The group’s headquarters will stay in Faenza, Italy, the place it has been based mostly since Minardi was based within the late Nineteen Seventies, however it’ll vacate the diminutive aerodynamics website in Bicester.
This follows a change for 2022 when RB, then competing below the AlphaTauri moniker, moved to utilizing sister group Purple Bull’s larger-scale wind tunnel.
It’s hoped that the improved UK infrastructure will appeal to extra employees in England, and Mekies reckons the Milton Keynes website shall be up and operating by the top of the yr.
In an unique interview with Motorsport.com’s Italian version, Mekies mentioned: “I’ll begin by saying that we’ve got not requested any engineers to maneuver to England.
“Faenza is the historic dwelling of the group and can also be a reasonably trendy facility, which has additionally loved pretty latest funding. We’ve superb manufacturing instruments right here and a big a part of the design workplace.
Laurent Mekies, Group Principal, RB F1 Group
Photograph by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photos
“In Bicester, we’ve got the aero division, idea design and a part of the design workplace – all in a location chosen to be near the wind tunnel.
“Fifteen years in the past, the group was smaller than it’s right this moment, and Bicester made sense. As we speak, the aero division has tripled in measurement; we not use this tunnel as a result of we’ve got one other one, and the situation is not appropriate.
“So, we are going to depart it on the finish of the yr and transfer to a brand new facility in Milton Keynes, subsequent to the Purple Bull campus.”
Rival groups, led by McLaren’s Zak Brown, have raised issues about Purple Bull’s widespread possession of two groups permitting the F1 squads to be extra financially environment friendly below the fee cap.
The transfer to Milton Keynes has additionally led to some hypothesis over personnel transferring between RB and Purple Bull. However Mekies has shut this hearsay down.
He mentioned: “The rules are very clear. It is vitally properly outlined that you simply can’t use the switch of personnel to bypass the regulation concerning [intellectual property]. So, you can’t transfer an individual from group A to group B to be able to switch information.
“Now, in our case, I can say that these transfers had been rare, however each time there was a switch we requested the FIA whether or not the transfer of a technician or an engineer in a particular function was to be thought-about in keeping with what was specified within the regulation. And we’ve got all the time acted solely after receiving the OK from the FIA.”
