Ross Brawn could be on the move from Mercedes
ROSS BRAWN may leave Mercedes to become a technical guru for the FIA next season, but Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 future will rest on a court case which began yesterday.
Brawn wants to stay but will quit as team principal at the end of the year after failing to reach agreement over his role from next year. That has changed with the arrival of Paddy Lowe, who was McLaren’s technical director.
Mercedes would rather the team be run by committee – directors Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda and Lowe – than a principal. Brawn took over when his world championship-winning team Brawn GP were bought by Mercedes for the 2010 season.
Michael Schumacher came out of retirement to try to rekindle his success years with Brawn at Ferrari which gave them five titles, but it did not work out.
Mercedes splashed out to lure Lewis Hamilton and he will be disappointed that Brawn, one of the factors that attracted him, is on the move.
FIA president Jean Todt was Ferrari team principal with Brawn in their glory years and recruiting him to the governing body would give them an edge on the teams in technical checks.
Ecclestone, meanwhile, was accused of a “corrupt bargain” that cost a German company millions of pounds in the High Court as the first trial began into the sale of F1 shares.