Ross Brawn has taken control of the former Honda Racing outfit in a move that secures the survival of the tenth team in Formula One.

After months of speculation about the future of the Brackley-based outfit, following Honda's decision to quit grand prix racing last December, a 100 per cent buyout by Brawn has resulted in the team being renamed 'Brawn GP'.

A statement issued at midnight on Thursday said that Brawn had reached agreement with the Honda Motor Company to take ownership of the team. It was also confirmed that the outfit will be powered by Mercedes-Benz engines.

As autosport.com revealed earlier this week, Jenson Button will be partnered by Rubens Barrichello, who is set to extend his record as the most experienced driver in Formula One history.

Speaking about the new deal, Brawn said: "The past few months have been extremely challenging for the team but today's announcement is the very pleasing conclusion to the strenuous efforts that have been made to secure its future.

"Firstly, it is a great shame that having worked with Honda Motor Company for so long we can no longer continue together. I would like to thank Honda for the fantastic co-operation and support we have received throughout this process - particularly those members of the senior management who were closely involved with concluding our agreement - and for the faith they have demonstrated in myself and our team.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to pay due credit to our staff at Brackley. The levels of motivation and commitment that I have witnessed at the factory deserve the highest praise."

Brawn added: "It would be impossible to mention all of the people without whom today's announcement may not have been possible, however I would like to express particular appreciation for the support we have received from Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de L'Automobile), FOM (Formula One Management), FOTA (Formula One Teams Association), BERR (the UK's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform), Bridgestone, our other team partners and our many fans the world over.

"The journey ahead will be challenging but exciting and we know we can count on their continued enthusiasm for our team and its ambitions."

Brawn said that the huge experience that Button and Barrichello have between them, having started 423 races in total, would be invaluable to the outfit as it bids to make up for lost time over this winter.

"I am delighted that Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will form our race driver line-up for the 2009 season," he said.

"The vast experience and knowledge that both drivers bring to our team will prove invaluable as we aim to get up to speed in the shortest possible time to be ready for the first race of the season in Melbourne on 29 March. In what will be their fourth season together, their experience with our team in Brackley, our systems and our engineers, will prove a real asset."

Honda made it clear it was delighted to have finally put together a deal to safeguard the future of the team.

Hiroshi Oshima, Managing Officer of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. responsible for Corporate Communications and Motor Sports, commented: "Since announcing our withdrawal from Formula One racing on December 5 of last year, we have conducted various studies and discussions so that the team can continue its activities as a new team.

"We are very pleased that we could sell the team to Ross Brawn, with whom we have been partaking in the challenges of F1 competition, and are grateful for his decision. We offer our sincerest wishes for the new team which will be led by Ross."

Brawn GP, whose official colours appear to be yellow, black and white, are scheduled to shake down the new BGP 001 at Silverstone tomorrow in a behind-closed-doors test session, prior to a full blown run out at Barcelona next week and Jerez on March 15-17.

The speed of the Brawn-Mercedes has taken everyone by surprise and while there may be a certain amount of showmanship involved, it is clear that the car is good and may even be good enough to race for victories. The lap times being produced have been impressive and while some are wondering how this has been achieved given the late arrival of the car and the change of engine. The reality is that the work on the new car began very early on last year because the team was aware that its car at the time was not very competitive and wasting too much energy on that was not logical. The team thus spent a huge amount of time analysing the new rules and working in the wind tunnels at Brackley.

McLaren on the other hand seems to be struggling, but the team says that the problem that has been causing its slow times has been identified and can be fixed before the first race.

"Our focus has been on reliability and achieving as much mileage as possible," said Ross Brawn. "That the car has run so reliably 'out of the box' is a tribute to the strong team that we have at our factory in Brackley and they have done a great job during a very difficult period. The car is performing to our expectations and the feedback from Jenson and Rubens has been positive with both drivers completing full race distances. We have three further days of testing in Jerez next week to complete our preparations for the first race and I look forward to seeing how the car progresses from here."

Brawn GP has confirmed a 'substantial' sponsorship deal with the Virgin Group - in a move that could lead to a clean-fuel revolution in Formula 1.

As AUTOSPORT predicted earlier this weekend, Virgin Group has become the first major sponsor of the Brawn GP team. It is not a title sponsorship deal and the team's official name will remain unchanged for now.

The tie-up was announced in a joint press conference with team principal Ross Brawn and Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson in the paddock at Albert Park on Saturday morning.

Branson, who had been linked with a takeover of the former Honda team recently, said that moves to cut costs in the sport and a push by the American Gevo company, in which Virgin is investing, to come up with a clean fuel for the sport.

"I am very, very excited to be here today," said Branson, who had flown direct from London after agreeing the deal. "A few weeks ago I said that there were two preconditions for us to get involved with F1.

"One was that the costs of F1 should come down. It was just too expensive to get enough new entrants into the sport, and the second one was that F1 should be spear-heading a clean-fuel revolution.

"As you know, Bernie Ecclestone has announced that new entrants will be able to get into F1 at a much lower cost and that will encourage a lot of new companies to get involved in the sport and make it much more exciting. And the second was about clean fuels.

"We have invested in a company called Gevo, quite a considerable sum of money. All the profits that we make from our dirty industries, our airlines, from our train companies are invested in trying to come up with a clean fuel.

"One of the tasks that Gevo have had is to see if they can come up with a fuel for F1, maybe called the Virgin Fuel, that is clean, that doesn't emit any carbon and can perform as well as the dirty fuels that are used in cars to date.

"I am delighted to say that they have come up with such a fuel and over the next few months we will be trying to talk to F1, talk to the various car companies and see if we can have this fuel introduced as the fuel that F1 uses, so this sport goes from a slightly polluting sport to a clean sport.

"And I look forward to working with people in the sport to try and change the sport. Obviously we are trying to work to create a clean fuel for our airplanes so when people go to the sports [events] they can go without any feeling of guilt whatsoever. It is great to be here, I am really looking forward to the races ahead."

The Brawn BGP001 cars will already carry Virgin branding in Australia and Brawn himself said that Branson would be able to influence F1's future better as a sponsor than from the outside.

"Virgin Group has a major involvement in many industries which have synergies with our work here in F1," said Brawn. "The efforts that the sport is making, led by the FIA, to improve the environmental credentials of F1 are extremely important for our society and our objective for our sport.

"Richard and the Virgin Group are well aligned with our plans for the future. I know Richard shares our view that you have can have a much greater influence working on the inside making positive changes, and looking forward together very closely with him and Virgin over the coming months."

On February 29 2008, John Barnard sold his company, B3 Technologies to 3 people, one of whom had previously worked for him, and moved into furniture design with leading designer Terence Woodgate.