Brawn: I am the team principal

Thursday 24th January 2013

Brawn: I am the team principal

Brawn: I am the team principal

Ross Brawn insists he won't be stepping down as Mercedes team boss despite Toto Wolff's arrival.

Wolff, formerly an executive director with Williams, joined Mercedes earlier this week taking on a management role.

As part of his job Wolff, who is set to purchase a stake in the team, will take over complete co-ordination of all Mercedes-Benz motorsport activities.

This sparked rumours that the Austrian could also be taking Brawn's job as the F1 team's boss.

The Englishman, though, has denied this stating quite clearly that he's the team principal and he's in "charge."

"Toto is coming in and there is another side of the business that quite frankly I don't want to get involved in," said Brawn.

"I don't want to get involved in the commercial activities and with the support we need to give Daimler on a day-to-day basis.

"There are a lot of things Toto will be doing which are complementary to what I am doing in terms of running the team.

"But you have to have one reference. Everybody knows the only way a racing team will work is to have one reference, and I'm that reference.

"I am the team principal and I am in charge of sporting, technical and racing matters."

As for speculation that Paddy Lowe could head to Mercedes, Brawn said the McLaren man could yet be part of his "succession plan."

"I know the situation completely. Mercedes want a long-term commitment. And obviously, with a lot of additions, I want to see how things go before I make a final long-term commitment. And so we have to have things in place.

"It's rather like my succession plan at Ferrari. When I decided I was going to stop at Ferrari, we built a succession plan and I am part of that, I've talked to Paddy, we know the situation.

"Like any of us in life, if we are excited by what we are doing we carry on doing it. So that's what I want to do."

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