10:07 – The engine department of the Mercedes Formula 1 team has to ‘reinvent’ after the departure of Chef Andy Cowell. The head of the High Performance Powertrains department recently announced his departure from Mercedes.
Cowell has worked for Mercedes since 2004, and has been a Mercedes HPP general since 2014, making it important to many of the silver arrow successes. His farewell had been known internally for several months and so the stable had time to think about his succession. The Englishman will not leave immediately, from 1 July he will assist the new ultimately responsible Hywel Thomas in an advisory role in setting up a new structure for the department and then at least until 2021 be involved in another ‘large project’ of High Performance Powertrains.
In the new set-up, Thomas is not solely responsible. He has different skills than Cowell, team boss Toto Wolff said in an F1 vodcast. It is clear that Andy [Cowell] needed a new challenge and I totally understand that. He already announced in December that he wanted to do something different and then we decided to reinvent HPP. Without a single point of contact because Andy is very charismatic, a strong leader with a lot of skills. “The new managing director Thomas has different skills and will have a management team next to him, Mercedes said earlier.
The departure of the successful Cowell therefore does not lead to problems, Wolff thinks. “We’ve been through this before. With the departure of Ross Brawn, the departure of Bob Bell, Paddy Lowe, Aldo Costa, Mark Ellis. We have always been able to replace them with the next generation. But we have also seen in the past that we were unable to resolve some vacancies internally. The best example of this is James Allison, who came a few years ago. “
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