Mercedes cool as Ferrari poaches FIA man Mekies
- Published on 23 Mar 2018 11:55
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- By: Rob Veenstra
Toto Wolff is reacting calmly to the latest controversial personnel switch in formula one. Last year, the move of Marcin Budkowski from the FIA to Renault caused a major stir, triggering a 'gentleman's agreement' between teams about poaching staff from the governing body.
But now Laurent Mekies, another prominent FIA figure, has been snapped up by Ferrari. "I can understand if some teams are a little bit upset," said F1 race director Charlie Whiting. "But the degree of confidentiality of the information Laurent had access to was not as high as in the case of Marcin," he said. "Actually, none of the teams have complained to me. I've read some stories in the pressure but there were no official complaints," Whiting revealed.
Interestingly, Red Bull has accused Ferrari of breaking the gentlemen's agreement, but reigning champions Mercedes seem calm. "For me, Ferrari signing Mekies is ok," Toto Wolff told Bild newspaper. "September is a long time from now -- the season will be well underway by then."
One rumour is that Wolff is "ok" with the move because Mercedes is now considering following suit by also poaching staff from the FIA. "After the Budkowski story, it's not surprising. Until then, I had not thought it possible for this to happen, but the consequence is that we will see it more often in the future," he said.
Asked if other teams will poach FIA staff, Wolff answered: "I think so. There will be more movement between the teams, the FIA and FOM in the future." (GMM)
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Replies (4)
Login to replyF1_IS_Dead
Posts: 123
Ferrari and Mercedes are working together (against Red Bull). Any data gained by Ferrari benefits the other team. No surprise, they are all happy.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
There are limits to how much they are allowed to share. Not even RB can share everything with STR. I dont think there are close collabs between the two on a technical level, but politically? Certainly.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
They (Ferrari) are on their way on becoming an increasingly unpopular entity. I found the answer from Ferrari avasive and the reasoning behind it in bad taste. If you are in a room and all conclude that no lawyers need to be involved to stop this bad practice from happening to than cannot come to an understanding
boudy
Posts: 1,168
From there that it's ok to hire someone with such a position within weeks.
It just shows that there are any gentlemen in that room. They are all in it for themselves so if Ferrari and merc would start an separate class I would not be interested in this. Nor would be most of the f1 fans. I don't care if Ferrari is in it. It would rather see a closer championship without them.