Schumacher backed for management role

Schumacher's future continues to be the subject of speculation, with his three-year contract at Mercedes expiring at the end of the season.
 
The seven-time champion insists he is in no hurry to decide whether he will carry on, and is likely to give the German manufacturer an answer some time next month.
 
Waiting in the wings is McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, whose management team have already held talks with Mercedes over a potential multi-million pound deal from next year.
 
Should Schumacher quit again - as he did in 2006 before coming out of retirement at the start of the 2010 season - Brawn believes the 43-year-old has a role to play behind the scenes at Mercedes.
 
"It is possible," said Brawn. "There will be a day he does stop. We are not discussing that in detail because that is not a consideration at the moment.
 
"But Michael's experience of motor racing, his judgment and so on, would be an asset to any team.
 
"I am not sure he wants a day-to-day commitment that some of us do, but he would like to stay involved, he loves the sport, he loves racing, he loves developing the cars, how the team works.
 
"So I can full well see in the future that he would retain a strong interest. That will come one day, and I do hope it will be with us."
 
As for Brawn's own future, he insists he is fully committed to seeing through a project that began at the end of 2009, when Mercedes took over his eponymous team in the wake of their double title triumph.
 
With new engine rules due to be introduced from 2014, Brawn is curious to see how they could alter the F1 landscape.
 
"I am not planning to retire at the moment," he said.
 
"I am very excited about this 2014 engine programme. I think it is quite a game-changer in F1.
 
"I still have a strong engineering passion, so having such a different engine and different package in 2014 is exciting and developing the team is exciting.
 
"For how long, who knows? But I have no interest in stopping in the near future."