Brawn rules out leaving Mercedes

Ahead of a decision later this year about whether or not his team principal role will be revised, Brawn has rubbished any talk he is looking at options elsewhere on the grid.

Instead, he has made it clear that the most important thing is working out how Mercedes will be made stronger over the longer term.

"Genuinely, I have not had any discussion with Honda or McLaren about the future," Brawn told AUTOSPORT, referring to speculation he could be on the move.

"I am in discussion with Niki [Lauda] and the board about how we run the team in the future. Also we've got Paddy [Lowe] on board now.

"Niki and Toto [Wolff] are getting more familiar with the team and we need to understand how we're going to run the team in the future. So those discussions are on-going but we have not reached any conclusions yet."

Mercedes underwent a major management overhaul last winter, with the German car manufacturer installing Wolff as its new motorsport boss to replace Norbert Haug.

Lauda was also brought in with a non-executive role to help assist matters, with Lowe being recruited with a view to him being Brawn's long-term successor.

The new structure appears to be working well, but Brawn says that it is important staff do not become complacent in their current roles.

"The team has come a long way in the last 12 months, but we've got to make sure it keeps going the right way," he said.

"Next year is very exciting with the new engine and I think this engineering group that's been put together under Bob Bell has still got more it can do.

"But we all need to understand our roles and make sure that we're all happy and motivated by them. But I'm not looking at going anywhere else."