Mercedes once sued $1.4 billion team bound engineer for allegedly stealing confidential data

Mercedes once sued their outgoing engineer Benjamin Hoyle for allegedly stealing confidential information before leaving for Ferrari. 

Mercedes were the most dominant team in Formula 1 from 2014 to 2020. They won all the Titles at that time and no team posed any real threat to them in terms of competing for the Championship.

The Silver Arrows’ dominance came with the onset of the turbo-hybrid era. Between 2015 and 2017, the Brackley-based outfit had the most powerful engine on the grid. It wasn’t until 2018 that Ferrari came close to matching Mercedes in terms of pace.

Back in 2015, Mercedes won 16 out of the 19 races on the calendar. This level of dominance was astonishing but the Mercedes management had a lot to worry about after the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Benjamin Hoyle was an engineer in the team who was leaving for Ferrari in 2016. The German outfit, however, were sure that he was taking loads of confidential information over to Maranello along with him!

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Mercedes demoted their engineer to non-F1 work as soon as they learned about Ferrari move

Hoyle was moved away from all F1 related projects as soon as Mercedes learned he was moving to Ferrari. The Italian outfit were desperate to make big strides in the 2016 season and Mercedes did not want their secret plans in the hands of their rivals.

Mercedes reported that Hoyle had taken ‘extra steps’ to make sure he had those plans saved on his personal computers before handing all sensitive information over.

Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains soon sued Hoyle for allegedly leaking documents to Ferrari. This was concerning for them as Hoyle was with the team since 2012. Mercedes’ HPP wanted the court to make sure their former employee did not end up getting employed by Ferrari or any other team until at least the end of the 2016 season.

In spite of all this controversy, Ferrari were not able to match them  in any way in the 2016 F1 season. So, even if Hoyle got those plans over to the Scuderia headquarters, they didn’t help. They finished third in the Constructors’ Standings, 367 points behind the Silver Arrows.

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