F1 politics ‘forced out’ Brawn
Brit admits ‘trust issues’ forced him to quit Mercedes back in 2013
FORMER Mercedes-amg Formula One team boss Ross Brawn has revealed that he left the outfit at the end of 2013 due to his “lack of trust” of the senior management.
The 61-year-old Briton has claimed that the arrival at the squad of current bosses Niki Lauda, Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe forced him out of the team that he had sold to Mercedes after securing the 2009 world championship as Brawn GP.
“I was beginning to deal with people whom I didn’t feel I could ultimately trust,” he explained. “I never knew really what they were trying to do. Niki would tell me one thing, then I would hear he was saying something else. Then when I challenged Toto and Niki, they blamed each other. I met them to have it out with them – and they both pointed to each other.”
Brawn masterminded Michael Schumacher’s seven world championships with Benetton and Ferrari, before taking Jenson Button to the title with his own team, which had risen from the ashes of Honda’s failed squad at the end of 2008. Yet despite his huge success and experience, the former team principal found himself on unfamiliar ground within the Mercedes outfit.
“The lack of trust in the Mercedes situation, certainly the hierarchy, was the thing that became disconcerting for me,” he said. “It was the thing that I wasn’t used to having to deal with. What happened at Mercedes is that people were imposed on me whom I couldn’t trust. I saw no future unless I was willing to go to war and remove them.”
Brawn has also revealed he was offered a behind-the-scenes role in F1 following his departure from the Mercedes team. However, the Brit has claimed that he was put off by the focus on politics.
“I was invited to become involved in F1 and help perhaps shape the regulations or the future of the sport,” he said. “But that invitation was to get involved in the politics of F1, because that’s what it’s all about. And that is probably the arena where I am least comfortable.”
“Brawn claimed arrival of current bosses Lauda, Wolff and Lowe forced him out of Mercedes F1 team”