Brawn to step down at the end of the year

The 51-year-old will take a sabbatical in 2007, with no decision currently made about his long-term future with the team.

The sabbatical will end a run of ten seasons for the Briton with Ferrari, and he has worked with Michael Schumacher in all but one season for the past 15 years.

The two began working together in 1991, when Schumacher joined the Benetton team mid-season.

All of Schumacher's seven world championship titles were captured with Brawn at the helm of the technical department, and the two are known to have a close relationship.

Ferrari would not confirm or deny Brawn's situation, a team spokesman telling autosport.com today: "This is one of the various speculations regarding the future of our team.

"We can only repeat once again that the structure of the team will be announced after the end of the season."

However, sources have told Autosport it is "100 percent certain" that Brawn will take a break from F1 at the end of the year.

Brawn's departure could be seen as a hint that Schumacher too has decided to retire. However, Autosport reports that Schumacher is in fact expected to stay on with Ferrari for one more season, partnering Kimi Raikkonen in what will possibly become the strongest driver line-up since Ayrton Senna teamed up with Alain Prost in McLaren, nearly twenty years ago.

Brawn himself made it clear that his future with Ferrari does not depend on Schumacher staying on. In an interview with Autosport earlier this season, he said: "I have a lot of very good friends and colleagues at Ferrari and Michael is one of them and obviously I'll be disappointed when the day comes that he doesn't want to carry on. And an era will pass. But Ferrari is much bigger than that.

"Yes, there are still some formal discussions to take place [between Brawn and the team] and they'll happen during the summer. Anyone who is in a responsible position, particularly for a team that they love, like Ferrari, has always got to be thinking about how to groom and develop their successors.

"It's only correct that we have an evolution for the future, be it next year, be it two years' time, be it three years or whatever. We will all stop one day and it is important that we have a proper plan for the future."