Brawn will be Mercedes-powered in 2010 – source

The government of the United Kingdom helped to set the Brawn team on the road to the 2009 world championships. The Brackley outfit’s chief executive Nick Fry said senior government official Peter Mandelson played a leading role in helping the team survive in the wake of former owner Honda’s withdrawal.

The Mirror newspaper said the business minister urged government contacts in Tokyo to lobby Honda amid the transition to Brawn GP.

“This will not be received well in some quarters, because everyone loves knocking the British government,” Fry told the latest edition of Top Gear magazine.

“But I think it would be fair to say that our survival was helped a lot by the government and specifically Peter Mandelson and the department of business,” he revealed.

Brawn will be Mercedes-powered in 2010 – source

 The unofficial news is well known in F1 circles, but a source at championship leading Brawn GP now insists that the team will definitely be Mercedes powered in 2010.

Publicly, team chiefs including owner and boss Ross Brawn have stated only their desire to continue to be associated with the German marque, who stepped in at the eleventh hour last year with a customer supply of 2.4 litre V8s.

Since then, Brawn has driven into pole position to win both 2009 titles, sparking rumours that Mercedes wants to step back from its works arrangement with McLaren in order to buy into the Brackley based outfit.

Hinting at Mercedes’ eagerness to get more involved at Brawn is the marque’s rumoured involvement with placing Nico Rosberg in the 2010 car.

Officially, even Brawn continuing to be merely supplied by Mercedes beyond this season is unclear, with the FIA needing to rubber-stamp a manufacturer’s desire to supply more than just a single customer team.

Further complicating the issue is that McLaren, according to its exclusive contract with Mercedes, can veto even its partner’s engine deals until the end of 2011.

Until now, it was believed that Brawn’s relationship with Mercedes beyond 2009, including a mere customer engine supply deal for 2010, was based only on oral agreement.

But the Brawn GP source now reports that an actual contract for Mercedes engine supply in 2010 does exist.

And Ross Brawn told Germany’s Sport Bild: “I know that in 2010 we will enjoy great support.”

source: GMM