Red Bull’s top-notch engineering has been credited for the success of the RB19 and Max Verstappen’s dominance. Therefore, every team in the F1 grid is trying to poach the top talent from Milton Keynes and so is Mercedes. But the Silver Arrows’ failure to spot the available personnel has left Nico Rosberg surprised.
This comes after Mercedes Team Principal and CEO, Toto Wolff recently sanctioned a $100,000,000 plan for the redevelopment of the factory in Brackley. This redevelopment project is also supposed to help boost the morale of the team. And even though, the idea of redevelopment came through Mercedes’ smart decision to poach Jayne Poole(Red Bull’s former COO), Silver Arrows has failed to create the rest of the team capable of leadership roles in technical aspects.
Meanwhile, Aston Martin pledged $25,000,000 into their Silverstone base and has hired former Red Bull top brass, Dan Fallows. The result of Fallows’ hiring is even visible on track as the Silverstone-based team is now competing against Ferrari and Mercedes despite finishing 7th in 2022. This raises a question regarding Mercedes’s peculiar recruitment decision.
Nico Rosberg was surprised by Mercedes’ lack of moves to sign technical staff
Recently, Red Bull also witnessed the exit of its chief engineering officer, Rob Marshall to McLaren as their technical director. Following Aston Martin’s success with Fallows, it is not too far-fetched to imagine that McLaren too will see an upwards growth in their performance.
Based on such examples in the paddock, Nico Rosberg expressed surprise at Mercedes’ lack of acquiring technical staff. The German told Sky Sports, “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.”
The Silver Arrows have struggled since the 2022 regulations change, while Red Bull has thrived. The 2016 champion believed the influx of talent from the constructors champion will boost Mercedes’s performance.
He added, “The knowledge that you also get around a set of regulations when you take someone from the best team is just so valuable.” However, the former Mercedes driver claimed the team has immense talent within.
Red Bull annoyed by rivals poaching talent
Nico Rosberg stated that F1 teams have always poached talents from their rivals in search of silverware. Red Bull poached staff from Mercedes by hiring former Silver Arrows employee Ben Hodgkinson, who heads their powertrains division.
Aston Martin poaching Fallows from the Milton Keynes-based team has now set a precedent for teams to plunder their rivals of their key members. Rosberg reported that the Silverstone-based team has quadrupled the technical director’s salary. Thus, McLaren and Ferrari have also followed suit and are offering lucrative offers to the top personnel possessed by the world champion. And there is no doubt that rivals raiding their prized employees has irked Red Bull.
Red Bull has reportedly blocked Pierre Wache and Enrico Balbo’s to Ferrari. Team advisor Helmut Marko claimed the Italian outfit is not welcome to sign the duo, claiming Red Bull is “not a bazaar.”
In retaliation, Ferrari has blocked Laurent Mekies’ move to Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri. Mekies was set to replace retiring team principal Franz Tost from the 2024 season. However, Christian Horner states the team won’t engage in hostage transfers with the Italian team.
With Mercedes not participating in the big trade, it seems they are satisfied with their engineers and are focusing on improving the W14. The team reshuffled its top brass recently, with Mike Elliott and James Allison swapping roles after a dismal start to the 2023 season.
