Brawn seeks commercial gain

Sepang - Brawn GP's stunning F1 debut in Australia has opened the way for more commercial interest in the circuit's newest team, who are looking for long-term sponsors to help sustain their perfect start.

The team replaced Honda just weeks before the season began after a management buyout by former principal and ex-Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn.

However, the eleventh-hour rescue left Brawn GP with little time to prepare for the new season and attract sponsorship, with only Richard Branson's Virgin Group agreeing a deal by the time the season kicked off in Melbourne last weekend.

An impressive one-two finish in Australia is expected to change all that, although Brawn has insisted he does not have a queue of suitors banging on his door begging to throw money in his direction.

"It's not quite that simple but there has been a lot of interest," Brawn told reporters in Sepang on Friday ahead of this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

"Given the result we had last weekend it was perfect to help develop the commercial side. If we were at the back of the grid it would have been a lot more difficult but it is a tough market out there at the moment."

Multi-year deals

Brawn was forced to cut 270 employees from their bloated payroll after the Australian race and he is pinning his hopes on tying up would-be sponsors to multi-year deals.

"Things are developing reasonably well but our key objective is to find partners for the next two, three or four years," he added.

"Not someone who will be in for a quick splash and disappear. So, we will take our time to develop the right partners.

"With Virgin we started small but have lots of potential for the future. They are very enthusiastic and I think we've made a good a start as I think we could have dreamt of."

Brawn admitted that he had several doubts in the off season whether the team would make it to the starting grid but the "never give up" mentality he learned from his time at Ferrari had helped carry him through the dark days.

Looking to the future, Brawn said the team would continue to restructure and shape their staff as the season progressed.

"We will be preening in terms of the number of spares we carry," he said. "I think we have got 55 people here this week when last year it would have been 90.

"It's a different era for us but one that is quite exciting and challenging. At times it will be very frustrating because we will not be able to do some things we would like to do in terms of engineering with the budget we had before."