Formula 1

New Force India tech boss defects to Lotus

Force India's newly-appointed technical director is switching teams to Lotus, it was announced on Wednesday. Lotus, F1's new Malaysian-backed team, said in a statement that Mark Smith will become technical director "at the end of his Force India ...

GMM

Edited: Jun 3, 2010, 12:48 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Force India's newly-appointed technical director is switching teams to Lotus, it was announced on Wednesday.

Lotus, F1's new Malaysian-backed team, said in a statement that Mark Smith will become technical director "at the end of his Force India notice period".

The news is an embarrassment to Silverstone based Force India, who promoted Smith to the role of technical director in late February as the Sauber-bound James Key's replacement.

The teams are set to battle one another in the courts, with Force India accusing Mike Gascoyne and Lotus of basing the T127 on a model left behind in an Italian wind tunnel.

Smith has previously worked with Renault and Red Bull.

He joins Force India colleagues Lewis Butler (chief designer) and Marianne Hinson (head of aerodynamics) in also defecting to Lotus.

Lotus' technical boss Gascoyne has previously worked with Smith at Jordan, Renault and Force India.

"Lewis and I were together at Force India, and Lewis also worked with Mark Smith at Red Bull, and Marianne and I have known each other since 1999 when I gave her her first job in F1 at Jordan, so we all know each other very well," said Gascoyne.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Red Bull collision leads to McLaren 1-2 in Turkey

Next article Lotus news 2010-06-02

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Spire claims Joe Gibbs Racing is now seeking nearly $150m in damages

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 2 min

Spire claims Joe Gibbs Racing is now seeking nearly $150m in damages

Inception Racing switches to Corvette for 2027 IMSA GTD season

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 7 min

Inception Racing switches to Corvette for 2027 IMSA GTD season

Cadillac reveals date for F1 engine factory debut, thanks drivers for being “patient”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

9 min

Cadillac reveals date for F1 engine factory debut, thanks drivers for being “patient”

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

Formula 1

United States GP

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

Feature

Discover prime content

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Formula 1

United States GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts