Brawn insists he’s staying in charge at Mercedes

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says he will remain in charge despite speculation over his future.

Pictures: Lewis Hamilton visits Mercedes’ Brackley factory

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Brawn: I’m in charge at Mercedes (The Telegraph)

“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.”

Mercedes seem hungrier than McLaren, says Hamilton (Reuters)

“There is a great spirit here. The guys seem hungrier than any group of people I’ve seen before. They seem seriously hungry to win and excited they have another shot at it this year.”

El circuito urbano de Valencia, en estado de abandono (Marca, Spanish)

The Valencia Street Circuit, which is supposed to be part of a race-share deal with the Circuit de Cataluna, is falling into disrepair.

Buemi ‘tortured’ by missing out on race starts (Crash)

“Yes, it’s terrible. Real torture … There’s definitely nothing worse for a driver than not being on the track.”

Baillieu defends GP license fee (The Age)

“Premier Ted Baillieu says the Grand Prix license fee covers the cost of staging the event in Melbourne.”

How to make an F1 car – Part 4 (BBC)

“All the aerodynamic surfaces, from the front wing through the sidepods to the diffuser and rear wing, create some sort of force, either negative or positive. What a team are trying to do is increase the positives and reduce the negatives.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

@Robbie on the dispute over the cost of hosting the Australian Grand Prix:

There is the cost that Bernie Ecclesetone demands, but then there is the economic benefit to the community and the country to consider, on the other side of the coin.

That said, looking here in Canada as an example, we almost lost the Montreal GP (and did briefly) because Ecclesetone wanted a guarantee (from our Federal Government, in conjunction with the Provincial and Municipal Governments of Quebec and Montreal) of 50 million per year for five years and the Government(s) were having none of it. Just too much money, in spite of the economic benefits.

In our case there was enough pressure from the teams, who insisted they needed the Canadian GP, and perhaps more specifically a North American race when there was no United States Grand Prix, such that Ecclesetone lowered his demands, Canada accepted the new fees (I think somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25 to 30 per year rather than 50) and here we are today with a race (for now).

Perhaps the status of the race and/or Ecclestone’s demands will change when it comes up again, due to the fact that there is now another race in North America. But we do know Montreal is hugely popular for folks globally, within and without F1. And we do know there is pressure for Montreal to update it’s venue too.

Personally, it seems to me the benefits to the community far outweigh the moneys that BE demands be guaranteed him. Nobody puts a gun to anyone’s head to sign a contract and guarantee the fees, and as we saw in Montreal, just because BE demands it, doesn’t mean he always gets his way entirely.
@Robbie

From the forum

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On this day in F1

The first race of the short-lived GP2 Asia championship was held in on this day five years ago and won by Romain Grosjean.

Grosjean won both the feature and sprint races, taking victory in the former ahead of fellow future F1 driver Bruno Senna.

Grosjean went on to win the inaugural championship.

Images © Mercedes/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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31 comments on “Brawn insists he’s staying in charge at Mercedes”

  1. That technical series from Gary Anderson has been a great read. I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t read parts 1 to 3 to do so.

  2. La situación de dejadez es tal que el túnel que da acceso a la pista durante las carreras está completamente inundado. Y un puente que costó dos millones de euros ahora sólo es utilizado por vagabundos para pasar las noches.

    The sloppiness situation is such that the tunnel that gives access to the track during the races is completely flooded. And a bridge that cost two million euros now is only used by homeless to spend the night.

    Considering how things are going in Spain, with the worst ever number of unemployments, and all… what are they expecting? the goverment to raise money to mantain a track that will be used (maaaaaaaaybe) in 2014?

    Just underlines the level of stupidity with having a whole new facility in a country with many very good top rated circuits.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      25th January 2013, 13:51

      @fer-no65 why don’t they alternate Jerez with Barcelona? I think that circuit is prepared to host a F1 race. At least it works well for testing isn’t it?

      1. Because Valencia at least stated that it wants to pay for the race (and can possibly afford to do so each second year), while there is no indication at all that Jerez can or is wanting to do so.

        And the Jerez track is not that much suited to an F1 race.

  3. Thanks for COTD! Can’t believe I spelled Ecclestone wrong 3 out of 4 times though. Oops.

  4. Nothing says authority like when you have to keep reminding people that you are in charge.

  5. WTH…that James Allison tweet making me nervous!!!!!!!

    1. Oh, relax. Allison will have designed the Lotus E21 and planned out the first phase of its development schedule. If he leaves, Lotus won’t be completely rudderless, and if whoever they get in to replace him is competent, they should have no trouble seeing out the 2013 season.

