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Outgoing Mercedes Formula 1 engine guru Andy Cowell is “not 100% certain” of his next move and says he will decide during the final months of his notice period.
Mercedes High Performance Powertrains has had a new senior management structure since July 1, with Hywel Thomas assuming Cowell’s role as managing director and Cowell staying on to aid the transition and is set to leave the company after 2020.
Cowell handed in his notice back in January but his departure was not communicated until June as Mercedes established a succession plan.
“A lot of my friends and especially my mum thinks I’m as mad as a box of frogs to hand my notice” :: Andy Cowell
Mercedes said he will continue to advise on a “major future project” until at least early 2021, but where Cowell goes after serving his notice period is still unknown.
“I do class myself as having one of the best jobs on the planet at the moment,” Cowell said in an appearance on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.
“A lot of my friends and especially my mum thinks I’m as mad as a box of frogs to hand my notice.
“Everybody’s saying ‘what are you going to do next, what are you going to do next?’ And I’m not 100% certain yet.
“But hopefully it will give me a nice big challenge, and hopefully I can help companies and organisations and, ultimately, people.”
Mark Hughes on Andy Cowell’s impact
Andy Cowell (pictured opposite Niki Lauda above during Mercedes’ 2016 title celebrations) the race engine engineer is deeply gifted – and intensely competitive. He’s an aggressively progressive thinker. His reach of what is feasible often goes beyond what others may even think is possible.
His 1999 Cosworth CR-1, 2001 BMW P81 and 2014 Mercedes PU106 are testament to that, each of them redefining F1 engine technology. For Cowell, the remarkable is always within reach. It’s only ever a case of working out the route.
That alone would make him one of the most significant engineers in F1’s history. But that this guy should also be that most rare of things, an engineer gifted at leadership and inspiring a team – that all those things should all be embodied in one man – is just astonishing.
Under his MD-ship, Mercedes HPP has become the dominant engine force in perhaps the most engine-dominated formula the championship has ever devised.
He did it through imbuing a team of several hundred bright, competitive minds with his own mindset – and getting them all working in the same direction. He somehow herded the cats, minimising ‘losses in the system’ just as he would when designing an engine.
All done with a down-to-earth sparkle of racer’s mischief.
Read Mark’s full column on Cowell here
Cowell’s interest in motorsport began when he was five and he said that it “will always be a part of my life, but what part that’s the thing to sort out”.
He said starting his 12-month notice period was “contractual timing rather than anything else” and that he was keen to work with Daimler chief Ola Kallenius and board member Markus Schafer to manage the transition for HPP effectively.
“I was very keen that Hywel took over from the beginning of July,” he said.
“Markus and Ola asked me to stay until the second power unit was installed to try and help out, which takes us through to September.
“So I’ve got September, October, November and December to make a decision and make a call then.”
As managing director of Mercedes HPP, Cowell oversaw the development of the V6 turbo-hybrid engine that helped Mercedes win six consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ doubles in a row.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said at the start of July that the project Cowell is involved with is “very exciting” but would understand if Cowell went to a rival organisation.
“Whether Andy decided to join somebody else, that is very much his call,” said Wolff.
“I think at the moment he is well established and recognised in the Mercedes family and I hope that is going to continue.”
Though Cowell said he has not made a final decision on his future it appears even a route within Mercedes or Daimler will remove him from the HPP sphere as he said he will miss the “incredible” colleagues at HPP and described it as “time for change”.
He explained that he enjoys working with a “clean sheet of paper, the challenge of design, and I think my personality likes the thrill of being dropped into something that’s challenging and scary”.
To that end, he said, Mercedes’ award-winning involvement in Project Pitlane, helping to develop vital life-saving equipment to assist with the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, validated his decision to leave.
“That journey was a, ‘pfft, go on, have a go at something different’ that lit the bonfire in my belly and got my head thinking every second of the day about CPAPs and about anything else Project Pitlane was working on,” he said.
“And that’s the challenge that I want going forward.”
