Original subtitles

This story is often told as a fairy tale.

How low will it go? The stock market slide continued today.

Motor giant Honda pulled the plug on Formula 1.

Honda's Formula 1 team

looks set to be rebranded in the new season.

No way that this car doesn't make Melbourne.

Even if we arrive like that.

As racing drivers, you either push to the limit, or you're nothing.

It's a 1-2 finish. Button from Barrichello. What a result!

Just sensational. I can't really put it into words.

Here is Jenson Button. He's done it again.

Jenson beat him, his teammate, with the same car.

Who told you they were the same car?

Everything is going in favour of Jenson.

The sky is in favour of him.

I couldn't win, and I saw the others getting better.

I gotta do something.

I don't want to say "cheat",

but I've never seen a car coming from nowhere.

All of us were aware there was something against the rules.

Jenson Button waits to hear whether his car is legal.

If the double diffuser had been taken off the Brawn,

it would have shattered their performance.

It's nauseating.

We were going to lose the races we'd won if we'd been disqualified.

We did not have a plan B for anything.

This was the start of the war.

How were the emotions coming out of Melbourne?

Did it give some energy to people, or did it…

-Um, I know-- -It was a massive double-edged sword.

-Yeah. -Massive.

Winning the race was obviously amazing.

But we knew what was gonna happen in Brackley,

so we wasn't really jumping around with joy,

'cause probably 50% of your colleagues wouldn't be there when you got back.

Came in and the car park was empty.

That was when it hits home.

Emotional couple of weeks, wasn't it?

Certainly was.

All those people had done all that work as well.

-Yeah. -They had gone through it.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

We shouldn't forget that.

Following Brawn GP's unlikely win in Australia,

the team flew home to say goodbye to half its 750 staff.

They just didn't have the money to keep the team going with a full crew.

Can you speak a little bit about the impact on Brackley?

We worked out how much, reasonably,

we might be able to raise from sponsorship.

Then that guided the number of people we could afford.

It was an absolute necessity, but it didn't make it any easier.

You know, we might have had five electricians,

and we said we can afford two.

In many cases, we'd worked with those people for ten years or more.

I mean, it was like a death in the family.

We were so desperate for money

that if the expenditure was more than £75 sterling,

it had to be signed off by Ross, me or the finance director,

because we had to watch every single penny.

You're picking up tie wraps off the floor and putting them in the drawer,

'cause you don't want to be spending 25 pence

binning a little tie wrap into the bin.

You need to be saving things, and that's how we worked.

Did the lack of resources, lack of parts, was that being felt?

With all the changes we had, we were still--

I wouldn't say we were a slick outfit.

It was a small team of people, and it was definitely all-hands-on-deck,

and people were stepping outside of their role to do other work within the team.

Our fuel guy that we had used for ages,

he resigned because he thought the team's not gonna survive,

and he became a plumber.

So, we went to the first race…

…and our first pit stop, I think, was 11 seconds.

It should have been probably five seconds.

We lost six seconds at the first stop.

Oh, dear. That was not slick and smooth.

So, our fuel guy, the plumber, they called him up.

So, did you talk to Nick and say, "Um, can we get Gary back?"

You know, he came on and just said, "Look, you know, we've had some issues.

We need every bit of performance that we can get."

We said, "What's your rate for coming to plumb a Formula 1 car for the weekend?"

And we got him in for the weekends only, so he was our weekend warrior.

We'd travel home and go back to my sedate world in London,

trying to forge my way as a plumber.

We had the minimum that we thought we could get away with.

We had to set our stall

on the assumption that was the money we had for the year.

We couldn't just swamp it with resource.

We had to make everything with the resources we had.

Some teams, in that period, would make five or more cars.

We had two cars.

Here we are all set in Malaysia.

When you have a competitive car, you know,

people just try to take you down or to copy.

You could see some tension in the air.

It never rains. It pours in Malaysia.

Keeping an eye on those clouds, which seem to be gathering.

Can Jenson Button translate his second successive pole position

into a second successive victory for Brawn GP in only their second race?

We wait for the start.

The lights are out, and they're away!

Button making a move, but so too Barrichello.

Button steaming down in second place as Rosberg dives through.

Here comes Button. They're wheel to wheel.

Even at the start of the race, I remember looking up thinking,

"Oh, okay. Get ready, boys. We're gonna get some rain today."

Button up the inside there.

Critical move for Jenson Button.

Button now in front.

Just seen a fork of lightning, and the wind has really got up.

Had you ever driven the car in the full wet before?

Never.

It was at that point where you can win or lose the race by making the wrong call.

It's a mental game. It really is, Formula 1.

Look at this.

