Brawn: Never say never about any of those things

Ross Brawn has urged Ferrari - where he was technical director during theMchael Schumacher glory years - to take a "quiet approach" in its quest for the Formula 1 world championship.

Inevitably when Ferrari is in crisis Brawn's name is brought up as a possible saviour. Not long ago he was asked during an interview with Martin Brundle if he would ever return to the sport.

Brawn replied, “Never say never about any of those things, but I’m quite content doing what I’m doing and nothing has come along that I would be motivated and interested in.”

But the 61 year old added, “My nature when I was involved was 24/7 and I’m not sure I want a 24/7 anymore.”

Ferrari has not won a drivers' title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, despite new president Sergio Marchionne having predicted spoils this year.

But the Italian media are reporting that is back in 'crisis', reporting that James Allison is on the verge of stepping down as technical boss.

Hence Brawn is again in the headlines, but this time around he is not keeping quiet as he traditionally has done and instead he is proffering advice to Ferrari.

First piece of advice from Brawn to his former team is to stick with Allison.

"They've got some very good people there," Brawn told Sky recently. "James Allison is excellent and if they give him the resources and give him the time, and put the infrastructure around him and great drivers, then they'll achieve success.

"But they mustn't overreact and they mustn't be reactive to what the media is saying," he insisted.

Indeed, Brawn said the great strength of the ultra-successful Michael Schumacher era is that he and Jean Todt were fiercely guarded by then president Luca di Montezemolo.

Brawn thinks Ferrari once again needs a quiet approach, "It's very easy to wind up the whole system and then it starts to get reactive rather than proper planning, proper organisation."

"It's important that Ferrari still respect what they have to do but they do it progressively and they do it quietly."

Brawn also backed top driver Sebastian Vettel's current approach, which he says reminds him of how Schumacher operated at Ferrari.

"It would be disastrous if Seb started to criticise the team externally," he said. "I'm sure if he's anything like Michael he's very strong internally."

"He's defending the team, he's not being openly critical, he's not winding things up so I think he's taking the right approach," Brawn added.