Lauda denies Ferrari is steeling top engineers

Niki Lauda has promptly played down suggestions dominant Mercedes is bleeding engineers to Ferrari.

Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that a couple of handsful of engineers from rival teams have started work at Maranello, including a trio who previously worked on Mercedes' currently-dominant turbo V6 power unit.

But Mercedes team chairman Lauda insisted at Silverstone: "We have all the important engineers firmly under contract.

"They are staying," the great Austrian reiterated. "We have long term contracts with our major engineers."

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport said one of them is Mercedes' most important engine man, Andy Cowell, who is under contract for the next five years at least.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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