It's a safety car condition now.

- Absolutely. - Possibly even red flag.

It is. The race has been stopped.

The red flag means the race has stopped,

but I still had to get from turn seven

until the end of the lap without spinning off.

We were all running up and down, screaming at each other saying,

"Where's the car?"

He was only about a hundred metres away.

The rain was so bad, you couldn't see that far.

So they'll line up on the grid in order.

What's going to happen now is we have to wait.

I was sat in the car for probably 25, 30 minutes

while they were trying to make a decision.

At this moment, the team hadn't told me that there might be an issue.

The steering wheel is full of electronics.

I mean, it's the control centre of a Formula 1 car.

The wheel hadn't been sealed properly,

and, yeah, computers and water aren't a good mix.

Will this restart, or will this be the end of it?

We wait to find out.

We knew we could never have finished that race.

I'm not sure we ever publicly told the world,

but you could take the steering wheel, tip it up, and the water would pour out.

That car was not going anywhere.

It was a long, long wait.

The sun was setting.

It was too dark. Too dangerous.

At that point, they called the result.

Fate and luck worked in our favour.

It was a shock, with everything we'd been through, to be in such a great position.

Second race. No. Now it's too much.

You have to prove to me that this really inside the rules,

because, in my opinion, it's not inside the rules.

So you can answer to me, "Why don't you do immediately the same?"

Was not easy to do, during the season, something that is very structural.

We are not competitive.

This was the start of the war.

Formula 1 could be thrown into disarray,

as Championship leader Jenson Button waits to hear whether his car is legal.

An appeal court at the sports governing body is meeting now in Paris

to discuss whether the world championship leader's Brawn team have broken the rules.

I mean, that was the next race.

The next race was in Paris.

Brawn have dominated. The other teams say simply not fair.

Is that a case of sour grapes or a just case?

Well, an independent panel of judges will decide today.

On that walk, April 14th, what were you thinking, feeling,

going to fight for your racing life?

It's nauseating.

I always try to look composed.

But inside, I'm churned up massively.

We were going to lose the races we'd won if we'd been disqualified.

But you have to get through it.

It's part of the world in Formula 1.

Entering this arena,

the whole future of the team depended on the outcome of what happened here.

There were three teams with a double diffuser.

Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota.

It was three against seven.

This is an overview of the court case.

And Article 3,

"bodywork facing the ground".

Um, and then there was a side article being challenged by Renault

claiming that what you had done was a new design or system.

Mmm.

Ferrari called it "illegal".

They went too far, because the rules decide the winner,

but, in our view, the double diffuser was not inside the rules.

Did you go to Paris?

I did. I was in Paris for the appeal.

The fairness of it just seemed wrong.

Once you move to an appeal court,

you're being judged by a different group of people.

That's the uncertainty.

Whether you're gonna get through it.

Did you have an opinion about the legality?

About the legality?

Of the double diffuser.

Did you think it was, like, Ross being very clever

and the team finding a way to interpret the rules or…

All the teams, then and now,

read the rules in a different way.

You always read the rule book twice.

Once to see what it says,

and the second time to see how to get around it.

And that's what they all do.

It's where can we-- And I love that about Formula 1.

Just a genius solution that was better than other people's solutions.

The issue was the wording, "bodywork facing the ground".

You've got surfaces which face the ground,

but this vertical surface doesn't face the ground.

And this vertical surface wasn't controlled in the regulations.

So, suddenly, you've got a surface which you can do something with,

so we opened up that vertical surface.

What our critics said were holes,

we said those holes didn't exist

in the place that was controlled by the regulations.

It was the most ridiculous argument I had ever heard.

And nothing there persuaded you that that was not a legal…

-Nothing at all. -…innovation?

I mean, when you're arguing about what is a hole, this was nuts.

Okay. It's not a hole. It's a slit.

-Yeah. -And it's letting air enter and speed--

Um, so, the wording was clear.

That double diffuser was illegal.

They were going at it full-bore. There was no holds barred.

Raising-- Raised voices?

Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Not mine, by the way.

There was a lot of emotion charging round that hearing

that I have probably not experienced before in quite the same way.

Ferrari made a comment about me that, you know,

only someone of supreme arrogance could believe this argument.

I thought, you know, if I had a very strong argument,

it wouldn't get personal.

It would become a factual argument.

Did you and Ross have a plan B if you had to relinquish the double diffuser?

We did not have a plan B for anything.

It was 50/50.

This fear that it would all be taken away from us again.

It was going to dictate what the outcome of the championship was,

because if the double diffuser had been taken off the Brawn,

it would have shattered their performance without it.

We got the result two days afterwards.

