Ross Brawn won’t be joining McLaren this year, instead he will be “definitely retiring”, leaving the sport to enjoy a spot of fishing.
The 59-year-old who has overseen a combined total of 16 world championships with Renault, Ferrari and Brawn GP team was tipped to join McLaren to work alongside Ron Dennis who has returned to a hands on role at Woking.
Dennis is restructuring the F1 team and needs to fill the newly created position of McLaren Racing CEO, who will be the conduit between Dennis and new Racing Director Eric Boullier.
You can see how a man of Brawn’s experience would be ideal for such a role. Alas, for McLaren its search will continue. However, it would be foolhardy to expect Brawn’s time away from F1 to be permanent. That may prove to be the case, but don’t be surprised at all if he turns up somewhere in 2015.
Honda is returning to F1 as an engine supplier next year and that may provide a pathway for Brawn to come back to the sport, given his history with the manufacturer.
Brawn left Mercedes at the end of last year and speaking at a recent fishing event in Scotland he said: “What they didn’t realise when I was invited here was they had a scoop because the world’s press was trying to find out if I was retiring or not.
“This is the busiest time of the year for Formula One and I said I would come along and open the River Dee. If they had put two and two together they would have realised I was definitely retiring.”
Brawn later left the door open of a return to the sport when he added: “I’m retiring, it’s not tongue in cheek.
“I’m going to take a year to enjoy the fishing and then see what life brings. I’m looking forward to it but I’ve got no other plans.”
[Source: The Telegraph | Pic: Mercedes AMG]