Friday 6 March at 03:57 : The team commonly known as Honda has survived the withdrawal of the Japanese carmaker and will be called 'Brawn GP' in 2009, it was confirmed officially on Friday.

A statement said the team's new owner is Ross Brawn, also team principal of the Brackley based outfit, whose BGP001 single seater will be powered by a customer Mercedes-Benz engine.

Brawn also confirmed 2008 Honda drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello as its continuing drivers

"It is a great shame that having worked with Honda Motor Company for so long we can no longer continue together," Brawn, who was Ferrari's highly successful technical director from 1996 to 2006 before taking a sabbatical in 2007, said The journey ahead will be challenging but exciting," he added

Brawn GP said it will test the BGP001 at Barcelona next week, with both drivers in attendance, and subsequently at Jerez prior to travelling to Australia for the first race