Gerhard Berger dismisses rumours that he could replace Norbert Haug at Mercedes – Formula 1 news
Gerhard Berger has dismissed all the rumours that he could replace Norbert Haug at Mercedes in the 2013 Formula 1 season as their head of motorsport.
Haug is going to leave the Brackley based squad at the end of this year after 22 years and the post of motorsport boss is still undecided.
Although, there have been many names which have been associated with the position which mainly include the non-executive chairman of Mercedes, Niki Lauda and head of FIA single-seater commission, Berger. However, nothing has been finalised yet and both the
Austrians have dismissed all the speculations in this regard.
Furthermore, Berger said that he never had any conversation with anyone in the Silver Arrows regarding the post of head of motorsport and completely discharged all the ongoing speculations.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “There have been no discussions at all.”
Besides, Haug has also asserted that he doesn’t know who is going to replace him in the team in the future and insisted that he has no role to play in this decision.
“I do not know about that,” Haug said. “It is not my position to judge that, and this will be done by the board.”
It will be important to mention that there have been many reports which stated that Lauda has pushed Haug to leave Mercedes because the Austrian wanted to have this position in the team. However, the 60-year-old has entirely discharged all the reports and
said that he has decided to leave his team because they have not been able to achieve competitive results in the last three seasons.
“This was a decision made after the last race,” he told AUTOSPORT. “We had a report in Stuttgart and we reached a mutual agreement that we split. I take the responsibility for not having been successful enough in three years.”
“We were quite OK with our pace in the first third of the season - but then we dropped back. So we need changes, and I fully accept that,” he added.
It is to be noted that Michael Schumacher, who has taken retirement from F1, has also been linked with this position at the Brackley based squad. Let’s see who replaces Haug at Mercedes in the coming year.
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