Brawn: F1 rejected shark fin number idea

F1's new managing director of motorsport has made no secret of the fact that he does not like the shark fins and T-wings that have appeared on cars this year.

However, F1's governance structure means that now only unanimous support from teams will be enough to get rid of them, unless the FIA can cite safety grounds.

Speaking about the situation, Brawn says that the arrival of shark fins is proof that F1 moves in ways that are often not in its best interests.

"The frustrating thing is that [FIA president] Jean Todt has had this bee in his bonnet, which is valid in a way, to put the number on the side of the car so that the fan in the grandstand can see what car he's looking at," Brawn told Autosport.

"Because not every fan is knowledgeable enough to recognise the helmet and all the rest of it.

"We came up with the shark fin [idea for that], because that was the easy addition to put a big number on.

"And half of the teams said we're not going to have that on our cars, that's terrible.

"It was tested. We had photographs and everything, and everyone said, 'that's horrible, we don't want that.'"

Brawn believes that the next time new rules are framed for F1, more care needs to be taken to avoid loopholes that allow for unsightly additions to the cars.

"Part of the sales pitch for these new rules was nicer looking cars," he said.

"We've only half achieved that haven't we, because we've got all these oddities - shark fins and T-wings and more bits surrounding the turning vanes than I've seen for a long time.

"That's OK, that's understandable with a new set of rules, but the next iteration has got to make sure that we don't - even if it's only for aesthetics."

With new owner Liberty Media mapping out its plans to change F1 for the better, Brawn has said he hopes that teams are open to ideas put forward to them.

"There's no switch you can turn, it's just people hopefully understanding that we have that interest in the sport at heart," he said.

"I hope people will recognise that our motives are just to improve Formula 1. We have got no other motives.

"And as long as we don't fall in the trap of trying to distort the competition because somebody is winning, which I would never want to do, then people shouldn't have a need to question our motives."