Mercedes has announced Andy Cowell will leave his position heading up its Formula 1 engine division next month.

Cowell has been part of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrain (HPP) for 16 years, serving as managing director since 2014.

He played an instrumental role in the German manufacturer's development of the V6 hybrid engines that were introduced to F1 in 2014. Mercedes has won six consecutive drivers' and constructors' titles in that period.

In a statement issued by Mercedes on Monday, it was announced that Cowell would be leaving his position at the beginning of July, having informed the team of his intention to leave in January.

A new senior leadership team set to take over running of the engine division upon Cowell's departure.

This will be made up of Hywel Thomas, who becomes managing director to take direct responsibility for the F1 power unit, as well as Adam Allsopp (powertrain director), Richard Stevens (operations director), and Ronald Ballhaus (finance and IT director).

"This new structure will enable the company to deliver three key projects to the highest possible standards in the coming years: the F1 Power Unit, the Formula E powertrain and the powertrain development and production of the Mercedes-AMG One," the statement says.

Cowell will work with Thomas to support the transition and will "consult to Mercedes-Benz AG on a major future project until at least early 2021".

"Andy's leadership of the team at HPP has been a key factor in our championship success in recent seasons," said Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff.

"He has made an outstanding contribution to our motorsport legacy and I have valued and enjoyed our working relationship since 2013; I am sure he will enjoy great success in the next challenge he decides to take on.

"Our philosophy has always been that a winning team is a dynamic organisation, and that change is a natural part of every company's development.

"I am particularly pleased that we have been able to work together to create a new leadership structure, by building on the strength in depth of the team in Brixworth. It puts us in a very strong position for the years ahead, as we aim to set new benchmarks in Formula One and Formula E."

"After 16 enjoyable years working for HPP, I have decided that now is the right time to move on from my role and seek a new engineering business challenge," Cowell added.

"I have appreciated the opportunity to work with Markus and Toto in defining the future leadership structure of the company and I have every confidence in the ability of Hywel and the team to lead the company forward.

"It has been an absolute honour to work for Mercedes and especially to be Managing Director of HPP for seven years. Thank you to everyone who has provided me with such amazing opportunities and enjoyable challenges, especially Ola Källenius who had the courage to support me back in 2006."

Anyone who has been watching F1, especially the Mercedes F1 team, couldn’t have possibly thought that they don’t have a clear hierarchy among their drivers. It seems pretty obvious that Lewis Hamilton is the de facto ‘number 1’ and that Valtteri Bottas is his second violin. However, Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff begs to differ, claiming that neither driver gets preferential treatment. At least not until the season gets underway.

Osterreich newspaper, interviewed the Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff. Addressing claims that Mercedes have a clear hierarchy in mind, Wolff said, “Bottas and Hamilton get fair chances from us, as always, at the beginning of the season. Our drivers should both be able to become champions and I can’t imagine starting with a clear number 1 and 2. Drivers always have the ambition to win, otherwise, they won’t be in Formula 1.”

It is expected for someone in Wolff’s position, to tell us that both drivers get the backing to win the championship. However, it is hard to imagine Bottas beating Hamilton to the title and gaining the status of ‘number 1′ at Mercedes. In fact, Bottas’ very future at Mercedes is unclear despite impressive performances from the Finn, last season. Nevertheless, Bottas will be happy to hear that the team has the belief in him to win a championship. Hopefully, that can spur him on to push Hamilton even more, although that could lead to a ‘Ferrari like situation.’

The Finn will want to keep hold of his Mercedes seat even after 2020. Bottas will be looking to add to the 7 wins he has recorded, behind the steering wheel of a Mercedes. He had his best season last year, racking up a total of 326 points. He won 4 races and was on the podium 15 times. He’ll be looking to build on that and ensure his seat at the Silver Arrows for another year at least.

As for Hamilton, he’ll want to continue dominating the grid. He will be looking to get his 7th drivers’ championship and equal Michael Schumacher’s record.

