Aston Martin are reportedly all set to poach another Red Bull engineer, having already irked the team when they signed Dan Fallows. The Gaydon-based outfit signed Fallows, who was believed to be Adrian Newey’s right hand man and a critical member of the Milton Keynes outfit. However, as per a recent report from formulapassion.it, it seems that Red Bull’s brain drain is not going to end just there as Aston Martin are all set to sign Newey’s protégé, Thijs Van Rees, as well.
Van Rees is going to be another critical member that Red Bull will lose, having also lost the likes of Rob Marshall to McLaren previously. As for Aston Martin, with them having now signed a top engineer like Van Rees, it also shows the ambitions that the team has for the future.
Aston Martin all set to poach another protégé of Adrian Newey
According to formulapassion.it, Aston Martin are keen on signing more engineers for their team after they lost out on Guru Johl, who served as the team’s head of the aerodynamics department. As a result, the Gaydon-based outfit have now signed Adrian Newey’s protege, Thijs Van Reess, who served as the senior aerodynamicist for Red Bull for the last two and a half seasons.
The report also explains a connection that Van Rees has with Mercedes, having worked with them previously. “Van Rees arrived in Red Bull coming from Mercedes, a team in which he worked closely with Eric Blandin, who together with Dan Fallows was the other big hit on the market of technicians by Lawrence Stroll“, explains the report.
The report then goes on to state how Rees is all set to join Blandin and Fallows, who have been instrumental in helping Aston Martin grow in stature this season. While Aston Martin has been successful in poaching some of the most skilled personnel from champions Red Bull, former drivers such as Nico Rosberg have expressed surprise about Mercedes not doing the same to aid their revival.
Rosberg expressed his surprise with Mercedes being unable to poach from Red Bull
In an interview with Sky Sports earlier this year, Nico Rosberg expressed his surprise about Mercedes’ inability to poach personnel from rival teams such as Red Bull. “The teams are going for it to try and get the talent from Red Bull which is the normal way in F1. Strangely, they (Mercedes) haven’t been a little bit more active there,” explained the former German driver.
The 38-year-old then went on to add how it is a common practice in F1 to poach personnel from the team that has been successful in producing a championship-winning car. And Red Bull have done just that as they look in the best position to win a second consecutive Constructors’ Championship this season. The Milton Keynes outfit have a 256-point lead at the top from second-placed Mercedes with half of the 2023 season still remaining.