Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn has been a major influence on the resurgence of the Ferrari team. Brawn is the brains behind the driving of Schumacher and their partnership has brought Ferrari success once again.

Born on the 23rd of November 1954 in Manchester Ross Brawn is one of the reasons why Ferrari are back on top and winning titles. Married to Jean with 2 daughters (Helen and Amy) Ross in his role as Technical Director co-ordinates the development of the current Ferrari F1 car.

The development of the car is Brawn's day to day role within the team but he is better known for his strategic decisions he makes from the pit wall. Brawn can take the credit for many victories due to his quick thinking and flexible strategies. Although he often changes a strategy he has already planned them out and Ross has a solution for almost every scenario the race can throw up.

Ross Brawn arrived at Maranello in 1996 from the Benetton team. Brawn had always shown an interest in engineering and how things were built as he grew up in Manchester. He was particularly interested in Motorsport and the construction of high performance cars and in 1976 he was working for the Williams team as part of their Research and Development team.

His talents were soon spotted by the team, who then assigned him to work on the team's new wind tunnel. This project was a great success for Williams. Ross was with the Williams team for 8 years in that time he gained valuable experience in all aspects of the designing and construction of a Grand Prix car. Ross left Williams to take the role of Chief Aerodynamicist at the Force team, 3 years later and Brawn was on the move again to Arrows.

Brawn's second creation in the 1988 season helped the Arrows team to take fourth place in the Constructor's Championship, his talents once again caught the eye of those watching. Tom Walkingshaw commissioned Brawn to aid in the set-up of the new TWR Design Centre and to oversee the design of his sportscars. The end result of this project was the amazing Jaguar XJR-14, which was an innovation at this time and went on to win the 1991 World Sportscar Championship.

In 1991 Brawn was lured to Benetton to become the team's Technical Director and this move brought about plenty of success. In a role similar to the one he is in at Ferrari now Ross oversaw the development of the Benetton challengers, this brought about the Championship win in 1994 and 1995, with Michael Schumacher winning back to back driver title's and Benetton won the 1995 Constructor's title.

During his time with Benetton Ross worked alongside designer Rory Byrne and it was this partnership that was to be lured to Ferrari alongside Michael Schumacher in late 1996. After Brawn and Byrne left for pastures new the Benetton team fell back from the top.

In the four years Ross has been at Ferrari the team has grown to become one of the top teams once again, victory in the Constructor's title in 1999, 2000 and 2001 has shown that Ferrari made a wise decision when employing Brawn.

Away from the hectic world of Formula One Ross likes nothing better than to go fishing which is a hobby he loves almost as much as he does F1, a keen gardener also and in Ross's garden everything is definitely rosy!!