Ross Brawn has announced his permanent retirement from F1, thereby putting an end to speculation about his future.

Brawn had previously said he wouldn’t make a decision about his future until at least the summer and in recent months since his exit from Mercedes he had been linked to a number of teams, although McLaren appeared the favourite to land him in light of Ron Dennis’ return to the helm and the exit of former McLaren team principal, Martin Whitmarsh.

However, speaking at a fishing event in Aberdeenshire, the 59-year-old said he had now made up his mind not to come back.

“What they didn’t realise when I was invited here was they had a scoop because the world’s press was trying to find out if I was retiring or not,” Brawn said, according to British newspaper, The Telegraph. “This is the busiest time of the year for F1 and I said I would come along and open the River Dee. If they had put two and two together they would have realised I was definitely retiring.”

Asked if he was joking, he replied: “I’m retiring – it’s not tongue in cheek. I’m going to take a year to enjoy the fishing and then see what life brings. I’m looking forward to it but I’ve got no other plans.

“It’s a fantastic honour to do the ceremonial opening of the River Dee. It’s a river I’ve never had a chance to fish before because it is predominantly known as a spring river and in the spring I’m normally trying to sort out a F1 car in Spain.

“So February, March and April are never good months for me to go fishing – but this year is different having stopped.”

Brawn officially stood down as team principal at Mercedes on December 31 2013. He enjoyed much success during his time in the sport and was involved in the clinching of 16 F1 titles – eight Drivers’ and eight Constructors’. His first title successes came with Michael Schumacher and Benetton in 1994 and 1995, before he repeated that feat – and then some – with Schumacher at Ferrari. His last Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles came in 2009 with Jenson Button and his own team, Brawn GP, formed from the ashes of Honda after the Japanese giant quit F1.