Brawn GP to shed around 270 jobs

By Pablo Elizalde Monday, March 30th 2009, 13:57 GMT

Australian Grand Prix winner Brawn GP will make around 270 members of its staff redundant this year.

The team, saved by an 11th-hour buyout led by Ross Brawn, will be reducing its staff by a third in order to return to 2004 levels, when the squad was known as BAR, before Honda bought it.

Brawn led a successful management buyout less than a month ago to keep the team alive, but the Brackley-based outfit is unlikely to have the same budget it had when owned by Honda.

Most F1 teams have made, or will be making, staff redundant as a result of the in-season testing ban and the need to reduce costs.

"It's about 270 (jobs)," the team's CEO Nick Fry told Reuters. "We are about 700 people at the moment and we talked to the staff about going down to about 430, something like that, which is where we were in 2004.

"It's very unfortunate that we've got to do that but it's the change of technical regulations and obviously we are now a private team."

Despite the uncertainty over its future, Brawn GP dominated its maiden race on Sunday, with Jenson Button leading team-mate Rubens Barrichello to a one-two victory.