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Ross Brawn announces he is 'definitely retiring'
Ross Brawn has ended speculation about his future by announcing his retirement from Formula One, the Daily Telegraph is reporting.
He had played down speculation linking him with McLaren, saying last week he was focused on his fishing rather than a comeback, and used a fishing event in Aberdeenshire to announce his retirement from the sport.
"What they didn't realise when I was invited here was they had a scoop because the world's press was trying to find out if I was retiring or not," he said. "This is the busiest time of the year for Formula One and I said I would come along and open the River Dee. If they had put two and two together they would have realised I was definitely retiring.
"I'm retiring - it's not tongue in cheek. I'm going to take a year to enjoy the fishing and then see what life brings. I'm looking forward to it but I've got no other plans.
"It's a fantastic honour to do the ceremonial opening of the River Dee. It's a river I've never had a chance to fish before because it is predominantly known as a spring river and in the spring I'm normally trying to sort out a Formula One car in Spain. So February, March and April are never good months for me to go fishing - but this year is different having stopped."
Brawn left Mercedes at the end of last season for a sabbatical but has been heavily linked with a job at McLaren since the return of Ron Dennis to the team. The 59-year-old has 16 F1 titles to his name, the most recent coming in 2009 with Jenson Button and his own Brawn GP team.
Brawn has eight drivers and constructors' championships to his name, seven of which came in partnership with Michael Schumacher at Benetton and Ferrari. His career spans back to the 1970s, when he joined Williams as a mechanic.
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