As pointed out by Grand Prix dot com today, there has been a lot of movement in the F1 engineers market of late. Jorg Zander, BMW's chief designer, recently jumped ship and went to Honda, and Geoff Willis, Honda's former technical director, has gone to Red Bull.
Red Bull's chief designer, Adrian Newey
Red Bull in particular have been gradually building a team of well respected engineers around their star acquisition, Adrian Newey, and their line-up now looks as though it ought to be a world beater in a year or two. Honda have joined the search for personnel to improve their flagging fortunes and, as pointed out by Grand Prix, this brings pressure to bear on the successful teams as they see valued members of staff tempted away to presumably more lucrative shores.
As I mentioned some time ago, this results largely from the designers and engineers having become famous in their own right. These days the names behind the car are every bit as important as those of the drivers. We see Newey go to Red Bull and immediately presume that they will have an excellent car very soon (it's been something of a disappointment though, hasn't it?); BMW lose a few key staff and we wonder how much this will affect their performance in the future.
This raises a few questions in my mind. For a start, are the top teams paying their employees enough? It would appear not, since they are being lured away with regularity. And, if they are not paying that much, is it because they are tight-fisted or do they know something we don't?
I suspect that the latter is correct. The most competitive teams have been at the game for a long time and have learned that success does not come purely from one man (BMW may look new but they are really a development from Sauber, which has been involved in F1 for many years and been successful by the standards of small teams). Building and racing an F1 car is a team matter and, as the saying goes, nobody is indispensible.
Looking at McLaren's latest offering, the MP4-22, one would have to say that Newey's departure has not hurt the team one bit (and I don't believe its excellence has anything to do with the famous Ferrari documents). The company has strength in depth and can cope with occasional staff losses. Ferrari too does not seem to have suffered from the break-up of its dream team, although other factors may bring about a decrease in performance eventually.
So is it possible to do what Honda and Red Bull are trying to achieve - buying their way to success? Once again, I have to say that I think not. Employing stars is all very well but it's in the building of an effective and efficient team that real success lies. Honda especially is hampered by constant personnel changes, very often caused by dissatisfaction from the board of directors at their lack of success. And Red Bull, who look so strong on paper, may well find that race wins remain hard to come by even though the theory says they should break through soon.
There is no substitute for hard work and experience in F1. It is in putting together a team of dedicated personnel who work well together that the best managers succeed. Say what you like about Ron Dennis but the fact remains that he is supreme in this area. That, I think, is why Mercedes don't buy the team and put someone else in charge; they know that Ron remains the real reason for McLaren's long history of success.
Ultimately, Red Bull's success will depend upon whether their manager, Christian Horner, can weld together a good team from the stars he has bought. That will take time and we will not see the team suddenly shoot to the front, even next year. And as for Honda, I have serious doubts that they are going to fix anything with their personnel changes. What is wrong there is the structure and the leadership.
Red Bull's chief designer, Adrian Newey
Red Bull in particular have been gradually building a team of well respected engineers around their star acquisition, Adrian Newey, and their line-up now looks as though it ought to be a world beater in a year or two. Honda have joined the search for personnel to improve their flagging fortunes and, as pointed out by Grand Prix, this brings pressure to bear on the successful teams as they see valued members of staff tempted away to presumably more lucrative shores.
As I mentioned some time ago, this results largely from the designers and engineers having become famous in their own right. These days the names behind the car are every bit as important as those of the drivers. We see Newey go to Red Bull and immediately presume that they will have an excellent car very soon (it's been something of a disappointment though, hasn't it?); BMW lose a few key staff and we wonder how much this will affect their performance in the future.
This raises a few questions in my mind. For a start, are the top teams paying their employees enough? It would appear not, since they are being lured away with regularity. And, if they are not paying that much, is it because they are tight-fisted or do they know something we don't?
I suspect that the latter is correct. The most competitive teams have been at the game for a long time and have learned that success does not come purely from one man (BMW may look new but they are really a development from Sauber, which has been involved in F1 for many years and been successful by the standards of small teams). Building and racing an F1 car is a team matter and, as the saying goes, nobody is indispensible.
Looking at McLaren's latest offering, the MP4-22, one would have to say that Newey's departure has not hurt the team one bit (and I don't believe its excellence has anything to do with the famous Ferrari documents). The company has strength in depth and can cope with occasional staff losses. Ferrari too does not seem to have suffered from the break-up of its dream team, although other factors may bring about a decrease in performance eventually.
So is it possible to do what Honda and Red Bull are trying to achieve - buying their way to success? Once again, I have to say that I think not. Employing stars is all very well but it's in the building of an effective and efficient team that real success lies. Honda especially is hampered by constant personnel changes, very often caused by dissatisfaction from the board of directors at their lack of success. And Red Bull, who look so strong on paper, may well find that race wins remain hard to come by even though the theory says they should break through soon.
There is no substitute for hard work and experience in F1. It is in putting together a team of dedicated personnel who work well together that the best managers succeed. Say what you like about Ron Dennis but the fact remains that he is supreme in this area. That, I think, is why Mercedes don't buy the team and put someone else in charge; they know that Ron remains the real reason for McLaren's long history of success.
Ultimately, Red Bull's success will depend upon whether their manager, Christian Horner, can weld together a good team from the stars he has bought. That will take time and we will not see the team suddenly shoot to the front, even next year. And as for Honda, I have serious doubts that they are going to fix anything with their personnel changes. What is wrong there is the structure and the leadership.