Ross Brawn and Pat Symonds on departure

New changes coming to the top of the org chart F1. After the departures of commercial director Sean Bratches, then that of Chase Carey, replaced as CEO of the F1 Group by Stefano Domenicali on January 1, 2021, Ross Brawn, who has managed the sporting and technical part since 2017, is also preparing to hang up his phone.

Former technical director Ferrari and main team Mercedes GP is not the only senior figure in the discipline on the verge of bending the saplings. Pat Symonds, who has headed the sport's technical department since 2017, is also preparing to bow out.

Brawn is expected to leave his post as competition director at the end of the 2022 season, while his former colleague at Benetton is expected to have left the team a few months earlier, during the summer.

Pat Symonds in 2015, when he was technical director Williams / © DPPI

Symonds and the team he put together were instrumental in drafting the new aerodynamic regulations initially planned for 2021, then pushed back a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also involved on a technical level, Brawn also and above all intervenes in the sporting field, with the aim of modernizing and revitalizing the premier category to make it potentially sexier in the eyes of younger generations.  

We owe him in particular the introduction of qualifying sprints seen on 3 occasions this season (Silverstone, Monza, and Interlagos). Their number will increase to 6 in 2022, and the Sprint could well become an event independent of the Grand Prix, which raises the specter of the arrival of inverted or semi-inverted grids in Formula 1...

At 67 and 68 years old respectively, Brawn and Symonds have a long and rich career in motorsport, marked by numerous Drivers' and Manufacturers' titles.