‘Non-poaching’ clause in Mercedes deal to stop staff following Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton's 🍎hopes of taking key Mercedes F1 s🐠taff with him to Ferrari may have hit a stumbling block.

Lewis Hamilton shares a special bond with his race engineer 'Bono'
Lewis Hamilton shares a special bond with his race engineer 'Bono'

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton may not be able to take key members of the Mercedes F1 team with him to 🐽Ferrari in 2025 because of a clause in his current contract.

understands that a ‘non-poaching’ clause was inserted into the seven-time 🅷world champion’s current Mercedes deal to prevent a mass exodus of staff.

Sources have confirmed such a clause exists in Hamilton’s contrac𓃲t, potentially scuppering his hopes of reuniting with key figures𓆉 at Ferrari.

Howev🉐er, the clause cannot stop a move if both parties agree to a deal.

Last week Hamilton stunned the F1 world by announcing a sei൲smic switch to Ferrari next season on a multi-year deal, having activated a break clause in his current Mercedes contract.

It had bee🌱n wide꧂ly reported in Italian media that Hamilton hoped to lure several key Mercedes personnel along with him, such as long-time race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington.

These suggestions drew comparisons to when 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Michael Schumacher was joined in moving from Benetton to Fe♚rrari by key staff including the l🐼ikes of technical director Ross Brawn and chief designer Rory Byrne in 1996.

Bonnington, w🦹ho has been at Brackley since the early Honda days, has worked alongside Hamilton ever since the Briton joined Mercedes back in 2013 and the pair have forged a special relationship.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has already admitted that Bonnington꧋’s future needs to be discussed amid talk of a move to Ferrari.

"I think this is a discussio𓃲n whic𓄧h everyone needs to have in the months to come," Wolff said.

"And as much as I've spoken with Bono already, when I told him [about Hamilton's move] he 𓆉said, 'Is it April the first?'♔ That's something which we will discuss in the future."

Hamiღlton will find familiar faces at Ferrari in team principal Fred Vasseur, who managed ART Grand Prix during Hamilton’s title-winning GP2 campaign, and Jock Clear, who previously worked at Mercedes.

Former Mercedes performance director Loic Serra is also set to officially start work at Ferrarꦐi in 2025. 

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