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Ross Brawn and Honda?
By Phil Huff
April 11 2007
Rumours have started up again claiming that respected Ferrari's previous technical director Ross Brawn could be heading to Honda Racing F1, replacing Shuhei Nakamoto at the beleaguered Brackley outfit. RealHondaF1.com first covered this story way back in September, where we made it clear that Brawn was not heading to Honda.

However, the rumours have resurfaced following an article appearing at Autosport.com, where current team chief Nick Fry was quoted as saying "I think every team would benefit from Ross Brawn, whether it be us or others, but I am sure Ross has some sort of arrangement with Ferrari, so we will see."

Brawn certainly does have an agreement with Ferrari, with Jean Todt confirming the existence of a gentleman's agreement that will see the Italian outfit being given first refusal on his services, although we'd assume the offer would be on Brawn's terms. Crucially, however, there is no contractual obligation for the Englishman to rejoin the Italian team.

The Honda Racing F1 team made a decision last year to create a flatter management approach, with no single 'superstar' man at the top of the engineering triangle. Instead the current senior technical director, Shuhei Nakamoto, will act as a 'choreographer' rather than standing at the drawing board. However, that leaves the team lacking leadership from someone with F1 design experience - Nakamoto's background is in engine design and motorbikes.

Whilst joining Honda would fulfill Brawn's ambitions of returning to work in Britain, the whole of the F1 paddock is wondering what he has to gain by joining the Brackley team. Having already proven he's capable of rebuilding a team, with a talented team of people alongside him, and having overseen a number of championship winning cars, there's little to demonstrate at Honda.

Indeed, it's not a technical director of Brawn's calibre that Honda need right now; the team may well be better off going against the current trend and hiring a big 'name' designer in a bid to produce a fast, if fragile, car.

We hear Geoff Willis, designer of the race winning RA106, is free...

However, with regard to Ross Brawn, RealHondaF1.com will make this very clear, choosing our words, once again, very carefully - Ross Brawn will not be joining the Honda Racing F1 team as technical director.

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