Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn is set to leave the German outfit for McLaren at the end of the season, according to the German publication Sport Bild, which has long had strong connections with Mercedes-Benz management. The report suggested that Brawn will leave the team and move to McLaren to work with the team as it transitions to Honda. Brawn is well-connected with the Japanese company having been hired to be team principal of the Honda Racing F1 team back in 2007. He remained in that role in 2008 and was then he and some fellow directors were given the team for a nominal sum. They promptly won the World Championship as Brawn GP in 2009 with Jenson Button. Thus there is some logic in the idea. However, it has been met with a string of denials from the people involved. Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda said that nothing has changed in the team’s relationship with Brawn and that Ross will decide what he wants to do at some point.
Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai said that he knew nothing about such an idea and said he did not think it would happen. Brawn himself has said that he is not talking to Honda, nor to McLaren. This view is shared by Jenson Button who told the F1 media in Japan that “Ross Brawn will not join the team next season” but admitted that it was always possible that Brawn might join in 2015.
So did Bild get it wrong? Or is there more to the story than the folks involved are willing to admit?
Time will tell.
joeblogsf1 
Ah, how clever of Ross to be able, yet again, to ramp up his value in the market place.
If he stays at Mercedes, there must be a salary increase, or if he goes elsewhere, a similar sum will make its way to his bank account.
This attribute has been something I have admired in Ross ever since we worked together at Wolf Racing where he was head of the machine shop. If only I had known how good he was going to be in the leverage game I could have slipstreamed him.
Its clear that a corporate entity such as Mercedes needs a person that has both feet very firmly on terra ferma, and that has very little to prove, beyond how good a fisherman he is!
What do they say in politics? Never believe something is true until it’s been officially denied!
true that! and a tripartite denial at that!
in all seriousness though i do hope he does rejoin honda and deliver again what they should have reaped the benfits of the first time back in 2009. the world just will not seem right in my eyes until we see the great brawn-san in a honda shirt, lifting the constructors trophy with the honda motor company.
to add to the power of the dream (ewe i know that was poor, yet so irresistible), alonso driving that partnership forward in his peak and latter years alongside honda’s meant-to-be world champ jenson button. sweeeeeet
I can now never read one of these denials without mental subtitles saying “I am not talking with Blue Wombat Racing…”
There’s more than enough space between Ross, Jenson, and Arai-san’s comments to drive a Honda-powered MP4-28H testbed through (with Ross sitting on the sidepod at that)…
Yes! If it’s true, then of course he’s not talking to them. He’s already talked to them… 🙂
Wow! That WILL be interesting! I’d like to see him go to McLaren and have a go at turning their fortunes around.
Very interesting, and plausible. I wonder (1) if Brawn were to join McLaren, what capacity that would be in. I wonder if it would simply be Technical Director, or Team Principal taking over from Mr. Whitmarsh, and (2) if there is a clause in Lewis Hamilton’s contract giving him an exit clause binding him the Ross Brawn’s continued presence at the Mercedes team (after all, Lewis has indicated several times Brawn’s presence was one of the deciding factors leading to his joining Mercedes).
Checo’s position at McLaren seems tenuous after all and whether armchair experts agree or not, the professional F1 community ses to generally regard Hamilton fairly highly. Could this also signal his return home?
Great to have some McLaren news. Let’s hope it happens. There have been stories for some time about Ross moving, or being moved, on.
Does Brawn have a contract with Mercedes for 2014 or is that still being negotiated?
Wow! Yes. This would be consistent with a number of recent headlines, and perhaps Brawn is just the man to shake McLaren up and put it back to the very top of the F1 team pile. It’s not often I get excited by speculation and future prospects in F1 anymore. Thanks, Joe.
After the ‘testgate’ and Ross putting his chin on the line (good character as he is!) as everyone else shrank back, I thought he would reconsider his position, I was hoping he might move back to Williams and take a stake in the team, I’d really like to see Frank rise again, and Ross could just be the catalyst to do it!
It would be a shame if Ross were to leave and merc were to win the championship next year.
I think Ross would like to be their next year and should they win, he can leave knowing he has brought the team to the very top.
it might be a hopeless task but it would be nicer to see Ross go to Williams and get them back to winning ways. McLaren can surely sort themselves out eventually – that said that’s probably what people said about Williams a few years ago…..
The only thing cooler than RB to Macca would be RB to Willies.
Ross keeps talking about being motivated and wanting a role where he has clearly defined jobs that he wants to do. Mercedes new emphasis on 19 chiefs with vague overlapping jobs clearly doesn’t appeal to him. I was convinced he wanted to retire but maybe a better year with Mercedes has shown the fire is still there. And to be honest who can blame him. If Schumacher had had this years Mercedes I expect he’d have stuck around another year or two. Nothing like a few successes to keep your hunger levels up.
So the supermen Niki and Toto arrive and think they know what needs to be done and among other things gets Paddy Lowe on board. Ross thinks the phone booth (great image, Joe) becomes a bit crowded, though actually being a great team player, understands he needs to up the game and let the freshmen understand who has the real leverage? I would not dare to play chess against that guy.