The car that British driver Jenson Button raced to victory

in the first two Grand Prix of the Formula 1 season

has been approved by the sport's governing body.

It went your way?

Yep.

Thankfully, because it was a key moment in the history of Brawn GP, for sure.

We won by a mile. We won on almost every single count that we argued.

I mean, it was a slam dunk, as they'd say.

Slam dunk?

Yeah.

-Shut out. -High five. Slam dunk. The whole shebang.

It should have been a slam dunk that the double diffuser was illegal.

It was a little bit of a kangaroo court.

What was, uh, Mr Montezemolo saying?

Luca was apoplectic after the hearing.

Flavio was going bananas.

You know, the world had gone mad.

Well, it wasn't cheating. It was-- It was clever.

We are upset, not with the guy that has got this intelligent idea,

but with the referee.

Max Mosley decided to drive the season in the direction that he wanted

to show to the teams "I can kill you because I can decide who can win."

But on this day, in this issue, case closed?

Yep.

-Let's go racing. -Yeah.

And let's go racing with a bit of an edge.

Once we got to Shanghai, we knew two things.

One is that we're good to go. We know what we're doing.

But you also knew that all those teams that were adamant it was illegal,

were very quickly gonna have a double diffuser on their car.

Christian, your reaction to the court of appeals decision?

The regulation's just the same.

It's just that three teams are legal running around with holes in their floors.

You had Adrian Newey, car designer, chief technical officer.

Is he like, "I'm gonna make a fucking double diffuser and fuck this guy"?

Adrian immediately started to draw the first double diffuser.

In fact, he missed the Chinese Grand Prix to concentrate on drawing that diffuser.

What do you expect to happen now, Ross?

You're not dealing with, you know, a bunch of idiots.

These are clever people. They will all catch up.

Ferrari, McLaren, Renault,

they're very, very competent, very capable teams,

and they'll be out, back up there very quickly.

But, to be honest, if they think it's just the diffuser that's making a difference,

then they might be a little bit disappointed.

They didn't look at the front wing.

They didn't look at the way the body was shaped.

They didn't look at how the cooling was done.

There were two other teams with a double diffuser who were not winning races.

You can see the rain, which has been threatened,

and has been here for the last two hours or so.

For the Brawn team, it's their worst fears confirmed,

because they've got no prolonged experience of racing on these wet tyres.

So there are plenty of variables buzzing around

through the minds of those down on the pit wall.

And-- Oh! Somebody's gone off big time in there.

Here's Vettel then.

Advantage very much with the Red Bull.

That was a good race for us.

Our car, the way it was designed, generated a lot of downforce in the wet.

Webber, somewhere, has got through. There he is.

Had a good fight with Jenson in that race.

Rare error there from Jenson Button.

Button is back into third place.

Webber has made his way through.

Whoa! He's--

That wasn't so handy, was it?

Button's got through past Mark Webber.

This race is not over. Webber comes straight back at him.

In the dry conditions, in normal Grand Prix conditions,

we were still not competitive.

Brawn's couldn't really match us in the wet,

so rain was our friend.

The chequered flag is out,

and it waves for Sebastian Vettel and for Red Bull for the first time.

It's not just victory. It's a 1-2.

So much for those who said

Brawn are gonna run away from the field in 2009.

Red Bull has done it!

It was a big margin, and we weren't slow, you know?

We had a good gap on the guys behind us, but those two were just gone.

For us, that was a massive failure.

In China, we had a wake-up call.

The Chinese Grand Prix told us

that it wasn't going to just be a total walk in the park

and that Brawn were gonna dominate every race.

It was a key weekend for everybody realising

that, you know, Brawn had almost played their best hand.

Aside from stuff that was happening on the track, there was war brewing.

The teams formed their own association.

And that was the Formula One Teams Association?

That's it. FOTA, yeah.

FOTA was all the teams in Formula 1

coming together to negotiate better terms.

It was a case of strength in numbers.

You got this tension growing

because FOTA was starting to challenge Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley

over both the commercial terms and the regulations.

And the chairman of the association was Luca di Montezemolo.

In a positive…

I was not the only one,

but I played an important rules to establish this team association.

For once, we suddenly had every team together.

Bernie and Max, they ran the business.

Between the commercial rights and the regulations,

it was like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Th-They got everything wrapped up.

We are in the hands of a person, Mosley,

that can decide, changing the rules,

who can be the winner or can be the loser.

They parrot-fashion.

Keep saying the FIA dictating, or the FIA or I'm dictating even--

"and trying to tell us what to do."

It's not that at all. We're trying to get the thing in order.

Bernie leads with his chin.

At the beginning of the year, he, uh, invited me to meet with him.

