Mercedes has announced today that parent company Daimler and its partner Aabar has bought the final 24.9% stake in the team, which had remained in the hands of Ross Brawn, Nick Fry and the management team. That management team, which saved the Brackley outfit from closure in 2009, operated as Brawn GP that year and then sold a controlling interest in the team to Mercedes, will remain on board but without holding equity. This is a very logical step for all parties. For team principal Ross Brawn this is the completion of a process which has made him a very More…

There is an interesting interview with Ross Brawn in today’s Gazzetta dello Sport, in which he says that he believes Mercedes will have a car to challenge for the championship next year and confirms that “Mercedes will be my last team.” He also tips Fernando Alonso to win the world championship this year, reiterating the admiration he has for the Spaniard, whom he tried hard to sign for Honda in late 2008. Having won 16 world championships with Benetton, Ferrari and then the crowning glory of world titles with his own team, Brawn is now engaged in a new challenge More…

Michael Schumacher will compete next year in Formula 1, but how well it goes depends on the quality of the car that Mercedes gives him. The seven times world champion has had a torrid time this season, scoring 76 points less than his young team mate Nico Rosberg and generally being outpaced by him everywhere. The old Schumacher, who’s presence always dominated the paddock and the race track during race weekends, is a far more anonymous competitor these days. It is often easy to forget that he’s in the field. The reason why he has struggled is because what he More…

Mercedes boss Ross Brawn has had more to say on the dynamic between his two drivers this season. He said that he has great faith in Nico Rosberg and that he does not want Michael Schumacher to dominate the team. He makes it clear that he feels that favouring one driver damages the motivation of the other. Speaking in an interview with F1.com, Brawn spoke of Rosberg benefitting from being Schumacher’s team mate to set him up for life after Schumacher’s retirement. “I never wanted Michael to dominate, ” he said. “(At Ferrari) Michael dominated because he was the best. More…

Just arrived at Spa after a 6-55am BA flight from Heathrow. Ross Brawn and some of his senior engineers were on it as well as some of the photographers. Then the 90 minute drive from Brussels to Spa, which is about half an hour south of the city of Liege. Amazingly it’s a beautiful day here. I’ve been coming to Spa for the Grand Prix for 20 years and I can count on my fingers the number of times I’ve seen a hot sunny day here. Let’s hope it lasts. The forecast is for it to stay sunny or partly More…

Ross Brawn has given an interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport today, from his holiday home in Forte dei Marmi, on the West coast of Italy. He says that he would put money on Jenson Button to win the drivers’ title and Michael Schumacher to win a race before the season’s end and discusses his team’s recent problems, which have lost them ground in the title fight. Brawn was the architect of all of Schumacher’s seven world titles, one of the most unique and successful partnerships in F1 history. “Michael has simply responded to the passion and the bond of More…

Felipe Massa has been operated on this evening and is now in an induced coma in the AEK Hospital in Budapest. An inaccurate report from AP this evening suggested that his condition was life threatening but this is not the case. The operation was successful and he is likely to be woken tomorrow. Medical estimates of how long he will be out of action vary from two months, to longer. It has been suggested by one doctor here that he may miss the rest of the season. More will be known when the medically induced coma ends and the medics More…

Interested to see that Ross Brawn has started responding to the criticism levelled at him by Flavio Briatore that he has misused his position as chair of the technical working group by not declaring his hand on the diffuser issue whenthe rules for 2009 were being discussed. Brawn raised the subject early last year, he says and proposed that the rules be tightened up. “In March 2008 that was offered. If I’m frank I didn’t say ‘look we are going to do this diffuser if you don’t accept this rule’ because I’m not going to tell people what we’re doing, More…

I put a post out yesterday comparing the salaries of F1 drivers and footballers and it got a really good response and some very interesting comments. Several of the comments made the point that the investment required to get to F1 for an individual and his family is far greater than for a footballer. Valid point and this gives rise to a little theory about drivers I picked up through conversations with some senior engineers in the sport recently. So to move the discussion on a little I thought I would share it with you. When interviewing Ross Brawn for More…