Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story is an informative and revealing docuseries on Hulu and Disney Plus that tells how Ross Brawn’s understaffed and underfinanced Formula One racing team pulled off a shock win against the titans of the sport.
Hosted by F1 fan and Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, the four-parter includes interviews from motor racing legends such as F1 drivers Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Christian Horner plus team boss Ross Brawn and Honda CEO Nick Fry. This unscripted documentary series hears from those who were on the track, in the garage and in the boardroom about how they made the impossible happen, we learn how Brawn paid just £1 for the Honda team and turned it into the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championship-winning Brawn GP team.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Disney Plus series Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story…
Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story release date
Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story launches on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK on Wednesday, November 15 2023. All episodes of the four-part series will be available from this date.
Is there a trailer for Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story?
Yes! Trailers for Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story have now been released, introduced by Keanu Reeves telling us about his 'fascination with racing'. Take a look at both below...
What you'll see in Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story
Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story shows how Ross Brawn, who was previously the technical director of Benetton and Ferrari, bought the Honda team in early 2009 for just £1 to form the Brawn GP team. With drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, the team won eight out of the season’s seventeen races. Button won the 2009 Drivers’ Championship while the team won the Constructors’ Championship. Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, famous for The Matrix movies, catches up with both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello to hear their side of a remarkable story.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jenson Button on Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story
How did it feel to be involved in Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story? It must bring back such amazing memories.
Jenson Button says: "Oh, it does. I spent quite a few days with the crew and with Keanu so at times it was very emotional. Luckily, I wasn’t in the room with Ross (Brawn) when I was doing the interviews because I think it would have pushed me over the edge. You remember it like yesterday even though it was 14 years ago. It’s been lovely. Obviously, the story is the story and Keanu really got into it. It was pretty much what I expected from him. He’s so passionate about it, it’s like he lived it with us."
Were you impressed by Keanu Reeves’ F1 knowledge?
Jenson says: "When he came out with some things I was like ‘oh ok, you’ve done your homework well’. He was the perfect guy to bring this to the screen. Even if I wasn’t involved, it’s such a cool story because it’s a small team fighting against the big teams. Obviously, there’s a bigger backstory there but it’s so exciting and new viewers to Formula One would never have seen anything about 2009 so it’s lovely to get some F1 information out there or content out there that is pre-Netflix. Especially for American fans. I live in America now and for American fans to see what this team did, a team that wasn’t supposed to be on the grid really after Honda pulled out, it’s such an exciting story. We all love the story of the small team fighting it out with the big guys."
How involved did Keanu get? Did he get to drive any of the cars?
Jenson says: "Unbelievably involved. He did every single interview with every single person who’s in the documentary and who was involved in the 2009 season. I didn’t expect anything less. He was fully involved. He knew everything about that season and I spent quite a few days with him here in LA and also at Silverstone. It was funny because the Brawn car was at Silverstone on track. We weren’t driving it but it was a backdrop and I said ‘Keanu get in the car’ and he said ‘no, no, I can’t get in the car.’ I said, ‘Keanu get in the car’ and eventually we got him in the car and we couldn’t get him out. He was so excited to be in the car and to see it from the driver’s view. The visibility is very limited and he’d never sat in an F1 car before so that added to the excitement and his understanding of the sport and what the drivers go through."
Do you think there will ever be a story like that again in F1?
Jenson explains: "It’s very unlikely. With the amount of money that got invested in that car the previous year, it was always going to be a good car. But in terms of the team, we were a small team. We didn’t have room for development. We didn’t have funding for development. And also the engine that was in the back of it was not developed for that car. If you think about it, if it was developed for that car, it would be even quicker. I don’t think that story will happen again because of the way Formula One is so regimented in so many ways. And every time there’s a rule change the teams are on it instantly, especially someone like Red Bull and Mercedes. That’s why I think it’ll stand out for decades to come."
You led the standings from the start. What were the most memorable moments of that season?
