Mercedes part ways with senior technical figure

Mercedes' chief aerodynamicist Gioacchino Vino is to leave the team after a period of gardening leave. 

A team spokesperson confirmed to RacingNews365 that Vino, who had been in post since October 2022 after promotion from principal aerodynamicist, is entering a period of gardening leave. 

The news of Vino's departure comes days after confirmation that performance director Loic Serra and driver development head Jerome D'Ambrosio are to both join Ferrari on October 1st, ahead of Lewis Hamilton's own switch to Maranello for 2025.

In previous months, Mercedes also parted ways with Chief Technical Officer Mike Elliott as it tries to fight its way back into race-winning and championship-challenging contention in the third year of the ground-effects era. 

Reacting to the news in the Team Principal's Press Conference, Technical Director James Allison believed the team was also adding techincal knowledge despite the departures.

"I don't think there is any point in me offering a commentary on motivation, clearly a team needs to have a critical mass of experienced and good people," Allison told media including RacingNews365.

"We would not wish to see experienced and good people leave us, but we are also gathering experienced and good people at a similar rate. 

"So I guess it is our job to try and make sure we act in such a way that people would rather be with us than anywhere else.

"I think it's more in the normal ebb and flow of an F1 team.

"The teams are big these days and in any given year you are shipping out a whole bunch of people and shipping in a matching number. That will be true in nearly every team."