Brawn stands down as Mercedes boss
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, November 29, 2013
Ross Brawn and Mercedes announced a parting of ways yesterday with the Briton leaving the Formula One team at the end of the year after handing over as principal to Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe.
The announcement, in a Mercedes statement, had been predicted and ended one of the longest-running sagas of the season while shedding no light on what the 59-year-old had planned for the future.
Mercedes hailed Brawn as the architect of its success and said his duties would be split between Wolff, in charge of business, and Lowe on the technical side.
"The most important consideration in my decision to step down from the role as team principal was to ensure that the timing was right for the team in order to ensure its future success," Brawn said in the statement. "The succession planning process that we have implemented during this year means we are now ready to conduct the transition from my current responsibilities to a new leadership team composed of Toto and Paddy."
The departure of Brawn means change for drivers Lewis Hamilton, Britain's 2008 world champion, and German Nico Rosberg although neither will have been surprised by the news.
Both hailed the "great leader" on their Twitter feeds.
Lowe arrived in June from McLaren, where he had worked with Hamilton, while Austrian Wolff moved from Williams in January to become head of Mercedes motorsport.
Brawn is one of the most successful and respected figures in the sport after winning championships with Benetton, Ferrari and his own Brawn GP.
The bespectacled Englishman was the tactical brains behind seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher's success at Benetton and Ferrari.
After leaving the Italian team at the end of 2006 to take a sabbatical, and spend some time fishing, he joined the Honda team at the end of 2007 and led it until the Japanese manufacturer withdrew from the sport a year later.
With Brawn, the team that emerged from the remains of Honda, he won both world championships in 2009 before selling to Mercedes.
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