Brawn to make changes at Honda

Ross Brawn

(GMM) Ross Brawn already has an eye on his first key appointment as Honda's new team principal, according to reports.

German magazine Sport Bild claims that the 52-year-old Briton, who worked at Ferrari throughout the Michael Schumacher era as technical director, has prepared a 'shopping list' of preferred appointments to power the Japanese outfit's return to the winner's rostrum.

Brawn, to start work at Brackley later this month, said this week that he will not "take a hatchet" to Honda's existing structure.

But Sport Bild claims that Ferrari's Dieter Gundel, currently the Maranello based team's head of racetrack electronics, is one of Brawn's key targets, as formula one prepares for the ban on electronic aids including traction control in 2008.

Brawn said on Monday: "I don't want to take a hatchet to what's here already.

"When I think back to starting at Ferrari, there was no design office in Maranello. We needed to create that structure.

"We have a good structure here already. Honda is much closer to the top level than Ferrari was when I started there," he added.