Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Brawn staying on as F1 managing director
Formula 1’s managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn will be remaining in his role after discussions with new CEO Stefano Domenicali about his future plans.
Brawn was brought into the position as part of a three-man leadership team under Liberty Media, working alongside Chase Carey and Sean Bratches from 2017 onwards. With both of his main colleagues having taken reduced roles on recent years and Domenicali replacing Carey as CEO, Brawn says he has spoken to his former Ferrari colleague about his future plans and has plenty more he wants to achieve as part of F1.
“It wasn’t really in doubt,” Brawn told RACER. “I wanted to understand what Stefano wanted. Obviously under Chase we had a good working relationship and I enjoyed my time with Chase. I didn’t know what Stefano’s plans were; in fact, until Stefano was confirmed I didn’t know who the new CEO would be! So that had to be resolved.
“I was pleased when Stefano confirmed that he very much wanted to carry on our working relationship. There were other people who also had to make decisions on how things move forward -- it wasn’t only my decision. But I’m very pleased to stay with the company.
“I want to see the 2022 cars run. There’s a big technical change next year and that will be the culmination of several years’ work. A big change this year with the cost control -- that’s going to have some bumps in the road undoubtedly that we’ll need to smooth out, so that’s another factor. So I’m pretty excited about the future.
“We’ll all have to stop at some stage but I want to stop at a time that’s right for everyone, and I’m still enjoying myself.”
Brawn, 66, has enjoyed the early part of working with Domenicali once again, having done so throughout his time at Ferrari.
“It doesn’t feel like we’ve left off! We’ve fitted in together very quickly. We always had a pretty easygoing relationship in the Ferrari days, and I think we’ve picked up where we’ve left off in that respect. Obviously different objectives now, and I was asked the question the other day, ‘Should teams be worried now because two ex-Ferrari employees are running the show?’ and I said, 'Remember, Stefano worked for Lamborghini and I worked for Mercedes!
“So I’m very pleased and enjoying the experience. Stefano’s certainly come in with a bang, he’s just frustrated he can't get to the UK to the moment and he’s operating from Italy. But that will come in time.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
Read Chris Medland's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.