Bob Bell to leave Mercedes
Bell (56) is a doctor of aeronautical engineering, who started in racing in 1982 at McLaren where he worked as an aerodynamicist until 1988 when he became head of research and development, later moving on to other projects, notably the McLaren land speed record car MAVerick.
In 1997 he moved to Benetton (now known as Lotus F1) at Enstone. After a couple of years he went to Jordan as head of vehicle technology before returning to Enstone (by then Renault F1) in 2001 as Deputy Technical Director and he became Technical Director in 2003. He was the team’s technical leader for the World Championships of 2005 and 2006. After the Singapore Scandal Bell became acting team principal and then Managing Director for the Renault team until he departed for Mercedes in 2010.
Given his long experience and connections one can see a number of possible moves: Alonso would no doubt be keen to have him at Ferrari, the folks at Lotus would do well to take him on to rebuild what was “his" team for a while. McLaren might convince him to return to his first F1 team with more power, and a team such as Williams might also like to have him onboard as it rebuilds.
Time will tell… Joe Saward
04/14/14 Bell resigned from his position last December and will officially depart to pursue new challenges outside the company in November 2014.
He has held the position of technical director at the Brackley-based outfit since April 2011, having previously worked at a number of different F1 teams including McLaren, Jordan and Renault.
Executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe will assume the responsibilities previously held by Bell as the team looks to streamline its technical organisation.
The technical director role at Mercedes will not be replaced.