Lauda and Wolff could not earn Ross Brawn’s trust

F1 News – Ex-Mercedes boss Ross Brawn has written about his exit from the team at the end of the 2013 season, stating that he “could not trust” Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda.

Brawn, having previously sold his eponymous outfit to Mercedes, departed shortly before it began to dominate Formula 1, under the V6 turbocharged regulations.

In an upcoming book, titled ‘Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula 1’, written with former Williams CEO Adam Parr, Brawn offered insight into his career.

“What happened at Mercedes is that people were imposed on me who I couldn’t trust. I never really knew what they were trying to do,” Brawn wrote in the book.

“I mean Niki would tell me one thing, then I would hear he was saying something else.

“So I was beginning to deal with people who I didn’t feel I could ultimately trust; people within the team, who had let me down already in terms of their approach.”

Brawn went on to discuss Paddy Lowe’s arrival from McLaren.

“Then in early 2013, I discovered Paddy Lowe had been contracted to join the team and it had been signed off in Stuttgart,” the Briton commented.

“When I challenged Toto and Niki [over the sign-off], they blamed each other. I met them to have it out with them. And they both pointed to each other.

“I couldn’t trust [these] people, so I saw no future unless I was willing to go to war and remove them. I saw no future with people that I didn’t feel I could trust.”

Brawn also questioned Wolff and Lauda becoming shareholders.

“I think one complication in all of that was Toto and Niki became shareholders, which was an interesting decision by Mercedes. I never really understood it,” he said.

“Their view was that they wanted management who were committed and I think they also took a view that by being shareholders they would gain greater respect from the team.

“That they partly own the team, so by coming in and being a shareholder they were putting their money where their mouth was. That’s what they hoped.”

Category: Formula One