Williams poaches talent from Ferrari

Williams F1 Team announced this week that it signed a new engineer Antonio Spagnolo who has been working for Ferrari for eleven years. The Italian becomes the Grove-based squad’s Competitor Analysis and Performance Concept Team Leader.

Antonio Spagnolo has worked for Ferrari since 2005. He has held different positions at the fabled Italian team. He was the race engineer to Kimi Räikkönen and performance engineer to Fernando Alonso. His recent role was guiding of Ferrari’s Tyre Performance Group.

Spagnolo will fulfill various roles at Williams at the same time. His priority will be the analysis of the team’s rivals’ performance and finding the areas where the traditional team has weaknesses. He will also take on the role of coordinator and advisor of Williams’ tyre group due to his wealth of experiences gained in that area at Ferrari.

Williams senior technical member, Pat Symonds is hopeful that the signing of Antonio Spagnolo will help the team in its fight in the Constructors’ Championship after this season has been a dip in performance compared to the two strong previous campaigns.

“Williams is determined to continue the positive momentum it has had since 2014 and, with new additions to the team, hopes to become even stronger. We are constantly seeing ways to improve our performance and trackside operations and believe Antonio will make a valuable contribution to this process. As a team, we will do our utmost to achieve our on-track ambitions and secure strong positions in the Constructors’ Championship this season, and beyond,” said Symonds.