30/10/2013
NEWS STORY
Mercedes' non-executive chairman Niki Lauda has dismissed claims that Ross Brawn is to leave the team at season end, insisting he wants to keep the Englishman on board.
While neither Brawn nor Mercedes has commented on the story, Lauda tells the Times that a decision on Brawn's future will be made after Brazil, and it will be the multi-title winning technical boss who makes it.
"The speculation is total rubbish," Lauda told the Times. "The situation is absolutely clear... I spoke to Ross a while ago and we agreed he will come back to me after the final race of the season in Brazil to tell me whether he wants to stay or go.
"I am trying everything I can to encourage and motivate him to stay," he added "I am the one who asked him to stay. I want him to do it, but it is not my decision, it is his decision.
"If he stays he will be team principal, nothing else, or he will retire," he concluded.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have said they want Brawn to remain with the team, the Englishman's presence one of the key factors in persuading the 2008 world champion to leave McLaren for Brackley. Whilst Brawn, with no disrespect to Paddy Lowe, has consistently said that with the raft of new rules to be introduced in 2014 the team needs a "senior reference", and that he should be that reference.