Autoblog

When Ross Brawn took a sabbatical last year from Scuderia Ferrari, the rumors started flying. Would he return to Ferrari? Would he sign with another team? Or would he retire from racing altogether? The rumor mill can stop churning now, as the mastermind behind Ferrari's dominance of the Formula One circuit, it has been announced, is heading over to Honda.

When Schumacher moved to Ferrari from Bennetton ten years ago, Brawn came with him and took up the position of technical director, the number-two spot on any F1 team, and together the pair built the team up. But when Schumacher retired, Brawn took a sabbatical, leaving his options open for a return. Some pundits speculated that Brawn would return to Maranello and take over management of the team from overworked CEO Jean Todt, but in the post-Schumacher era, Brawn will be hawking his wears elsewhere.

Following the revelation, Ferrari announced some changes of its own, promoting Stefano Domenicali from sporting director to team principal, allowing Todt to focus on the bigger picture. Several other changes in the technical staff were also announced.

Honda, meanwhile, has one of the biggest budgets in F1, but has seen little success in return. This past season, the Honda team has been embarrassed by the comparative success of their B-team Super Aguri... along with just about every other team, big and small. With Brawn behind the proverbial wheel, however, Honda is bound to become a force with which to be reckoned.

[Source: Autosport]

Only a few days after the end of the 2006 season, reports are surfacing indicating that there's going to be a real shake-up in the management at Ferrari, primarily at the "Scuderia" F1 racing division, but also affecting the road car division as well.

It's been long expected that Technical Director Ross Brawn would retire with Michael Schumacher. It was Schumi that brought him in to direct the team, and insiders expect him to announce his retirement or "sabbatical" later this week. Nigel Stepney has been serving as race & test director, but with Brawn's departure, he could be considered for the promotion. Although Stepney didn't positively confirm that Brawn is leaving, he did indicate that some senior management are, and that the vacancies are likely to be filled from within "the family". Another candidate for the technical director post is Ross Brawn's protégé Luca Baldisseri, Schumacher's race engineer.

Meanwhile, team principal Jean Todt is expected to move away from directly managing the race team. Todt was promoted to Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo's position when Luca was promoted to chairman of the Fiat group, but Jean has been holding on to both posts in the interim, supervising both road and race divisions. (Some have suggested that Todt could eventually replace Max Mosley as head of the FIA.) Sporting Director Stefano Domenicali is tipped to succeed Todt as team principal, with Industrial Director Mario Almondo moving up to sporting director.

Together with the arrival of Kimi Raikkonen to take Michael Schumacher's seat as the champ retires, these management shifts amount to big changes at Ferrari. For the Scuderia, that could mean an adjustment period of another year before the team can seriously contend for the championship. Time will tell.

[Source: F1i.com]