      If you are going to worry about something, worry about the team’s budget. Even with the Coca-Cola and Honeywell deals, I’ve heard that their 2013 budget will be roughly the same as their 2012 budget. And I’ve also heard that the Honeywell sponsorship contract is not happening. This means that the team will have less money to spend on parts that Kimi Raikkonen will insist on for months and then decides not to use after one lap of Monaco …

      1. The budget is one thing I don’t worry with Lotus team, they are so heavily interconnected with Unilever – who are extremely happy with Raikkonen. Only results will limit their financial back up. If only Grosjean got more points last year and stayed out of bad spot light.

        We’ll see.

        1. There has been no indication that Unilever are increasing their sponsorship of the team.

      2. Lotus had 2 major places money was unexpectedly spent last year:
        – Kimis big point score and big bonus money to him because of it ;)
        – Grosjean’s crashes

        So build a slower car – save money on Kimi :)

      3. How much more money are you expecting them to need?

  6. Thanks for the birthday shoutout Keith – you were first in!

    1. Happy birthday to you @mouse_nightshirt. I hope no night shifts to celebrate, except the voluntary ones involving parties, food and drink.

  7. “Yes, it’s terrible. Real torture … There’s definitely nothing worse for a driver than not being on the track.”

    If it is really so difficult, why did Buemi sign up to be Red Bull’s test and reserve driver – again? He did it all throughout 2012, so he knew exaclty what it would mean when he agreed to keep going in the role for 2013. But then he turns around and complains that he isn’t getting any time out on the track. If he values racing so much, why didn’t he leave Red Bull and try to find a drive elsewhere? Or does he genuinely believe that when either Vettel or Webber (or both) leave Red Bull, he will be in line for a drive there?

    1. I’d say he needs some new management. Effectively his Formula 1 career is over, his management just doesn’t realize that yet.

    2. @prisoner-monkeys Exactly. Maybe he was holding out for a seat somewhere else this year and it failed?

    3. He’s got more race experience than Ricciardo and Vergne not to mention De Costa and all the other aceademy drivers so, yes, I expect he thinks he has a great shot at Webber’s seat.

      1. He also got sacked for not being fast enough!

      2. @voisey – he also was dropped, along with Alguersuari, in favour of Vergne and Ricciardo – so I find it highly unlikely they would promote Buemi to the Red Bull seat if Webber is to retire next season. Felix Da Costa would probably replace the vacant seat at Toro Rosso as he appears to be a very promising young driver so another chance at Toro Rosso appears highly unlikely to. Realistically he’s not going to be driving an F1 car again except from in a testing role possibly.

  8. Someone should tell James Allison that going to Merc is getting old real fast. :)

  9. I can’t watch the video because of my mobile Internet, but is that an article by The Age in FAVOUR of the Australian GP???

    To quote Ron Burgandy:
    “… I don’t believe you”.

    1. @nackavich – Not really. The video only lasts about thirty seconds, and it’s taken from a Ten News broadcast. It’s basically Ted Ballieu justifying the cost of the race. The Age (and to a lesser extent, The Herald Sun) has implied that the $30 million sanctioning fee is just one lump sum that goes straight to Bernie Ecclestone. Ballieu is explaining that the cost actually covers several fees, though he doesn’t go into too much detail about what goes where; as Ecclestone said yesterday, there are confidentiality agreements in place, so obviously Ballieu cannot discuss much about it.

      1. But we know half of the fee goes to CVC to pay of the money they spent to buy Bernie out.

  10. I wonder which team James Allison will be moving to ;-)

    1. good one :D

    2. If the Paddy Lowe > Merc/Williams rumours are true, perhaps Allison is on his way to Mclaren to take over. Just a thought

      1. Nimmervoll’s article at Motorsport-Total suggests that McLaren would be Allison’s likely destination.

  11. Are all those people looking over the railings, in the picture with Hamilton and Roseberg on the stairs, the technical directors at Mercedes?

    1. Hahaha! Yes, I think the caption for that photo is supposed to be

      Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, and Ross Brawn speak to some of the Mercedes technical directors, Brackley, 2013

  12. I think Mercedes newest employee looks rather one dimensional!

Comments are closed.