The change in ownership of the Brawn GP team is all about Ross Brawn himself. In effect Mercedes Benz has spotted a chance to invest in him personally and has jumped at it, unceremoniously dropping McLaren in order to do so.

The softly spoken, lifelong Manchester United fan is almost unique in Formula One in the way he has mastered the technical and management challenges that lie at the heart of the sport. The pitlane is full of geeky engineers who know the suspension geometry of a Formula One car inside out but could not organise a charity football team, and team managers who do not understand what makes a car go fast but know all about bean-counting.

Brawn has shown he can do it all. Having led a management buyout after Honda’s decision to sell its team this time last year, he and Nick Fry, the chief executive, have slimmed down the operation and taken their car to double world championships. It has been an incredible achievement.

Brawn is an object lesson in so many ways. Modest to a "T", quiet but firm, he leads by way of consultation and clear decision-making. He sees himself as like the conductor of a great orchestra, making sure all the talents at his disposal are working coherently and positively to one end. His biggest strengths are his unflappability under pressure and his imperviousness to Formula One’s temptations — principally the egotism that has consumed lesser men in his position over the years.

This year Brawn kept a cool head while he and his team fought a rearguard action from halfway through the season as their rivals queued up to try to shake Jenson Button’s hold on the championship. Despite the pressure, Brawn refused to divert resources away from next year’s car — something McLaren and Ferrari resorted to during their fight for glory last year — and he saw the campaign through to a glorious conclusion at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The question is what Brawn can do now that he has the might of Mercedes behind him. Most likely, with the stress of ownership lifted from his shoulders, the man Button calls “the big bear” will come into his own. Next year could be transitional in terms of drivers but once Brawn gets the right men in the cars, he could be unstoppable.

It is for this reason many pundits are genuinely amazed Button could seriously consider leaving Brawn’s staff. As one put it yesterday of his putative move to McLaren: “First of all he’ll get murdered by [Lewis] Hamilton, and second he would be walking away from where the action is. It would be like walking away from Chelsea just after [Roman] Abramovich bought the club — bizarre behaviour.”