renault (the irony!)

-2011: Actually don't remember this season much! Except for Vettel killing every other driver and team

-2012: Easily one of the best seasons ever, 7 or 8 different winners, Lotus name and Kimi returned to F1 fought hard and scored many podiums, really close championship fight between Vettel and Alonso, both fought hard

-2013: Boring season with Vettel winning by the time Indian GP arrived, don't remember much but not a spectacle, Lotus and Kimi fell away after an excellent opening win at Melbourne, Kimi parted ways at the end and joined Ferrari for 2014

-2014: Major rule changes, dawn of the V6 turbo-hybrid era, Mercedes Hamilton and Rosberg literally win everything between them, Red Bull collect the scraps

-2015: Alonso joins an ill fated McLaren-Honda team, Vettel joins Ferrari, again a Mercedes show, Verstappen makes his mark

-2016: Again a Mercedes show, but this time Rosberg played mind games on Hamilton and won his only WC, their clash in Spain was epic Verstappen wins his first race for Red Bull

-2017: Hamilton ran away yet again, but was closely followed by a brilliant Bottas, Verstappen got 2 wins

-2018: Amazing season, Vettel fought hard but ultimately threw away the WC starting in Germany, Kimi f@#$%&? won finally! at COTA in an amazing race

-2019: Hamilton show yet again, Bottas and Verstappen winning the rest, Ferrari imploded after being found to have been burning more engine oil than allowed, Leclerc won 2 amazing races by beating Hamilton at Monza & Spa

-2020: Delayed season, Hamilton show, Perez's win at Sakhir after being last was the highlight of the season

-2021: Verstappen Vs Hamilton and we all know what happened...

-2022: Major rule change-ground effect dominance, After an excellent start, Leclerc fought hard but ultimately both him and Ferrari imploded yet again, close fight with Verstappen

-2023: Verstappen and Red Bull create history, Sainz denying Red Bull a complete wash out, but boring as heck

I can think of no other sport that works in a cost-cap environment. You can't be the pinnacle and then resort to cost cutting. There was a time when the Prost Team had to spend $30 million a year for those Ferrari gearboxes, albeit having horrendous reliability, and today you see teams like Aston Martin complaining of "horrendous" gearbox costs at just $8 million a year.

As for refuelling, everyone knows the only reason it has been banned is to save money on freight and logistics cost. The pinnacle of sport crying about safety, when you have Nascar and Indy with no problems. This sport is just riddled with greed and the final straw was the denial of entry to Andretti. I for one have decided to forego my F1 subscription to such a greedy bunch.

I watched all 4 episodes last weekend. Its quite interesting. Other than all Brawn GP members, they also got Christian Horner from Red Bull and Luca di Montezemolo from Ferrari to interview. And also Bernie who looked quite sharp even though around 90 years.

It was quite a thrilling series on the basis of
- The team that was going to shutdown in 2009 somehow survived and not only that won both Drivers(1st and 3rd) and Constructors championship. This is more than unbelievable in Formula 1 where only top teams win. And this was way before budget cap.

- In between the season, the Formula 1 teams were on the verge of breakaway. That's such a big news. Thankfully it didn't happen as it would have damaged Formula 1.

- And finally, the small Brawn GP in 2009 became "AMG Mercedes Petronas GP" the all conquering winner from 2014-2021 with 8 Constructors and 7 Drivers championship. Because Brawn GP survived, we got Mercedes GP. Mercedes continued at the same factory at Brackley, England with the same engineers.
What an impact.

When Keanu Reaves is a part of something, it has to be good.