Ross Brawn still coy on his Formula 1 future

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With the Brackley outfit appearing to possess a surplus of bosses following the high-profile arrivals of Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe, Brawn's future as Mercedes' Team Principal has remained a hot topic of fevered speculation throughout the year.

The Englishman dropped a heavy hint last month that he was ready to quit the team unless he was given assurances that he would maintain overall responsibility and, having been linked with both McLaren and Williams in recent weeks, was spotted in talks with Ferrari at the start of the Brazilian GP weekend.

But, as ever, Brawn was giving little away when he faced the cameras following Sunday's race.

"Let's see, we will advise people in good time. It's a pretty exciting year next year so let's see what happens," he told Sky Sports F1 when asked whether he would stay on with Mercedes into 2014.

Brawn was more forthcoming as he dissected Mercedes' race at Interlagos with the Silver Arrows narrowly hanging on to second place in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Ferrari - by far their best finish since returning to team ownership in 2010.

"It's a good step, but we have to be measured because Red Bull were so dominant this year. We've made a step but we have another step to make. The step we've made this year is encouraging but we made hard work of it today, I have to say, but second place is very pleasing," he said.

"Nico [Rosberg] didn't have any balance after the lack of dry running. Lewis [Hamilton] was in quite good shape and his race was fine until the issue with Bottas."

In Mercedes' later post-race press release, Brawn revealed that his drivers had both had a hand in flagging up Felipe Massa's white line indiscretions, for which the Brazilian eventually earned a contentious drive-through penalty, while also expressing regret over their handling of the build-up to the Hamilton/Bottas clash.

"Our race obviously turned on the two drive-through penalties for Felipe and Lewis," Brawn explained. "Our drivers had been reporting that Felipe was consistently crossing the white line at pit entry with all four wheels and when the FIA eventually took action, that obviously helped us.

"Then we had Lewis' unfortunate incident with Bottas and we have to take that one on the chin as we should have kept Lewis better informed of just how quickly the Williams was closing, even though he was a lap down."

What an incredible race to end an incredible season. P2 is a huge achievement for all of us at Brackley and Brixworth #BrasilverArrows

- MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) November 24, 2013

We don't forget that this is only P2 and Red Bull beat us comprehensively. But we will savour this one. So much hard work has gone into it

- MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) November 24, 2013