I walked in the office and, excuse my language,

he led with, "Max thinks you're a cunt."

Mr Fry…

what does one say to such a remark?

It was clearly a, uh-- a tactic.

But the dynamic at that time, which they played on brilliantly,

was you never quite knew exactly what the relationship was

between Max and Bernie.

Sometimes they looked like brothers. Sometimes like, uh, partners.

Sometimes Bernie was giving the idea that he was against Max.

Was like a movie. You don't know.

Max and I were friends for an awful long time.

Fifty years, more or less.

Did you work with him in order of, you know…

In everything. With everything.

I wouldn't do anything without running it past Max and vice versa.

That's why we never had big problems.

Bernie used to love to play both ends against the middle

and keep everybody slightly off-balance.

And one of his levers was you can't change the name of your team

and keep the money that the old team earned the year before.

Bernie owes you dough.

Yeah.

He was trying to argue that we were no longer Honda,

and so we weren't entitled to any of the monies

that Honda would have been entitled to for 2008 and, subsequently, 2009, 2010.

And was-- He was holding that off over your head?

Yes.

Our arguments were, we're the exact same team. We've just changed our name.

-So, how much did Bernie owe ya? -So…

I think it was about $12 million for the 2008 year.

Where we were, $12 million would have been a huge boost for us.

You could see just from the quality of the paint on the car,

they were watching the pennies very, very closely.

The amount of stickers that would change every race.

You'd normally go to a big company and say, "Sponsor us for the season."

Yet, we were so late, that was impossible,

so I decided on a strategy of we'll try and sell it by race.

Nick was doing some funny deals here and there.

Some dodgy sponsors were on the car.

It-It just looked like a Formula 2 team,

not like a Formula 1 team.

So, Bernie owes you dough, but you're siding with the team association.

He, you know, was reluctant to pay us because Ross and I weren't playing ball.

So was a problem with Bernie, was a problem with FIA,

was a problem with all over Formula 1 organisation.

We haven't changed anything since the first race,

so we better hope that we can make some progress,

because at the moment, in qualifying, we're not the quickest car.

It was starting to get really tough.

Everything was wearing out, and every weekend, we were dismantling stuff,

putting it back together.

It was excruciating really.

Going into the weekend, you were, like, laying out all the bits you had,

and just picking, from what you could, enough to build a car.

But there were bits on that that should not have been going around the track.

I learnt a lot that season, definitely,

about how adaptable people can be.

You could ask them to do anything and they would do it,

and they'd do it with a smile on their face.

You know, we worked until three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning.

Nobody complained. You knew what you had to do.

These race wins are ours.

Nobody can take them away from us, the first two races.

But I think we all felt a little bit more pressure.

You know, this is our chance,

and you never know in Formula 1 when your next chance is gonna come around.

Toyota's never locked out the front row like this before.

It's a perfect launch pad for victory.

Sebastian Vettel, winner last week in China, third on the grid.

Just behind him, Button.

Then Lewis Hamilton.

I was in fourth.

It was a fight. First few laps, it had to happen.

The lights are out! Away goes the Toyota.

Jenson Button has dropped a bit, but Hamilton's already up into third place.

Lewis, he shot past me into turn one.

I had to be very calculated.

I needed to get the moves done as soon as possible.

There's Button and there's Hamilton duelling down the pit straight.

Button having a look on the inside.

And he's through.

He's up into third place.

It was about keeping the Toyotas in vision,

'cause I knew they were gonna be stopping earlier than me for the pit stop.

Glock pits. Trulli takes over the lead.

Button is still out there.

Now is the time to put the hammer down.

Trulli pits.

So, Jenson Button goes through into the lead.

As soon as they pitted, I had to give it quali laps for, like, ten laps.

If I get a car that works for me, I can do as good a lap as anyone.

They said he was gonna be too hot.

Well, frankly, he's been too hot for everyone to handle.

There was so much adrenaline that I had built up,

that it all came out.

I showed it wasn't just about being fast.

It was thinking my way through a race.

After the race in Bahrain, you said, "Jenson is getting all the luck."

You could see that, um, it was working for him.

Bahrain wasn't so special for me.

I thought, within myself, that I should have won a race by now.

It was clear to me that I was having a problem.

We didn't have the best package there, and he was still the one who got P1.

Everybody was just enjoying the euphoria of this success.

You know, we had a bit in the tank,

so that goodwill that had grown through the winter and everyone working together.

Jenson! Jenson!

But the drivers realise that this is actually a fight for a world championship.

Is Formula 1 a sport or is it a business?

For me, unquestionably, first and foremost, it's a sport,

but there's a lot of business to it and how it operates.

