AR3-GP wrote: ↑06 Aug 2023, 23:20
The cooks in the kitchen comment goes hand in hand with the cost cap comment. You can’t afford them all.
Nor did they have them all. Allison, Costa and Bell weren't headhunted. They left or were fired before Mercedes were an option. That team of 2014- didn't build itself overnight. Again, if you go back to 2011/12 Merc team threads, there was a gluttony of doom posting when the team was working away in the background for the breakthrough 2013 season.
And as we have a structure that has remained largely the same since 2011, Geoff Willis, Allison, Elliot, Owen and Rob Thomas are all in the chef roles which has worked well since 2013. Loic Serra has recently been poached by Ferrari, which leaves a space to be filled.
Besides, multiple staff have left for other teams for money Mercedes weren't prepared to pay to retain their services.
The net cost to those teams will also leave scope for movement in the opposite direction, as we have seen with all teams including Red Bull. Only, these things don't happen overnight despite the demands of F1tech gurus.