Mercedes poaches two Red Bull senior engineers - MotorSportsTalk

Looking to go one position further in the 2014 Constructors’ Championship, Mercedes has claimed two senior engineers from the Red Bull team that beat them to the top this past season.

Mark Ellis and Giles Wood, who served as Red Bull’s chief engineer of vehicle dynamics and chief engineer of simulation and analysis respectively, are now on their way to Brackley and will begin work with the ‘Silver Arrows’ in June of 2014.

Ellis and Wood will serve in newly-created positions at Mercedes, with Ellis coming on as performance director and Wood as chief engineer for simulations and development.

“These two newly-created roles will further strengthen the team’s technical organisation, particularly in the fields of simulation and vehicle dynamics,” Mercedes said in a statement.

While Red Bull has dominated Formula One over the last four seasons, their success has also made them a prime target for staff poaching – especially so in recent times as teams come to grips with the new technical regulations for 2014.

Earlier this month, Shaun Whitehead left Red Bull to become Williams’ head of aerodynamic process, and in October, McLaren confirmed that it would have the services of Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics, Peter Prodromou, starting in 2015.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”