Sunday’s British Grand Prix saw Mercedes win, but they have lost off the track.
Following the British Grand Prix, Andretti is said to have taken Chris Green and Laura Sturland from Mercedes. The two will become members of the team and assume the positions of finance director and IT director, respectively, at the Silverstone base.
The long-serving Mercedes pair have signed with the Andretti Cadillac F1 project, according to a report from Formu1a.uno. Announcements will follow shortly. Having worked for the Brackley-based company for 17 years, Green most recently held the position of head of future technology and IT commercialization.
In contrast, Sturland joined the Silver Arrows in 2017 and began playing as a financial controller. He eventually advanced to the position of finance director in 2023. Her knowledge of the financial rules set forth by the FIA makes her an invaluable addition to Andretti in advance of a possible Formula One debut.
With two weeks of the Formula One break coming up and consecutive wins to celebrate, Toto Wolff’s team will find these two departures to be an unwelcome distraction. Lewis Hamilton won at Silverstone on Sunday, following the fortunate victory of George Russell in Austria.
Although Mercedes is undoubtedly on the rise and is now competing against Red Bull and McLaren, the Brackley-based team is losing important members of their backroom staff.
Chief aerodynamicist Gioacchino Vino left Brackley as part of an internal reorganization, and driver development director Jerome d’Ambrosio and performance director Loic Serra left to work on Fred Vasseur’s project at Ferrari ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix earlier this year.
Wolff is not worried about the staff turnover. He said to Sky Sports F1 in Imola, “We’re in a really good spot because we had eight consecutive championships and then it started to deteriorate and part of that is also human component.”
And from the way it’s going right now, some people wanted to leave, some of us had to let go, and we’re also bringing on new members. Because of James Allison’s excellent leadership and his inspiring nature, I believe the team is headed in the right direction in terms of motivation, vigor, and skill.
Allison corroborated these remarks, saying, “These days, the teams are big, and you are shipping out a whole bunch of people and shipping in a matching number in any given year. That will apply to almost every squad.
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