Hamilton loses his performance engineer, Jock Clear departing for Ferrari

Jock Clear, one of the chief engineers of the technical team associated with Lewis Hamilton within the Mercedes AMG F1 team, has decided to leave to join Scuderia Ferrari, very likely to replace the former director of engineering Pat Fry.

Pat Fry was dismissed this week by Ferrari as part of their restructuring. This season, Ferrari did not register a win in F1, a significant first since 1993.

Jock Clear resigned immediately from Mercedes after the last race of the season, held in Abu Dhabi, to join Ferrari. According to BBC Sport, the agreement between the British engineer and the German team includes a 12-month notice period, which would make his resignation effective in November 2015. However, Ferrari will undoubtedly try to find a compromise with Mercedes to reduce this period.

From now on, Mercedes will have to reorganize the technical staff of Lewis Hamilton ahead of the 2015 season. Clear will still continue within the German team but will likely be reassigned to another position as he is joining a rival team of Mercedes.

Jock Clear has worked with Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve for 15 years in his career. He started his career alongside the current Canal+ consultant in the British American Racing team, before continuing through the name changes at Honda, Brawn, and Mercedes. His role at Mercedes was to be one of the three chassis engineers assigned to Hamilton’s car, helping the race engineer and the other engineer who stays in contact with the driver where he analyzes the data.

According to the British publication, the new world champion constructors’ team was pleased to release Clear, as it was unable to offer a similar role as Ferrari. Furthermore, Ferrari attempted to recruit former Mercedes technical director Bob Bell, who resigned in April and left the team permanently in November. The former technical director was approached for a leading role at Ferrari, but he had to decline due to personal issues.