Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Ferrari will not hire sued Mercedes engineer

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Ferrari has moved to distance itself from the legal action being taken by Mercedes against Ben Hoyle, saying the engineer is not set to join the team.

Mercedes is suing Hoyle - who worked for Mercedes' engine department High Performance Powertrains - for taking confidential data and information which he should no longer have had access to. Mercedes also stated it understood Hoyle intended to move to Ferrari at the end of this year. In the court filings, Mercedes claims: "Mr Hoyle and potentially Ferrari have gained an unlawful advantage."

However, while Ferrari admits it did hold talks with Hoyle about potential employment, the team insists no contract is in place and says it will not be hiring the Mercedes engineer.

"Benjamin Hoyle has no contract with us, therefore he’s not going to Ferrari," Ferrari stated when contacted by F1i. "We feel that the whole matter concerns Mercedes and one of its (former) employees, there is no point commenting on ‘alleged advantages’ since it’s crystal clear that we are not, at any stage, going to hire him."

Hoyle's employment at Mercedes was due to end on 31 December 2015, having informed the team back in May 2014 he would be resigning at the end of his contract.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.