Wolff: Brawn's quotes were taken out of context

Mercedes team chief has Toto Wolff played down criticism directed at the German team and the senior management by former team chief Ross Brawn.

Brawn wrote of his time at Mercedes in his book entitled: "Total Competition - Lessons in strategy from Formula 1" from which Reuters published some extracts.

Brawn wrote of his Mercedes departure: "I was beginning to deal with people who I didn't feel I could ultimately trust; people within the team, who had let me down already in terms of their approach. Then in early 2013, I discovered Paddy Lowe had been contracted to join the team and it had been signed off in Stuttgart."

"When I challenged Toto and Niki, they blamed each other. I met them to have it out with them. And they both pointed to each other."

Speaking to reporters in Austin, Wolff claimed the quotes were taken out of context, "I have read the quotes and Ross has been in touch. Apparently some of the quotes were taken out of context and I accept that."

"A restructuring of an organisation is always a difficult time and delicate. When Ross decided to leave we had a pretty successful run of championships afterwards and that is a difficult situation.

"I respect him as a person and respect him very much as an engineer and none of these quotes has changed that," added Wolff.