Jenson says: "Obviously, the memory that stands out the most is winning the world championship. Crossing the line in Brazil. I obviously wasn’t on the pit wall with Ross and the engineers but to see that footage of the emotion, and the relief as much as anything else. A championship is a very strange emotion when you cross the line because it’s not like a Grand Prix victory. A victory is high adrenaline, high emotion, everyone is jumping around because it’s living in the moment. Whereas a championship is over such a long period and there’s highs and lows and to eventually clinch it, it is more of a relief than anything else. But that one moment is the one moment that sticks with you for life. When you wake up in the morning and you look outside and say, ‘Oh I’m a world champion’, that’s never going to go away. If you have a difficult day or when I used to change my kids’ diapers, I’d be like ‘it’s ok. I’m a world champion, I can do this.’ That always sticks with you. And then you have the wins, the wins are high adrenaline. That emotion of spraying champagne and celebrating with the team, that really means a lot. The first race with Braun GP, winning in Australia. That one meant a lot. Every single win did. Winning in Monaco. That’s such an emotional place to win because you celebrate not just with your team and with the fans but with everyone on the boats. All the boats blow their horns when you cross the finish line. That one stands out as well. And the one memory that people wouldn’t have seen before this documentary is the first drive. When I first jumped in the car at Silverstone. And it wasn’t that the car went unbelievably quick, it was that nothing went wrong at that point. So, it was like ‘we’re doing this, we’re going racing’. Most of us didn’t think we had a job for 2009 and now we’re going to be racing in F1. So that moment when I first drove the car out of the tent it was in and onto the circuit at Silverstone, that was a real standout moment."
Was there a time when you started to feel the pressure?
Jenson says: "Yeah, I was not good under pressure, I have to say that. The first moment I had a chance to fight for the world championship, I put so much pressure on myself because it was never going to happen again. This was my one chance and every race that I won, I put more and more pressure on myself to win it. Everything else was a failure. It’s strange how your targets immediately change when you start winning races. Before that, podium would have been amazing. So, I put so much pressure on myself. And then Silverstone came and I wasn’t even on the podium and that really hurt. I definitely made mistakes that year and I didn’t deal well under pressure, even with a great team around me. Until Brazil. That’s the first time that I did deal well under pressure. I had a good chat with my dad in a bar on the Saturday night. Basically, I was heading to my room in the hotel in Brazil and I’d qualified 14th which wasn’t great. As I was heading to the lift, he dragged me to one side and said ‘right, we’re going to go and have a beer’. Actually, he had a glass of red wine because he only drank red wine. And basically he said, ‘let me have it. Let me know what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling. Why are you not confident in yourself? Look what you’ve achieved. You’ve won six races this year.’ He was basically reminding me of what I had achieved. The boy from Froome in Somerset, a little town, racing against the best in the world. He said, ‘you’ve got nothing to be fearful about. The worst thing you can do is lose and it’s only a sport.’ That was very special and that’s a memory that will stick with me forever. That’s the reason why I won the world championship, because of him."
There are fierce rivalries in F1 but are there close friendships too?
Jenson says: "There aren’t fierce rivalries. It doesn’t exist. Obviously, you want to beat everyone, that’s the main objective, but it’s very different to the way it comes across. Everyone gets on in F1 but it’s always the same in every documentary, every movie made about sport, right? They have to build up the rivalry otherwise it’s not very exciting to watch. Whereas the Brawn season was different. It’s not about two guys fighting it out. It’s more about the small team against the might of all these other manufacturers. But still, we got a lot of respect for what we were achieving."
Would you like to see a lavish drama set in the world of Formula One?
Jenson says: "Yeah. Brad Pitt is actually doing one at the moment, which is really good. Now is the time. Formula One is big worldwide now, even in the States it’s big, so it’s the time for a movie and to bring out all the documentaries about past rivalries and exciting moments in this sport that a lot of new fans wouldn’t have seen. I think the guys at Disney and Keanu have done such a good job of bringing this to the screen and to the masses. The story still exists but the way they’ve gone about it I think is great."
Have you ever feared for your life whilst driving?
Jenson says: "Yeah, it’s a funny one. Yes, it’s a dangerous sport but it’s the safest it’s ever been and I think Formula One is the safest form of motor sport. The cars are stronger than any other car, the track is safer than any other track. Once in my career I had a big accident, back in 2003. 20 years ago, in Monaco. I was coming out the tunnel, lost control and hit two different walls with the full 35g and I was knocked out. So that was the scariest moment. That was in practice and they wouldn’t let me race that weekend. My brainwaves were all over the place. I told them, ‘They were like that before. I’m a racing driving, we are nuts’. But to have an accident like that and walk away, it shows how safe this sport has got. It’s still dangerous. It’s going to be and there are sometimes freak accidents but that goes for any sport to be fair."
All about Ross Brawn
Ross Brawn was the technical director of the championship-winning Benetton and Ferrari teams and is considered to be the mastermind behind Michael Schumacher’s seven world championship titles. After a sabbatical, he became the team principal of Honda in 2008, then bought the team in 2009. He changed the team to Brawn GP and won that year’s competition. Brawn later sold the team to Mercedes and announced his retirement in 2014.
