Niki Lauda has slammed the latest speculation about Ross Brawn’s future, insisting nothing has changed to trigger the reports.<\/p>\n
Lauda, Mercedes’ F1 chairman, said recently he was in talks with the 58-year-old Briton but that a decision will not be made until after the season.<\/p>\n
The Austrian great also said he wants Brawn to stay.<\/p>\n
But reports on Tuesday suggested Brawn has now definitively decided to step down, in order to be replaced by new team boss Paddy Lowe.<\/p>\n
“I hate all this bulls**t,” triple world champion Lauda is quoted on Wednesday by the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n
“The (latest) speculation is total rubbish.”<\/p>\n
However, F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has hinted that the decision about Brawn has in fact been made.<\/p>\n
“I think they have decided that Ross is going, and that seems to be the end of it,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Daily Mail said the uncertainty could be because Lauda wants Brawn – a renowned engineer with race and title-winning pedigree at Benetton, Ferrari and his own Brawn GP – to stay, while Toto Wolff wants Lowe to succeed him.<\/p>\n
Lauda said: “I am trying everything I can to encourage and motivate him to stay.\u00a0 I want him to do it.\u00a0 But it is not my decision; it is his decision.”<\/p>\n
Brawn said recently he will only stay if he can remain team boss, and so Lauda denied suggestions the current talks are about negotiating a lesser role for the 58-year-old Briton.<\/p>\n
“If he stays he will be team principal \u2013 nothing else \u2013 or he will retire,” he said.<\/p>\n
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