Even in its off season, Formula One still manages to find a way to make the headlines. No Formula One drivers are involved here, but reports are running wild that Formula One could be bracing for another spy gate controversy. According to these reports, Mercedez-Benz AG has sued one of its Formula One engineers for allegedly taking confidential data and documents in preparation for a move to Ferrari.
The engineer, identified as Benjamin Hoyle, has incurred the wrath of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, the motorsports division in charge of building the engines used by the Mercedes Petronas team in Formula One, after the team discovered that Hoyle lifted some highly confidential technical documents from the team — including files containing codes that can decrypt raw race data files. The lawsuit was filed in October 19, 2015, five days before the 2015 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Details of the lawsuit only went public on Monday, December 8, 2015. According to the Mercedes lawsuit, Hoyle also took with him mileage and damage data related to Mercedes’ F1 engines and a race report from the 2015 Hungary Grand Prix that was won by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Hoyle’s contract with Mercedes was set to expire at the end of 2015 after the engineer told the team that he would be resigning his post once his contract expired. The team found out later on that the engineer would be joining Ferrari, so it took the necessary measures to ensure that Hoyle couldn’t get access to confidential racing and technical documents. It was only after these steps were done that the team reported seeing Hoyle looking at race reports and confidential data after that access was taken away from him.
Mercedes is looking to retrieve all of the documents and information Hoyle allegedly stole, in addition to the payment of its legal fees. The team is also seeking to have Hoyle banned from joining Ferrari or any other Formula One team until after the 2016 season.
For its part, Ferrari admitted that it had talks with Hoyle about joining the team, but a company spokesman told Bloomberg that the engineer has never signed a contract with the team and isn’t going on board “in the foreseeable future”.
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