Mercedes GP have confirmed the appointment of former Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa and former HRT designer, Geoff Willis.
The F1 Times earlier predicted that Mercedes were seeking to hire Costa following his axing at Ferrari in May as a result of their poor start to the season.
Costa and Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn, worked together at Ferrari during the very successful Schumacher era.
Willis will also join the team after leaving HRT recently, he will take on the role of technology director as the outfit looks to bolster its chances in 2012.
“I am delighted to announce that Aldo Costa and Geoff Willis will be joining the team,” Brawn said. “Geoff is a highly respected engineer with over twenty years of Formula 1 experience, and we look forward to his arrival next month.
“Having worked closely with Aldo for many years, I know that he will bring dedication and championship-winning expertise to the team when he joins in December.
“Building a winning team is an exciting challenge for us all as we work towards the competitiveness and standards that we aspire to as the Mercedes-Benz works team. With a strong technical structure led by Bob Bell, we are moving ourselves into the best possible position to achieve our ambitions.
“To add people you have to have the structure you need, and obviously one of the big things for the team is Bob Bell joining us. The infrastructure has to be in place before you can start adding numbers. And I think we’ve strengthened the structure.
“It’s always nice to do well with the smallest number possible, and there is the RRA limit, and we are looking to move to that absolute limit.
“At the same time the other teams are coming down to it because they are still on the glide path down to the RRA limit, so in 2011 the teams who are bigger still have the benefit of that glide path down to the RRA targets.”
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