Ferrari has denied that former Mercedes engineer Ben Hoyle is to join the team.

The Italian manufacturer was quick to react in the wake of the revelation that Hoyle is being sued by Mercedes following alleged data theft.

Yesterday it was revealed that Mercedes is taking legal action against Hoyle who it was claimed is to join Ferrari at the start of next year.

"A legal action is underway involving Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) Limited and an employee who is due to leave the company at the end of the year," admitted Mercedes yesterday. The company has taken the appropriate legal steps to protect its intellectual property."

However, the Italian team was quick to deny this.

"There were talks but nothing led to a formal contract," said a spokesman for the Maranello outfit. "He's not even going to join us in the foreseeable future.

"It's not true that he was on the verge of joining us," he added, distancing the team from the latest spy scandal to hit the sport. "What he did concerns only him and the company he was working for. We are not involved in this."

In papers made public yesterday, it was revealed that Mercedes alleges that Hoyle, who was assigned to non-F1 duties after telling the company that he was to leave for Ferrari at the end of the year, "was found looking at race reports and took confidential data".

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 11/12/2015 16:57

"Blast!
I was really looking forward to Ferrari getting fined $100M for "Spygate#2".

I guess the poor guy will just have to do a bit of ad-hoc consulting for FIAT then....."

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2. Posted by nonickname, 09/12/2015 18:18

"I would like to see and compare the data between Nico and Lewis to see "what happened' at the time of Nico's numerous strange problems and see if all is really what Mercedes pretends it is.Strange things happen to Nico rather often......sudden gusts of wind?"

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3. Posted by Celtictiger, 09/12/2015 17:23

"If true, I wonder if Mr. Hoyle took it upon himself to steal the data as a means to "sweeten the pot" for a formal contract with Ferrari. Only to have it blow up in his face."

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Ferrari denies Mercedes man is joining team

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