A lot of politics. There's a lot of money.

Bernie always tells a story, whether he still tells it,

is with-- when he used to deal with Mr Ferrari.

And he said he used to go and sit in his office in Maranello and he'd say,

"Ecclestone, here is the sport, on top of the table.

Here is the business."

The profit of Formula 1 is shared.

There is a cake, a big cake of Formula 1 money.

There is a commercial relationship

between the FIA, Formula One Management,

which is the commercial rights holder,

and then the teams.

The cake was divided up, pretty much,

majority for Bernie and the minority for the teams.

You can be the best movie producer in the world,

but you need the actors.

Without actors, you cannot have success.

So, we are the actors.

So why, for us, is the cake so small?

-Was there a contract? -Yes.

The thing that encapsulates all of this is what's known as a Concorde Agreement,

because the first one was done in Paris.

The Concorde Agreement

is a contract between the teams and Formula One Management

that prescribed how all the money earned in the sport was divided.

We've all been talking about a new Concorde Agreement for two or three years.

It was a very draconian budget cap being proposed,

which, for the big teams, much less than 50% of what they were spending.

We cannot go on spending the sort of money that's been spent.

He wanted to say, "Budget cap, my decision. Budget cap." No.

What does Ferrari think about the budget cap?

We compete in Formula 1 because Formula 1 is extreme competition.

Formula 1 is expensive,

and Formula 1 has to be free to do innovative technology.

I don't want to be in the prison that I'm not allowed to do something or to test.

If you don't have money to race in Formula 1, I can understand that.

You can race in Formula 2, in Formula 3.

You can do go-kart.

You are not obliged to race in Formula 1.

So, the teams are refusing to enter the championship for the following year.

FOTA was starting to talk about,

"Actually, we might go and do another championship."

The breakaway.

"We might break away from Formula 1."

If they want to start their own series, they can,

but it's not the Formula 1 World Championship.

If the teams stick together versus Max and Bernie,

they have a immense bargaining power.

Rubens Barrichello attacking downhill.

Time to beat, 1:21.3 from Vettel.

Here comes Rubens Barrichello. Is he going to be good enough?

It is by more than half a second, but for how much longer?

Barrichello was on pole at that point.

Button then, with a lot of work to do.

There was three or four seconds to go before it was the chequered flag.

Here he comes.

Is this gonna be good enough?

The answer is, yes, it is!

Jenson Button has done it!

Awesome lap. Awesome lap!

And I just made it across the line in time.

I almost didn't get my lap. So, yeah, I got lucky again.

I was under a lot of pressure

because I didn't have a contract for the full season.

I was contracted for four races.

But also the pressure of "Yeah, but my teammate is winning."

I couldn't win, and I saw the others getting better.

I gotta-- I gotta do something.

I remember going to-- to the race start like, you know…

I was so eager.

Barrichello is dancing all over the tail of Button.

Barrichello is leading, coming to the first corner.

I was behind Rubens thinking, "Now I gotta try something different."

I just said to the team, "Is there anything I can do that's different?

Can I try a two-stop?"

They said, "It's slower, but you can try a two-stop."

-So you called it? -In the car. Yeah.

You called it on lap, what, five, seven?

-It was pretty early. -Nine?

Carrying less fuel and putting fresh tyres on the car

might give you faster lap times,

but then you've gotta stop more often and risk losing time in the pits.

The strategist has to make a call on the pit wall

within split seconds.

Strategy very rarely wins you things,

but it can cost you dearly when you get it wrong.

A three-stop was slightly faster,

which is where Rubens was strategically.

We had Red Bulls that were not far behind us,

so we split them, and we put Jenson on two and Rubens on three.

So, Button in.

I said, "Why-- Why we don't change?

Why we don't do this? Why is Jenson on another one?"

And then you start to make, uh, whys, whys.

The fact is you roll that dice, only one guy's gonna win.

Here is Jenson Button,

winner in Melbourne, winner in Malaysia, winner in Bahrain, and he's done it again!

Rubens Barrichello comes through in second.

I should have won that race.

The main car, the winning car didn't get, uh, the better option.

That day was-- was not a lovely meeting at the end of the day.

You think the team are in favour of Jenson winning the championship?

Oh, I hope not.

Um, I have been in a team that it was very much in favour of somebody else,

and right now, everything is going in favour of Jenson.

The sky is in favour of him.

He was livid,

and he was spitting fire at Ross and whoever wanted to listen.

The numbers don't add up on the three-stop when you look at it in hindsight.

Jenson was starting to establish a lead in the championship.

You know, if you get to a point

where one driver has clearly got a better chance than the other,

you give them the 50/50 decisions.

It was tough that day for me.

