Mercedes GP add some more big names as they scrabble to catch up

Interesting news this morning that Mercedes GP have signed two of Formula One's technical big-hitters in Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa.

Big hitters, yes, but also with major points to prove. Costa, formerly Ferrari's technical director, left Maranello in May following their poor start to the season. Willis, meanwhile, has most recently been working with the struggling HRT team as a consultant.

Both will want to remind their old teams as well as their new bosses at Brackley that they are still at the top of their game.

Costa, remember, was a key member of the Ferrari design office under technical director Ross Brawn and chief designer Rory Byrne when they were dominating F1 in the early 2000s. So he is rejoining both Brawn and Michael Schumacher at Mercedes.

Willis is one of the sport's most respected aerodynamicists having worked under Adrian Newey at Red Bull and also at Williams during their successful years in the mid-1990s. Willis was also technical director of the BAR and Honda teams in the early 2000s.

It all adds up to some major restructuring at Mercedes GP where Brawn is adamant that – with Bob Bell having arrived from Renault as technical director – he now has the correct team in place and can begin to add to the head count to bring it up to the RRA limit. The Brackley team had shrunk massively in the wake of Honda's departure from F1.

The big teams, Brawn has pointed out, are still on a glide path  of reduction in line with the RRA so his hope is that they will soon be on an even keel. After a second disappointing season in a row in 2011, Mercedes' bosses at Daimler and the team's backers in the Middle East will hope likewise.