I wonder if any of the posters who are suggesting that Lowe could do work for Mercedes criticised IP being passed from Ferrari to McLaren or from Mclaren to Renault.
Is Mercedes Going to Hit a New Lowe?!!
- Thread starter snowy
- Start date
downforce
Race Winner
I read elsewhere that McLaren have put Lowe onto the MP4-12C GT3 for 2013. Don't know whether its true or not but it would be a neat solution.
Keep him busy and not helping Mercedes, while still making use of his skill to help McLaren in a way which won't give him any of their 2014 designs.
Keep him busy and not helping Mercedes, while still making use of his skill to help McLaren in a way which won't give him any of their 2014 designs.
When I left school I got an apprenticeship as an engineer and it was written into the contract that anything I came up with be it an invention or just something that improved efficiency of the plant and no matter if I thought of it or developed it in my own time or the companies time it belonged entirely to the company I worked for, and so it would be safe to say that whilst Lowe is on McLaren's payroll then anything he works on and develops belongs to McLaren and if he gives it to Mercedes then he can and will be prosecuted for industrial espionage....
The company that employed me was called Tenneco and is now known as Tenneco Inc, you probably have never heard of it but it isn't a small company it is massive, here's a link showing their status.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenneco
Nothing to do with F1 maybe but everything to do with companies and the way they operate to protect themselves and their developments and so why should McLaren be any different ...?
Basically anything and everything Lowe works on this year belongs to McLaren....
The company that employed me was called Tenneco and is now known as Tenneco Inc, you probably have never heard of it but it isn't a small company it is massive, here's a link showing their status.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenneco
Nothing to do with F1 maybe but everything to do with companies and the way they operate to protect themselves and their developments and so why should McLaren be any different ...?
Basically anything and everything Lowe works on this year belongs to McLaren....
I read the terms and conditions of Microsoft's mailer one time (Outlook Express?). Anything on any post using it belongs to Microsoft together with any content and attachments.
IBM have something similar written into their contracts. Their view is that they have used their resources to develop your skills so anything you produce with those skills, even in your own time, they deem as belonging to them.
I think that most US corporations have these conditions, the one I worked for certainly did. At one time I thought that if they spent less time on preparing patent applications and more on engineering that they might have done better, they had thousands of them. But then their patents gave them a real edge over the opposition.
I believe that is the way the corporate world works and as we know there is no one so corporate as McLaren and they will not hesitate to protect their interests...
rufus_mcdufus
Champion Elect
One software company I worked for in the nineties in the UK got us to all sign contracts such that all inventions by ourselves and our offspring for all eternity belonged to the company regardless of whether we were still employed by the company. It was so stupid and obviously impossible to enforce that we all signed anyway. The company went bust.
Il_leone
World Champion
Mclaren are usually very watertight on these things except Spygate 2007 - apparently there was even a mole to keep an eye on NEwey so am sure Mclaren will cover their basis but they don;t want to upset Mercedes too much such that they get slapped with an even heavier fee for the engines
racecub
Champion Elect
When Newey returned from gardening leave from Williams and began working for Mclaren, Mclaren appeared with an identical wing to the Williams. Lowe may be still working on Mclarens current car, but they can't stop him thinking about Mercedes 2014 car, suggesting they can, is just wishful thinking.
rufus_mcdufus
Champion Elect
It is pretty difficult to enforce. If you're buying a top engineer you're buying them for what they've done in the past. Everyone develops their own style and you just can't expect (or want) anyone for completely forget everything they've ever done and start anew. F1 is cutting-edge but pretty much all of the engineering principles and ideas are not new at all.
Thats true but if you look the rest of the car was a dog and it took Newy the whole season to get the team on the pace and that was back when testing was allowed. I'm sure next years Merc will have Lowe influences but I'm sure he'd be the first to state the first Lowe Mercedes will appear in 2015 which is not ideal going into the new rules where so much ground can be made up or going into the year they've suggested is going to be their big push. Whether he can do doodles on his note pad and pass on some ideaa to Merc or not it'll still take a lot of convincing me that this is ideal for Mercedes.
IMO I think they thought Mclaren would let them buy his contract out and he'd be able to come over to Merc in some capacity this year (hence why Brawn said he was unsure of his future) but Ron didn't decided to play dice and there stuck with waiting.
If I were Mclaren I'd stick him on designing a road car with heavy deadlines and very few staff. Keep the bugger busy.
Il_leone
World Champion
problem is Lowe might not bother given he is leaving anyway that might waste precious resources and millions of pounds
garden leave means don't turn up in the office as we don;t want you to give secrets away to competitors
unless Mclaren expect Lowe to log onto company network all times and therefore keep an eye on his daily activities that way
garden leave means don't turn up in the office as we don;t want you to give secrets away to competitors
unless Mclaren expect Lowe to log onto company network all times and therefore keep an eye on his daily activities that way