Former Mercedes director opens up on how he learned a lot from Ross Brawn

Williams team principal James Vowles recently spoke about former F1 engineer Ross Brawn and what he learned from him while he was working under him. Brawn won several World Championships with Ferrari. His own team, Brawn GP, shook the sport as it won the championship despite being a new team.

Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, former Mercedes director Vowles explained how Brawn was excellent at managing team members and creating a team. He also praised Brawn's ability to read the entire race just by looking at the timing sheets and gauging who was faster in what conditions.

He said:

"I learned a tremendous amount from him. He was very good at bringing the right people together at the right time to communicate and talk to each other. That's one of his strengths, perhaps was not even seen externally like that. But that was very much it.

"He had a very good ability to look at the timing page—not the detailed systems underneath it, but the timing page and had a view of the race from that."

Furthermore, Vowles also shared a memory from the Japanese GP several years ago, where his team's entire system went down, but Ross Brawn was still able to supervise the race and give commands just by looking at the timing sheet.

Vowles recalled:

"I remember a very proud moment where...It was in Japan many years ago when I was working alongside him and helping him on the pitwall. And all the systems just failed, everything went down.

"But he was in his element, because he was looking at his timing page going, 'Leave it with me, we will figure this out'. He was looking at the gaps, looking at the progression.

"The characteristics I took from him are definitely the ability to bring a room, he was a leader, he had the command of the room, he was able to bring the right people together, give you subject, give you direction."

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Mercedes team bosses are confident of W14's performance in the upcoming 2023 F1 Austrian GP

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is confident that their car will continue to perform well as F1 heads to the Austrian GP this weekend. The Austrian billionaire explained how the Silver Arrows want to continue the upward trajectory they started with the Spanish GP.

Wolff told Sky Sports:

"We aim to build on the momentum we have generated over the past two races and continue our positive trajectory with the car. It’s a venue where the W14 should perform better than in Canada, but we won’t take anything for granted."

Mercedes is currently second in the constructors' championship with 167 points. They overtook Aston Martin after the Spanish GP with a double podium finish.