The Brawn GP BGP001 was voted the Racing Car of the Year at the awards, beating the Red bull RB5 in to second place. Brawn GP design team members John Owen and Russell Cooley received the award from Damon Hill.

"It was our intention to be successful during 2009, and that is what made us determined over the winter," said Owen. "It was a wonderful distraction - it quite easy in a way to focus on our job, because we never stopped to wonder what might happen if we didn't survive. We trusted in Ross [Brawn] and Nick [Fry] to save the team."

The car dominated the early part of the season, taking six victories from seven events, all with Jenson Button behind the wheel. Team mate Rubens Barrichello then added a further two victories during the season.

Jenson Button took home the British Competition Driver of the Year title, holding off a challenge from IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and dominant IRC winner Kris Meeke.

"Things have come a long way in a year," said Button. "It's a year and two days since we found out that Honda was pulling out of Formula 1 and coming here last year was pretty tough. We all got our heads down and this is the result, so a big thank you to everyone in the Brawn team. It's a very special feeling to be stood here as world champion."

Button, who has left the Brawn GP team to join McLaren, has won the award twice before, in 2003 and 2006. He's also won the International Racing Driver of the Year Award previously, in 2004, and has taken that honour again this year.

Commentating legend Murray Walker presented the trophy to Button, Britain's 10th Formula 1 World Champion. His nearest rivals for the prestigious award were team mate Rubens Barrichello, IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, 2010 team mate Lewis Hamilton, GP2 winner Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

"I have been with the people at Brawn for seven years," said Button on stage. "The engineers are at my table, and this award goes to them because awards don't normally go to engineers."