Jorg Zander leaves Brawn GP

[sticky667]

Phil posted here about Jorg's exit.


This comment caught me by surprise and made me step back for a second..

rumours that Ferrari’s Luca Badisserri will be replacing him are believed to be somewhat wide of the truth.

Is Ross building the next F1 dynasty with old Ferrari influence?!

[ESPImperium]

Sad to see him go, awsome designer, im shure that he will find a new role at another team, posibly back at BMW Sauber.

But it is funny how Luca Baldisserri is now in the factory at Ferrari, this may be a form of employed "garden leave" that F1 designers have been forced to take for a year or so before going to another team.

I can see more people from Maranello looking for a home near Brackley sooner than later.

[Conceptual]

Somehow I find the thought of the designer of the BGP001 having trouble finding work, especially since the 2009 regs are now "frozen" till 2012.

[hulmerist]

my first thought was that mclaren might take him on...

new set of eyes might be just what they need, he knows what makes a car quick under these regulations whereas the mclaren guys don't seem to be able to see it

[jddh1]

my first thought was that mclaren might take him on...

new set of eyes might be just what they need, he knows what makes a car quick under these regulations whereas the mclaren guys don't seem to be able to see it

I disagree. McLaren, Ferrari and BMW suck because they focused on KERS. Had they focused their resources on the aero development and car stability, we would be singing a different tune.

[hulmerist]

except ferrari have been able to make it work

[richard_leeds]

How odd to leave when there is still a lot to do for the rest of the season?

[DaveKillens]

It's a shocker that an engineer that contributed so much to the development of the Brawn car has suddenly departed. Unless it's a very pressing personal matter (illness in the family, etc.) I have to suspect he's been poached by another team.

[xpensive]

Follow the money I guess, when obviously it would be easy for anyone to appreciate Zander as the man behind Brawn being an instant winner, no?

Remember Mike Gascoyne, picked up by Toyota as the brain behind Jordan's and Renault's relative success, given a contract too good to be true.

But how did that end and where is Gascoyne now?

My point that I believe it's not easy to single out one individual from a team-effort and xpect him to make miracles out of context.

[gcdugas]

It's a shocker that an engineer that contributed so much to the development of the Brawn car has suddenly departed. Unless it's a very pressing personal matter (illness in the family, etc.) I have to suspect he's been poached by another team.

The days of the star designer one man show are long over but if I were pressed to attribute Brawn's success to any single person it would be to Ross. In Ross we have the most engineering minded team principal on the grid.

[Shaddock]

It's a shocker that an engineer that contributed so much to the development of the Brawn car has suddenly departed. Unless it's a very pressing personal matter (illness in the family, etc.) I have to suspect he's been poached by another team.

The days of the star designer one man show are long over but if I were pressed to attribute Brawn's success to any single person it would be to Ross. In Ross we have the most engineering minded team principal on the grid.

Newey?

If he goes now he has time to influence next years design, any later and it's a wasted year.

[Scotracer]

Well if Brawn are down an engineer, I'm currently unemployed

[sticky667]

It's a shocker that an engineer that contributed so much to the development of the Brawn car has suddenly departed. Unless it's a very pressing personal matter (illness in the family, etc.) I have to suspect he's been poached by another team.

The days of the star designer one man show are long over but if I were pressed to attribute Brawn's success to any single person it would be to Ross. In Ross we have the most engineering minded team principal on the grid.

Newey?

If he goes now he has time to influence next years design, any later and it's a wasted year.

I don't think Brawn have the budget for a Newey, unless he was willing to take a pay cut like Jenson in order to be apart of the success. He is already near the top again with RB and their budget it definitely able to support his habit. He also has the option of having 4 cars to design for.

STR are somewhat of an extended testing program for the RB Sr. team. I'm quite surprised there hasn't been an uproar regarding the STR technical assistance from RB, they are basically a customer car but managed a loophole that William's isn't able to contest. I'm quite surprised McLaren haven't used FIF1 in such a partnership to excel their own program as well.

[tahadar]

its not so easy for McLaren to do with FIF1 what RBR have done with STR. Reason being is that actually neither Red Bull Racing NOR Scuderia Torro Rosso own the design of what are currently the RB5 and the STR4. These designs are property of Red Bull Technologies, and so there are some finer points that allow a 'parent' and a 'customer' team to function as RBR and STR while this would not be possible with McLaren and a 'B' Team with their current setup.

[DaveKillens]

I do not consider Jorg Zander to be the sole brains behind the engineering of the Brawn, but he was a major part of their design team. Because of the incredible success of the Brawn car, his stock has to have risen.
Newey costs Red Bull ten million a year.