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JOHNNYBET

Mercedes director of car design John Owen to leave

NEWS STORY
20/01/2026

The game of high-octane musical chairs continues as Mercedes confirms that its former chief designer, John Owen, is to leave the team.

"We can confirm that John Owen has decided that now is the right time to take a break from F1 and that he will be leaving the team later this year to begin a period of gardening leave, after assuring the transition to his successor," said the team in a statement.

Owen began his career at Brackley, for in 2001 he joined Reynard as an aerodynamicist. He subsequently joined Sauber, where he rose to the role of senior aerodynamicist, before returning to Brackley in 2007 as principal aerodynamicist for Honda.

In 2010, following Honda's morphing into Brawn and then Mercedes, he was promoted to the role of chief designer, and was integral to the dual-axis steering (DAS) system the German team used with great success in 2020, and which was subsequently banned.

A Mercedes spokesman said that Owen has been involved in designing every Mercedes car since the Silver Arrows returned to the sport, this year's W17 being his seventeenth.

According to Reuters, engineering director Giacomo Tortora will take over Owen's role as Director of Car Design, the group overseen by Deputy Technical Director, Simone Resta.

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