Former Mercedes Principal Ross Brawn has blamed current bosses and shareholders Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda for a "breakdown of trust that led to his departure" from the now dominant F1 team in '13, according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. The 61-year-old, who won the constructors' and drivers' championships with Brawn GP in '09 before selling it to Mercedes in '10, "set out his version of events in a book to be published in Britain on Nov. 3." In "Total competition, lessons in strategy from Formula One," which he co-authored with former Williams CEO Adam Parr, he said, "What happened at Mercedes is that people were imposed on me who I couldn't trust." Brawn, the former Benetton and Ferrari strategist "who played a big part in Michael Schumacher's seven titles," said that Wolff made critical comments in a taped conversation with former F1 team boss Colin Kolles. Brawn said that he then discovered early in '13 that Paddy Lowe, now technical head at Mercedes, had been signed from McLaren. He said, "When I challenged Toto and Niki they both blamed each other. I met them together to have it out with them and they both pointed to each other." Neither Wolff nor Lauda "were immediately available for comment" (REUTERS, 10/19).
