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Ecclestone: 'Brawn wants to be in charge of Formula 1'

Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has claimed that Ross Brawn wants to take control of the sport.

Brawn was headhunted by new owners Liberty Media to take on the role of director of motorsport. He reports direct to new Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey. Sean Bratches has a similar role in charge of commercial operations.

Originally, it was believed that the plan was for Ecclestone to remain in charge of Formula 1 for a transition period.

However that changed abruptly at the start of 2017. Ecclestone was ousted by Carey and given the title of chairman emeritus with no management role.

At the time, there was speculation that Brawn had refused to accept a position as long as Ecclestone remained.

"I couldn't work with Bernie, but I never made that a condition," Brawn insisted last year.

But Ecclestone is sceptical about Brawn's denial, and has now warned Carey to watch his back.

"There are rumours that Ross wanted me to leave. If that is so, then he is happy about it now," the 87-year-old told German newspaper Welt.

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"But he'll be just as happy one day when he gets rid of Chase Carey.

"Ross didn't stop his retirement to play a servant role to two Americans," Ecclestone pointed out.

Whatever bad blood there might be between the two men, Ecclestone backed Brawn to win out over Carey and Bratches in any power struggle that might break out in the future.

"Chase does not want to live in England," Ecclestone said. And it's the same for Sean. They're Americans with a different attitude to life.

"Ross wants to live in England, the silicon valley of Formula 1.

"But if - as I believe they want to - they relocate Formula One Management (FOM) to the US, Ross will still manage F1 in England as the top man."

However, when asked whether Brawn would be able to make a success of being in charge of the sport, Ecclestone came up with a typically waspish remark.

"We'll see, rather than him just clinging to what he did in the past."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.