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The 2009 car had been a long time in development, with Ross Brawn, The technical genius behind Michael Schumacher's glory days at Ferrari, at the helm. For one thing, the engine didn't fit properly. The car had not been designed for the Mercedes engine which was hastily put it, with some modifications to the chassis to make it fit.
it was revealed that the modifications made to the car to accommodate its Mercedes engine saw six inches removed from the rear end, severely compromising the car's center of gravity and by the time the team realized how changed the balance was, there was no time to commission a new design
"The chassis had the back six inches cut off to fit the engine in - the sort of thing you wouldn't normally do even with a test car," says my source. "And the gearbox was in the wrong place because the crank-centre height is different. There's a massive amount of compromise in the cars."
Those compromises introduced a significant performance deficit into the Brawn car, but it raced like that all year.
That is because the lead time on making a new chassis is several months, and at the time the team would have had to make the decision - in April - the car was dominating.
By the time it had dropped off the pace, and it was obvious the team needed the extra speed that would come with a bespoke chassis and improved weight distribution, it was too late to commission a new design.
It was well reported at the time that Brawn GP had received confirmation of a Mercedes engine as late as December 2008. That was just 3 and half months before the 2009 season so it was impossible to incorporate something as fundamental into a new chassis design. The Merc was made to fit. Nick Fry gave an interview to the BBC that year and said the modifications were made were very crude indeed. A hacksaw was even used to make the engine fit which is not what you'd expect to hear in modern F1.