Brawn BGP 001 (2009) Nosecone

The only car to ever compete for one-season wonder Brawn GP began life as the Honda RA109, before Honda’s withdrawal from the sport in December 2008. The team were purchased in a management buyout and named after their new Team Principal Ross Brawn. After losing their original engine supplier, the BGP 001 was mounted with a naturally aspirated V8 Mercedes-Benz FO109W engine. Even though the Mercedes power unit was the best fit, compromises still had to be made. Incredibly, six inches were cut from the chassis’ rear just to fit the engine and then the gearbox was in the in the wrong place because the crank-centre height was different. Ross Brawn himself admitted the car was “too heavy, the centre of gravity [was] too high and there [were] things which are not good on the car”. The car had one notable quality, however, that had not been compromised: the controversial double-decker diffuser. Also used by Williams and Toyota, ‘non-diffuser’ teams Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Renault and Red Bull all launched official complaints over its legality. Race stewards cleared the car to race in Australia and then Malaysia before the FIA’s International Court of Appeal concluded the designs were legal.

With that cleared, the BGP 001, driven by the retained Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, powered to victories in five of the first six races, becoming the first team to score a 1-2 finish in their debut race since Mercedes in 1954 and becoming the new only constructor to win their first two races since Alfa Romeo won the first ever World Championship Grand Prix races in 1950. Limited resources also caused Brawn to break a further record; it was the first time one specific build of engine had won three Grand Prix races in succession. Button and Brawn would clinch the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships in the penultimate race of the season in Brazil. Barrichello finished third in the Drivers’ standings.

The BGP 001, in its one and only season, claimed eight race victories, six further podiums, five pole positions, four fastest laps, 172 Championship points, a Drivers’ Championship and a Constructors’ Championship. As Brawn had very limited resources, Button used the same chassis every practice, qualifying session and race between the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix, meaning he clinched the title in the oldest car on the grid.

This fine 1:12 scale model of the Brawn BGP 001 Nosecone has been handcrafted and finished in our workshops with the co-operation and assistance of the manufacturer regarding original finishes, materials, archive imagery and drawings. The use of supremely accurate digital scanning of the original car has allowed us to perfectly recreate every detail at scale. Furthermore, it has undergone detailed scrutiny by both engineering and design teams to ensure complete accuracy of representation.

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This model is part of the Brawn GP Formula One Collection.

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This model is one of many in our collection of miniature nosecones.

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