BRAWN & WILLIAMS GP
Author
Discussion

JMC1

Original Poster:

567 posts

264 months

Friday 13th September 2013
quotequote all
Lots of rumours that Ross Brawn is to buy Toto Wolf's 15% of Williams GP.

Anyone know if this is true.

Has Ross had enough of Niki looking over his shoulder.

n3il123

2,839 posts

242 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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The only place I have seen this rumour has been pitpass, which tbf is not the most reliable news source!

Have you seen it anywhere else?

jammy_basturd

29,778 posts

241 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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Wouldn't that be a bit of a conflict of interests?

Crafty_

14,050 posts

229 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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This rumour was going around a week or two ago, seems it lost steam pretty quickly.

If you think about it it makes no sense at all. Ross is 60 and has mentioned succession plans at Merc, the thinking is he has retirement plans, which would be understandable.

So why would he buy in to a team? the only way to get a return on his investment would be lots of hard work dragging them up the grid... for which they potentially don't have the budget.

In any case, he made a tidy sum out of Brawn GP, so why go investing it again ? he can have a very comfortable retirement and plenty of fishing trips.

Aside from all of that, would Williams be a sensible buy ? You'd have to say probably not at the moment.
Wolff appears to be in no rush to sell his stake either.


anonymous-user

83 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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jammy_basturd said:
Wouldn't that be a bit of a conflict of interests?
?? No more than it is now, surely?

jammy_basturd

29,778 posts

241 months

Friday 13th September 2013
quotequote all
REALIST123 said:
jammy_basturd said:
Wouldn't that be a bit of a conflict of interests?
?? No more than it is now, surely?
What do you mean? Does he currently hold a stake in Williams?

stuttgartmetal

8,145 posts

245 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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No but Toto does.

anonymous-user

83 months

Friday 13th September 2013
quotequote all
Right now Ross and Toto both work for MB. Toto owns shares in Williams.

If this happened Ross would be in the position that Toto is in now. Unless RB left MB at the same time.

There would be the same risk of COI, but for a different person.

mollytherocker

14,455 posts

238 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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Would love to see brawn revive Williams fortunes.

How about it Ross?

P-Jay

11,397 posts

220 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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n3il123 said:
The only place I have seen this rumour has been pitpass, which tbf is not the most reliable news source!

Have you seen it anywhere else?
There's mention of it on the BBC F1 Gossip page. No detais though.


hairyben

8,516 posts

212 months

Friday 13th September 2013
quotequote all
Brundle was going on about this like it had some cred.

Seems odd, while he certainally ain't a properly old fart he ain't too young to take on a new challenge especially while he's still got work to do at merc IMO.

Then again you never know what car manufacturers will do, could be merc sniff glory and want some "merc people to be in charge when it happens", like when honda took control of BAR and got rid of Davie R. and prodrive.

John D.

20,931 posts

238 months

Friday 13th September 2013
quotequote all
hairyben said:
Brundle was going on about this like it had some cred.

Seems odd, while he certainally ain't a properly old fart he ain't too young to take on a new challenge especially while he's still got work to do at merc IMO.

Then again you never know what car manufacturers will do, could be merc sniff glory and want some "merc people to be in charge when it happens", like when honda took control of BAR and got rid of Davie R. and prodrive.
Remind me, what glory did Honda get out of that exactly?

andy97

4,784 posts

251 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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Hughes wrote his whole column in Autosport about this prospect this week. Thought it was a bit odd unless he had some inside knowledge.

rubystone

11,254 posts

288 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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I think it's true and I would love to see RB as CEO with FW as chairman. This gives FW the chance to scale back, Claire to learn under great tutelage and Williams to regain the position they should be in.

valais

59,226 posts

184 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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I think he is one of the few people Frank would trust.

GrumpyOldWesty2

14 posts

156 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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It would be great to see Williams back again, and there is no doubt Brawn could do it. But highly unlikely (sadly)

Peter

valais

59,226 posts

184 months

Friday 13th September 2013
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GrumpyOldWesty2 said:
It would be great to see Williams back again, and there is no doubt Brawn could do it. But highly unlikely (sadly)

Peter
Why unlikely ?

He is on a path to leaving MB.
He has cash.
Williams need a sporting heir to Frank.
Toto can't keep his stake, too much conflict of interest(?)

Looks great to me.

Sadly I bet it falls apart at valuation of Totos asset.

m444ttb

3,183 posts

258 months

Saturday 14th September 2013
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Gut feel says it wot happen but I'd dearly love something significant to change for Williams and act as a catalyst to return them to being a challenger (or at least beatig the likes of Force India). I hold some hope that the Merc engines may help this but I'm not sure it feels like enough.

Fire99

9,865 posts

258 months

Saturday 14th September 2013
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I think there could be some credence in this story. Williams need some serious fire-power under its belly and I don't see the current management providing that.

Regarding Brawn, I don't see him the 'retiring' kind. If he still has passion for F1, I'd be surprised if he decides to go off fishing.

hairyben

8,516 posts

212 months

Saturday 14th September 2013
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John D. said:
hairyben said:
Brundle was going on about this like it had some cred.

Seems odd, while he certainally ain't a properly old fart he ain't too young to take on a new challenge especially while he's still got work to do at merc IMO.

Then again you never know what car manufacturers will do, could be merc sniff glory and want some "merc people to be in charge when it happens", like when honda took control of BAR and got rid of Davie R. and prodrive.
Remind me, what glory did Honda get out of that exactly?
Boardroom insight is generally some way behind that of a casual interest fan

Regardless of that merc already own mercGP, am I wrong in seeing potential for parallels with merc 2013 and BAR 2004? That seems the perpetual problem with car manufacturer teams, they get impatient/blinded by greed/glory lust and end up being misdirected from above rather than guided by the experienced hands on the ground. That we're evan talking of Brawns departure from mercGP is indicative of that.

Renualt being the obvious exception as they turned up with a fat cheque and a box of renault stickers and very much left running of the team to the people who ran the team (and ferrari being hardly your typical manufacturer team)

Edited by hairyben on Saturday 14th September 12:12