Ross Brawn is expected to retire from his position as technical director of the Ferrari team at the end of the season after 10 years as a main driving force behind the Italian squad's record of sustained success which has seen Michael Schumacher win five world championships since 2000.
CRI Special: 2006 F1 Season
If he leaves Ferrari it could have a profound effect on the German driver's decision whether or not to continue racing. From a professional standpoint, no-one knows Schumacher better than the British engineer. They first worked together in 1991 at Benetton, where he helped mastermind the German's first two title successes in 1994 and 1995, and since then they have developed into the most closely integrated technical partnership in the formula one business.
The synergy between the two men is underpinned by a sense of mutual trust and an almost instinctive anticipation of how each will react in a given set of circumstances with Schumacher investing total confidence in Brawn's split-second strategic decisions from the pit wall.
Ferrari would not comment yesterday on speculation about Brawn's future. "We will be announcing our driver line-up at the Italian grand prix next month and confirming details of our team structure at the end of the year," a spokesman said.
The team manager Stefano Domenicali, chief race engineer Luca Baldisseri and technical manager Nigel Stepney are regarded as Brawn proteges capable of continuing his management style.
The Williams team have announced that Alex Wurz, their test driver, will be promoted to the race team alongside Nico Rosberg from the start of 2007 after it was decided not to retain the services of Mark Webber. The Austrian last raced regularly for Benetton in 2000 after which he spent five years as a McLaren test driver.
发表于 2006-8-8 23:53
| 