I mean, I didn't like it. I was pissed.

But it's a 1-2, and then, you know, they were happy.

But it's good to be beating your teammate?

-It's still-- -It's the number one thing.

It's the number one thing in Formula 1.

And if you get beaten by a teammate,

there's a reason.

He's done a better job,

or he got lucky.

Rubens Barrichello's not a bad driver.

Correct.

And Jenson beat him, his teammate, with the same car.

Who told you they were the same car?

It's a Brawn GP. It's-It's the same car.

They don't even have enough money to make parts for different cars.

That's what the problem is.

Probably have enough money to do one car very well

and have the correct people looking after it.

I always used to say to the teams I was involved with,

"Don't hate Monaco.

Love Monaco, because it's a massive challenge for everyone."

It is the most memorable event on the championship.

And if you're a driver, if you can't win a world championship,

Monaco's the closest it gets.

It does have this aura around it.

You're not racing other people.

The test is the track.

And you just have to make sure

that you're mentally right on that tightrope to beat the circuit.

It's the worst race circuit ever in terms of racing,

because you can't overtake.

It depends where you qualify more-- more than anything else.

That was the point in the season where everyone had double diffusers.

You go out on the first lap, and you take it easy.

Second lap, a bit quicker,

and you just keep building, building, building

until you either get on pole position or you put it in the wall.

You put massive amounts of pressure on yourself.

There are certain points where you've just gotta deliver,

and it's the driver who's gotta deliver on his own.

The team can't help him.

That Monaco qualifying lap was pretty amazing.

Jenson said, "The car came alive."

Now they're trusting their instincts and their ability.

They're not thinking, 'cause if you think, you calculate.

The minute you start trying to calculate where you are, you're in the wall.

This is the ultimate challenge.

And I remember getting out of the car and upset with not beating Jenson to pole.

I thought I would have pole there.

Being first and having the attention of the paddock on you was crazy.

The F1 media are very sharp.

They know what questions to ask.

They know, um, what the drivers are feeling at the time.

Happy birthday, Rubens.

A good way to celebrate. P3 here in the streets of Monaco.

It would have been better in P1, I tell you.

I knew that Rubens would be very difficult to beat this weekend.

And yesterday and Thursday, I was thinking,

"Mmm, wow. He's gonna be difficult to beat."

It's, kind of, almost the beginning of this two sides of the garage, right?

It was tricky and particularly trying to manage both drivers on my own.

With all due respect to Jenson, I've, uh--

I thought I-- I had him.

It was harder for Rubens.

I think there was frustration on his side.

You know, "What's Jenson doing differently?"

That must have been really tough.

On the track, everybody wants to win.

There is this other world in F1.

That's where the teams can put their differences on the track to one side

because, actually, it's all for the good of the sport.

Venues might change,

but for the team bosses going into this FOTA meeting,

the subject remains the same: the future of Formula 1.

The teams spent an enormous amount of time and money

developing a plan for a breakaway series.

The breakaway was a pretty bold move.

How did we end up in this position?

Well, the fundamental problem is that some of the teams feel

they would like to run the whole of Formula 1,

and, quite obviously, we don't agree.

I mean, we've been running the championship for 60 years,

and we intend to go on running it.

I think Flavio thought the breakaway was a good thing.

So what can be done to patch everything up?

Patching everything up is going to be very difficult,

because if you break something, it's hard to put it back together.

You can't fix something like this. It's very serious…

and we're very disappointed.

This was really starting to get traction, you know?

Flavio was starting to talk with promoters,

and, you know, teams were starting to get behind it and believe in it.

We're hearing from the teams that they've done all that they can.

They feel they've bent over backwards to help the FIA.

And, really, Max, they have no appetite for a compromise anymore.

We'd formed completely parallel organisations.

And we met the FIA and said, "Look, we can have your meeting if you want,

but I'm representing FOTA, and this is our position."

They simply won't talk about any progress, and then they pretend it's us.

Bernie didn't like the fact the teams had formed this entity.

For once, he was facing this challenge of the teams being pretty unified.

He hated that there was a strength of this group.

We will see. We will see.

What is important, that our view of the future is absolutely all together.

Don't believe too much in democracy.

I believe in dictators.

Was Max a dictator when he was running the FIA?

Very much so, but he wouldn't have believed it.

Bernie knew what he wanted as an end goal.

I don't think he really knew how he was gonna get there necessarily.

He would duck and dive.

What was FOTA?

Formula One Teams Association.

Oh, I'm sorry.

FOTA have got the biggest teams, the biggest stars,

and, from what we've heard,

discussions are already happening with various racing circuits and broadcasters.

