Mercedes Team Principal Ross Brawn walking in the paddock at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Spa ahead of the Belgium Formula One Grand Prix. Team Principal Ross Brawn will leave Mercedes at the end of the 2013 season, German newspaper Sport Bild said on October 7, 2013. - AFP
BERLIN: Team Principal Ross Brawn will leave Mercedes at the end of the 2013 season, German newspaper Sport Bild said Monday.
The bi-weekly newspaper claimed Brawn had told the German team’s non-executive president Niki Lauda, a former three-time world champion, of his decision during last weekend’s Grand Prix in South Korea.
However, the news was immediately denied by a Mercedes spokesman who said “there is nothing new to announce on this subject” while German agency SID, an AFP subsidiary, quoted an unnamed source close to the team who claimed the news was “incorrect”.
According to Sport Bild, the 58-year-old Brawn, who masterminded Michael Schumacher’s seven world titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995 and Ferrari from 2000 to 2004, will be replaced by former McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe, who joined Mercedes mid-season.
Back in July, Brawn, a keen salmon and trout fisherman, told Sport Bild: “I’m in charge and Paddy works for me, but sooner or later that will change.
“When the moment to pass the baton comes, it will be done gently.”
After Brawn left Ferrari he had a one-year sabbatical before joining Honda in 2008.
That team was bought out by a consortium headed by Brawn and carried his name in 2009, when Jenson Button stormed to the world title, before Mercedes took over in 2010.
According to Sport Bild, Brawn may not actually retire but is in talks with Honda, rumoured to be set for a return to the sport in 2015 by supplying engines to McLaren, a hark back to that team’s glory days at the end of the 1980s when the team boasted legendary drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in cars powered by the Japanese manufacturer’s engines. - AFP
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