Brawn plays down possible FOTA exit

(GMM) Ross Brawn has played down the possibility that the diffuser saga could cost the FOTA alliance his team's membership.

Flavio Briatore in Shanghai warned that at the next meeting he will not only call for the removal of Brawn as FOTA's technical chairman, but that the body should attempt to block the former Honda team from receiving any commercial or travel income.

Until now, the Formula One Teams Association's strength has been its total unity in facing down F1's ruling authorities, the governing FIA and commercial rights representative Bernie Ecclestone.

Faced with the hostility of fellow FOTA members, then, Brawn's best weapon would be to threaten his withdrawal from the body of the Brackley team, Germany's Auto Motor und Sport magazine suggests.

But Ross Brawn is quoted as saying: "It would be wrong to mix the sporting and political sides. On the track we are opponents, but we can also fight for common goals."

While it is arguably in Bernie Ecclestone's interests to see FOTA break up, the F1 chief executive has refused to back Briatore's hostility.

"Its a pity they don't talk more about racing than politics," he said in Shanghai. "We seem to have got a lot of team managers who've become politicians."