It seems like FOTA are in an incredibly strong position here.

Uh, this is absolutely an illusion.

What kind of progress was made today, if any?

We had a good, constructive meeting, and there are ongoing discussions.

I think, behind the scenes, they were genuinely concerned.

That's where the cars are. That's where the drivers are.

You know, what would Bernie have if he didn't have that?

He had nothing to sell.

Next week, we will be issuing legal proceedings

against Ferrari and also against FOTA.

FOTA believe that they have no legal obligation to be in the series.

Do you see things differently?

Yes. I mean, they would have to, as they always say,

you'll have to explain that to the judge.

We had a legal team working strongly at the challenges that we would face.

We've got legal proceedings and discussions going on

behind closed doors.

Will there be a Formula 1 series next year?

No question.

Okay. Good luck.

Thanks-- Thanks for clearing that up.

This was an added level of intensity and complexity

that we could have well done without.

Whatever your take on the Monaco Grand Prix,

you surely can't question its standing as a unique sporting theatre.

Jenson Button, seventh career pole,

and he knows he could really take this world championship battle

by the scruff of the neck.

Rubens Barrichello, he has designs on victory.

Surely, he would still like to be considered a championship contender.

How is the relationship with you and Jenson?

He was having the year of his life up to that point.

It's Button, then Räikkönen, then Barrichello.

Four lights.

They're out now and away in Monaco.

Great start by Jenson Button and Barrichello as well.

He's got the jump. It's Brawn, one and two into the first corner.

Great start by the two Brawns.

Button pushing on now,

but he knows very well that the danger man is right behind him.

I had Rubens behind me,

who I knew was going to do everything he could to overtake me.

I could play the game, as you can in Monaco,

where I could make him follow me through corners I want him to,

knowing he can't overtake in those corners.

So, he's sliding around more behind and damaging his tyres,

whereas I was keeping mine in good condition.

It was the time for us to shine

and show that it wasn't just down to a double diffuser.

And we did.

All the boats, all the yachts, honk their horns at the end of the race.

This is a chequered flag he was probably dreaming about.

Jenson Button wins in Monaco.

I think Austin Powers was quite big at the time.

But--

Barrichello second for Brawn.

It's another 1-2 for Ross Brawn and his team.

Their third of the season.

Jenson was a young driver when I started working with him,

and I was a young engineer.

And we were learning together, and we were learning from each other.

Even in your career as an engineer, winning Monaco is something

that relatively few people can say that they've done.

And it-- it was a very nice moment.

Going through this journey with these guys

who I have so much respect for,

and to hear him that excited about winning a race,

uh, really meant a lot.

And I remember driving up the hill, and then they come on the radio

and tell you all the systems you have to do with the steering wheel.

But he forgot to tell me one thing, one thing:

where to park my car.

Monaco, you drive to the start and finish line,

and you park your car in front of the crown prince.

Get out the car, and everyone is like, "We-- What are you doing?"

Wait. He didn't know where to put the car?

Did you know where to put the car?

Well, we hadn't been in that position before.

I think the last Monaco was one of the worst races we've ever had,

but it made the moment all the more special.

Seventy-eight laps,

and he's now doing another half lap almost along the pit straight.

They'll wait for you, Jenson. Don't worry.

It's like the best victory lap ever.

I'm lost for words with him.

He's just exceeding everything I thought possible, so, stunning.

His dad was always there.

You could see in his dad's eyes what it meant to him

to see his son on the podium at Monaco.

You don't need any-- any more reasons to do this,

but, you know, if you did,

just looking in his dad's eyes that day would tell you why you work so hard.

The winning driver and the winning constructor go to dinner

at the Sporting Club with the royal family.

And I remember,

the roof of the Sporting Club opened to the night sky.

And then there was the biggest firework display,

and Jenson's face--

It was like looking at a five-year-old.

Prince Albert put his hand on Jenson's arm and just looked at him and said,

"You know, this is for you."

In the Brawn year, obviously, I was a little bit more strapped for cash,

so I flew easyJet to the Turkish Grand Prix.

And easyJet is a budget airline in the UK.

It was fun actually.

We had a number of races where we went back with the fans on easyJet,

and we had a hilarious time.

It didn't matter, you know?

The thing for me was not how I travelled,

or how I was perceived to be as a Formula 1 driver.

It was getting from A to B as quick as I could.

You've just gotta do the best you can.

Develop as hard as you can,

and get the performance on the car, and make sure we don't slip up anywhere.

It's gonna be a tough one for us,

but we'll do the best we can with what we've got.

After the first half-dozen or so races,

what we thought would happen started to happen.

The others, they had versions of their own double diffuser,

and were catching us fast.