In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, F1 teams have had to cut costs. To aid teams in cost-cutting, new rules and regulations were passed by the FIA. One of the regulations was the budget cap which was decreased by $30 million from the initial figure of $175 million for 2021. Another one of the said regulations revolved around the freezing of car development beginning from the 2020 season. However, certain homologated parts can still be improved to a certain extent with the help of the ‘token system.’ Each team gets two tokens for a season and they can trade those tokens to develop certain car parts, provided the FIA approves it. F1’s managing director, Ross Brawn reveals how McLaren was the reason for their introduction and how all the teams can use them.

Ross Brawn was in conversation with Motorsport-Total.com. Brawn said, “The problem with freezing the technology was: there is a team that changes the drive partner- Mclaren. You can’t ignore that. So we had to find a system to make this change possible for McLaren.”

Furthermore, he said, “If you speak about a period of five years and outline a corresponding scenario, you can be very specific about it. But if you only have a few weeks in advance, you have to be flexible in the implementation. It could be that some teams have to improve their cars because there are mistakes. The token system gives us just as much leeway to solve such problems.”

He also provides an actual example of how the system can be implemented. He said, “A team has already reported to us that there is a cooling problem with the vehicle. They could not be (left) in this condition for two years.”

Thus that means that teams aren’t stuck with the exact same car for two years. Using the tokens they can implement some minor changes to improve their car. Ross Brawn says the bottom line is that it is a good compromise.

They may last only a matter of seconds, but every F1 fan knows that pit stops can make or break a race. Little wonder then that the teams have thrown so much resource at developing pit equipment over the years, all in the name of shaving time in the pursuit of the perfect pit stop. But following a new Technical Directive issued by the FIA, teams will no longer be able to develop pit equipment from September 30 as part of a new drive to cut costs.

All 10 teams will be required to provide a full description of the pit stop equipment they use to the governing body by July 22. Each team is allowed to modify the submitted description after that date, but before the September deadline, providing they update the FIA.

After September 30, only minor changes can be carried out, such as changes to jacks to cope with different car ride height ranges, but these will require approval from the governing body.

Initially, rulemakers looked at introducing standard pit equipment, but accepted that in doing so, all teams would need to buy a new set of equipment, which would actually raise costs.

It is in the teams’ nature to develop anything which can give them an edge, and that includes trying to save even a nanosecond of time to have a quicker pit stop. This development is expensive, so it was agreed to freeze it with an eye towards moving towards the introduction of some standard parts in the future.

By using this method, the pit stop equipment remains sophisticated, but costs are capped because parts are homologated.

McLaren is considering selling a stake of up to 30% in its Formula 1 team as it seeks to raise extra finance with which to improve its level of competitiveness.
The main McLaren Group has been searching for extra funding in recent months having been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis and resulting staff furlough.

However a source has confirmed that the sale plan, first revealed by Sky News, only involves shares in McLaren Racing, which also encompasses the Indy team as well as F1.

McLaren sees the introduction of the $145m budget cap in 2021 as an opportunity to be on a level playing field with the established top three.

It’s thus regarded as essential to have the funding that will allow the team be in a position to spend to the limit – especially in 2021 when the new generation of cars is being developed – and thus have the best possible chance of climbing the order.

At the moment McLaren Racing has the same shareholders as its parent, so a sale of a stake in the team would involve some form of restructuring.

Around 56% of McLaren Group is owned by Bahrain’s Mumtalakat Holding Company, 14% by Mansour Ojjeh and 10% by Michael Latifi, with the remaining 20% split between minority shareholders.

Latifi has been linked to an investment in Williams, having already agreed a loan with the Grove team, and should that happen it remains to be seen whether there will be any impact on his long term McLaren involvement.

Last month McLaren Group announced plans to cut staffing levels, with the racing team expected to be trimmed by 70.

Regarding its wider search for funding the parent company also noted that it “is currently looking at a number of potential financing alternatives, secured and unsecured, of up to £275m equivalent to strengthen its liquidity position. An update will be provided as soon as reasonably practicable.”

The NBB is 44% owned by the Mumtalakat Holding Company, Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, which also owns 56% of McLaren.