He’s won an absolute stack of championships – more than all the other current F1 team managers put together…Why has he not been tapped up sooner???!
As a McLaren fan i’d dearly like to see him join us. With Whitmarsh being moved ‘upstairs’ to vacate the Principal role and focus fully on the commercial side of things.
If Hulk or Verne were to join Jenson then my fire would be truly relit!
Perez will probably be Button’s team-mate in 2014.
He would be very good for McLaren technically, but I am not quite sure if he would fit comfortably into the McLaren culture.
Does Mclaren need Brawn? Maybe it´s bigger deal including couple of technical directors from Mercedes.
Does he still own shares in the Mercedes team and if so would he be allowed to keep them if he moved on ?
No.
I will be very happy if this turns out to be true. McLaren have been out of form since Ron left. They have to do something and Ross is a fantastic person to have at the top.
I was rather hoping Brawn would have been heading to Williams and get them back on track, so to speak.
I was surprised to see you write about this Joe, you normally quash this sort of rumour.
Since all parties involved appear to have denied it do we take it that it is another Merc style “outing” similar to that used on Paddy?
Equally we could hear that you are joining the Sky tv team next year to provide some sensible solid background as a kind of antidote to Eddie Jordan on the BBC.
I don’t think RB has decided what he is doing in 2015. I suspect he will go fishing in 2014.
Sir, please make monsieur Brawn aware that it was yours truly that took a bold risk and shared his interview with Financial Times USA edition some time ago now…,…,…, as he revealed his secret recipe for calculating the formula to winning at the Circus of Speed branded as F1 by current commercial rights holder Formula One Group Et Al.
Ciao tutti!
P.S. who gladly accepted this information which I purchased for three scheckles? only time will tell…,
I think Joe wrote the article to ignite some debate and open our minds to the possibility.
Just a word of caution. I don’t consider ‘Bild’ to be the most reliable source of news. It’s from the most red-top end of the tabloid spectrum. It would not surprise me to hear that they based their news story on something that someone said that they’d overheard someone else speculating about, and published before corroborating.
The question is offcourse is RB really considdered importand for the future of Mercedes by Mercedes and will they try and keep him within their ranks or are they just trying not to rock the boat and try and keep him away from the competion long enough to ensure that his leaving won’t be associated with a potential drop in results.
Well untill this resent chain of denile claims I was kind of hoping AutoBild had got their locations muddled up and Brawn was off to Grove and not Woking. Oh well he is a great man and will solidify the weakness of Whitmarsh.
It is not true…
Joe, do you think this is political maneuvering by Brawn to reestablish his position as team boss after Toto and his words about Brawn? A – back me or lose me – to the Mercedes board, sort of thing.
Also, in your opinion do the Mercedes board care if the praise of their new or future success go to an Englishman or would they prefer to have an all German management? Is that something they care about or is success just that; success?
No, I think it is rubbish.
No, it’s not all rubbish.
Brawn’s problem is exactly what many of us have been saying from the moment Lauda and Wolff took up positions in the team. That Mercedes would suffer from too many chefs and that Lauda is an instigator. Both of which would result in Brawn’s departure.
The firm will now have to make a hard decision. Toto and Lauda, or Brawn. They won’t be able to keep all three in positions of leadership. Brawn has had too much success and is worth far too much money to put up with the status quo.
Brawn was asked in the pre-race what it would take to keep him at Mercedes, he gave this surprisingly specific answer:
“We need a very clear definition of who’s in charge”.
Clearly he’s asked Mercedes who’s in charge, and just as clearly they haven’t answered. If Mercedes refuse to clarify the team’s leadership, Ross is certainly gone.
Bild, the tabloid who first ran with the Webber/Ferrari ‘taxi’ invoice..?
Brawn at McLaren IMO makes about as much sense as Kimi paired with Alonso at Ferrari . And we all know how that one turned out . Silly Season my foot ! More like Abject Madness season on the best of days 😉
It would be sad to see this happen before Brawn got to enjoy a World Championship with Mercedes.
Something tells me you wouldn’t post this story unless there was a distinct possibility 😉
He is on his way to Williams. The only question he dodged at an event at the BRDC a couple of weeks ago was that one
wow, really? there would definitely need to be a fresh driver line-up if so! somehow psator, bottas and brawn just doesn’t have a winning ring to it!
joe – i forget/ get confused about the state of jenson’s contract. is it he, or mclaren that only want the one year option exercise, rather than a two year contract extension?
They don’t talk about the details. Suffice to say he will be there next year
can’t think of anyone better to fill frank williams boots until claire can take over
2015?…Ross Brawn will join Button and Alonso at McLaren.
We will have to wait and see.
What happens to Martin then?
Ross brawn will be put on a years gardening leave by Mercedes to protect the 2015 car development but that won’t stop Mclaren sending Brawn data to help with their car delvelopment , watch this space