We didn't have the budget that year to continue developing

at the rate we knew that McLaren were gonna develop,

that we knew Ferrari were gonna develop.

We have to make it count now, because if we don't make it count now,

in the second half of the year, they will have caught us, for sure.

All the teams are so close together.

If you are five-tenths behind, uh, you are nowhere.

But if you find five-tenths, uh, for the next race,

you're-- you're suddenly in the game.

Qualifying here in Turkey resulted in a fantastic shootout

between Red Bull-Renault and Brawn-Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel taking his third career pole,

his second of the season.

And becoming the first driver this year

to be quickest in all three qualifying sessions.

Turkey was really where our competitors started pushing hard.

We could feel the hot breath on the back of our necks.

Jenson Button's got through past Vettel.

Extraordinary, Jenson Button.

Jenson Button in the lead now. This is absolutely crucial.

I remember thinking the car is the best it's been all year.

Button's flying. Nine-tenths quicker than Vettel.

He's absolutely charging ahead of the field here.

Lap after lap. Quickest lap after quickest lap.

Button's out front.

Barrichello, though, lapping three-seconds-a-lap slower.

I was on the limiter the whole time.

I couldn't overtake because I was…

I didn't have the speed on the straight.

Oh! Dear me.

It's going from bad to worse for Rubens Barrichello.

That was, uh-- was not a good weekend.

I remember them radioing and saying we-- we cannot finish.

The first time a Brawn wouldn't finish a race.

It was the easiest race I've ever had.

Jenson Button.

The Button bandwagon rolls into Silverstone

with Jenson Button winning six out of seven races.

Such a-- a high.

I mean, nothing could bring me back down.

It was about all the hard work.

Hey, look at you, man.

Look at you up there covered in champagne. Hey, old boy.

We were fighting for survival.

And it's amazing how much energy that brings with it.

And I was like, "Plain sailing.

This is going to be such an easy year from here on out."

Three, two, one!

The Turkish Grand Prix was the last race Jenson would win in 2009.

They weren't even halfway though the season,

and the championship was still wide open.

Possibly the biggest crisis to hit motor sport in its 60-year history.

Some of the sport's biggest names said they were breaking away

to form a rival championship.

The teams have said

they will form their own breakaway series next season,

after failing to agree with the sport's governing body, the FIA,

on budget restrictions.

The FIA's lawyers have been examining the Formula One Teams Association's threat

to create a rival series.

They're now threatening to take their cars and their drivers elsewhere.

We're very, very close to do our own championship.

The objective of Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone was

to divide and conquer the teams.

What Bernie was known for is he would pick teams off.

And it was a really clever way of negotiating,

so he'd get one of the teams to agree to his terms.

And a couple of teams that were probably financially weak,

like Williams and Brawn,

Bernie had got his arm around to say,

"Stick with me, and I'll look after you."

They were working hard to destabilise FOTA.

Bernie was saying he wasn't gonna pay us our monies.

If we didn't get those monies,

it completely scuppered the business plan for the year and any future for the team.

We needed to know that Bernie was going to pay us that money.

Ross and Nick, in particular, were in a really difficult position,

so they had that discussion with Bernie.

Nick and I went to a meeting in London with him and Max.

Bernie and the FIA weren't gonna give us the money that was rightfully ours,

unless we signed for 2010.

We had Bernie offering the money if we helped do this and do that,

and, "Don't you think we were supportive when you were in your hour of need?"

And all these things are going round.

You had asked them to sign a piece of paper committing to the 2010 season.

Do you recall that at all?

No.

We really got stuck between a rock and a hard place.

We were forced into that position, really, because we were desperate.

On the one hand, we had a cheque for £12 million.

On the other hand,

we had an allegiance which we believed in with the other Formula 1 teams.

I signed the deal.

But, really, for us, it was signing with the devil.

In a way, Ross and Nick were trying to be the middle men,

because they can go and talk to the other teams

and convince them we were still very loyal.

We just needed to try and get the deal done, because we needed it.

We signed in the morning.

We were due to go to a FOTA meeting in the afternoon.

Nick and I are driving from London to Brawn GP.

But Bernie spilled the beans before we got there.

We get a phone call.

The meeting has been moved to Renault, which is Flavio's place,

because Flavio knows what's happened and he's so upset,

he won't come to Brawn GP.

That's an intense couple hours, sir.

It was.

Yeah.

The FOTA guys were like, "What?

What do you mean they've agreed something?"

Bernie could see that this would kill FOTA,

and it'd be like rats on a ship all trying to get off.

You're the double diffuser guy.

- Yeah. - You just now sabotaged our breakaway.

Yep.

We'd realised we'd been played.