06/11/2006
NEWS STORY
When Pitpass revealed that Simon Lacey had joined McLaren as Cheif Aerodynamicist, the article was worded quite deliberately.
In the days that followed, a number of other websites ran the story, however, they all appear to have made a common mistake.
Mr Lacey's departure from Honda wasn't recent, it happened six months ago. Nor was it the result his colleague at Honda, Mariano Alperin, being promoted to the role of head of aerodynamics.
Mr Lacey's departure from Honda predated Mr Alperin's promotion, indeed it was the catalyst, the Japanese team fearing that unless Alperin was given the role he might follow Lacey out of Brackley. Indeed, according to some, Alperin's promotion was made to look like good news and provide an excuse should Lacey's departure to a rival team leak out.
Though both are very different personalities and work in different ways it was widely felt - by many at Brackley - that both these individuals and their approach complemented one another.
The Aero department at Honda has undergone its biggest changes and period of instability since the team's inception in the last ten months and has seen the departure of Willem Toet, Geoff Willis and Lacey, not to mention other less obvious but equally key long term staff members. On the positive side however, Ben Mallock returns from Red Bull.
Despite the large recruiting drive for aero personnel, we hear that Honda is even struggling to retain new recruits with at least three people taken on having left for other teams within six months of starting.
According to our sources, the reason for the 'unrest', is due to the increasingly political atmosphere that has arisen in the department. Previously, it was the most politically benign department in the team but following the appointment of Graham Miller over the head of Toet, the department has allegedly become what one source - who obviously prefers not to be named - describes a "free for all in terms of empire building".
Indeed, one insider tells Pitpass that in the current political climate at Brackley, the building of the much-vaunted second wind tunnel has been "the worst thing to happen for the aero department in its history".