Wolff would back Brawn for F1 role

Editor

Following Ross Brawn’s declaration that he is open to a role in Formula 1, Toto Wolff says the former Mercedes man would definitely have his vote.

Brawn walked away from Formula 1 in 2013, going down in the sport’s history books as the team owner with the only 100 percent record thanks to Brawn GP’s double in the 2009 championship.

However, after that success he sold the team to Mercedes were he was team boss before deciding to hang up his hat to go fishing.

And although there have been rumours of a comeback, the 61-year-old is adamant he doesn’t want to join a team but he wouldn’t mind helping the sport as a whole.

“Trying to help F1 become a better F1 would be appealing. It would be the one thing that could be interesting,” he recently told the Daily Telegraph.

“If you ask me what F1 needs, it needs a plan; a three-year and a five-year plan. My view is we haven’t got the ideal structure for creating that plan and implementing it over time.”

One man who would back his input is Mercedes motorsport boss Wolff as he feels the Englishman has a lot to offer.

“He has been there forever, he has the right distance from any team after being away a couple of years,” he told Reuters.

“If I need to underwrite Ross coming back in a leadership function in Formula One, he has my vote.”

He added: “Ross has huge experience, has the right personality, the technical knowledge of potentially playing an important part in Formula One going forward.”

As for Brawn’s comments in his book ‘Total Competition: Lessons in strategy from Formula 1’ about not trusting Wolff, the Austrian says the two have spoken since.

Wolff said: “There was lots of controversy around the book he has written, and succession and transition are never easy. It’s a delicate matter.

“For me this is no problem, and actually we’ve been in touch and he has said some quite nice things about us not dropping the ball, and the relationship is intact.”