Fry: "UK Government Helped Brawn GP Survive!"

Brawn GP has not only Mercedes and Honda to thank for their successful first year in Formula One, but also the British government. According to the team's chief executive officer Nick Fry, the Brackley based organization was kept on the floating line by senior government official Peter Mandelson.

Mendelson seems to have contributed greatly to the survival of the former Honda F1 Racing team, although Fry did not disclose exactly how that was made (financial aid, tax exemption or some other sort of a deal).

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

However, British newspaper The Mirror found out some strings that Mendelson had to pull in order to safeguard the future of Brawn GP. Soon after Honda announced their withdrawal from the sport in December 2008, the business minister allegedly contact his counterparts in Tokyo in order to facilitate the transition between Honda and Brawn GP.

In the end, the Japanese manufacturer agreed to a management buyout to Ross Brawn, for the very interesting and symbolic price of one euro. Needless to argue, Honda must have benefited from a lot more when selling their F1 operations, in which they had pumped hundreds of millions of euros during their previous 3 years in the series.