UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Exclusive: Brawn pace secret!

Unique method uses cabbages

The secret of the sensational pace the Brawn BGP001 has shown since it first appeared just a few weeks ago may be down to more than just the trick diffuser, reports are suggesting.

Indeed, the ingenuity of designer Ross Brawn and his team appears to have extended to a new area of development, one that has not been harnessed in such a way by a Formula One team.

Rumours say that the major benefit comes not from the fundamental design of the car, but from the dietary regimen of the drivers.

The team is said to have recruited a specialist dietician, Professor Avril Fole, who has dictated a diet that consists mainly of cabbage and beans.

The exact reason for this is not disclosed, but any schoolboy will be able to confirm that those two foodstuffs induce a particular bodily function that, by nature, releases methane from the body.

F1 insiders have pointed to the peculiar tubing that runs through the BGP001, and to a hastily hidden pump system in the seat, and speculate that the team is utilizing the methane produced by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, and somehow filling this unique tubing with the gas, thus making the car lighter when on track. It will, of course, revert to the legal weight by releasing the gas once in parc ferme.

Sceptics have questioned the stories, pointing out that the amount of cabbage and beans needed to make the system work would require an additional lorry at all races, although a Virgin 747 was seen landing at Melbourne and unloading what appeared to be large amounts of vegetables late last Saturday night.

A team spokesman, when asked about the scheme, replied only that it was ‘a lot of hot air’.

Written: Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:04:02