![\"Toto-Wolff-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2013-rif-images\/f1-2013-persons\/Toto-Wolff-1.jpg\")
The German marque is touted to face the FIA’s new international tribunal on June 20, but team boss Brawn seems to have paved the way for taking all the blame.<\/p>\nToto Wolff has played down rumours Ross Brawn is shaping up as the sacrificial lamb in the Mercedes ‘testgate’ scandal.<\/p>\n
The German marque is touted to face the FIA’s new international tribunal on June 20, but team boss Brawn seems to have paved the way for taking all the blame.<\/p>\n
“It was my decision to do the test, that’s a fact”, Briton Brawn, whose long-term future at the Brackley based team was already under a cloud, said in Canada.<\/p>\n
Asked if the team’s new guard, Niki Lauda and Wolff, were informed of that highly contentious decision before the test took place, Brawn insisted: “That’s not something I want to comment on.”<\/p>\n
So the rumour is that Brawn will depart off the back of the ‘test-gate’ saga, with his undoubted successor Paddy Lowe now already at work at Brackley.<\/p>\n
“What I don’t understand is that Paddy Lowe is committed to being team boss,” former F1 team owner and principal Eddie Jordan told German Sky television in Montreal.<\/p>\n
“Can you have two team bosses?\u00a0 No,” he answered himself.<\/p>\n
Mercedes’ new co-owner and director Wolff, however, played down the speculation Brawn will be sacrificed.<\/p>\n
“We are a team, we are together, and the blame is not going to be pushed onto one individual, rather we support each other and we support Ross,” he told Sky.<\/p>\n
Germany’s Bild am Sonntag reports that Lauda sat down with Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko earlier this week to try to calm their anger, but to no avail.<\/p>\n
McLaren, however, has been almost silent.<\/p>\n
“I expect (it’s) because they run a Mercedes engine and depend on the goodwill of Mercedes next season,” Marko told F1’s official website.<\/p>\n
Sauber founder Peter Sauber, however, is not afraid to speak his mind.<\/p>\n
“For me, it’s incomprehensible that this test took place,” he told Spiegel.<\/p>\n
Triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart agrees, telling Sun newspaper: “If there is a regulation that does not allow testing to take place, then that surely is black and white.”<\/p>\n
Ferrari joined Red Bull in the original protest, but team boss Stefano Domenicali has been less critical than the energy drink-owned team.<\/p>\n
“I’m not angry,” the Italian told Bild, “but I was very surprised.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to participate in all the politics though,” said Domenicali.\u00a0 “I don’t want to talk about tyres, which is boring to the fans.<\/p>\n
“They want fantastic drivers, and excellent racing and action.\u00a0 Not week-long discussions about section 22.2 in the regulations.\u00a0 And it’s the same for me.”<\/p>\n
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