By Huw Alban
May 17 2006

One of the big negatives thrown at fans of the team and it's drivers on our forum, is that the team do not have enough staff to do all those jobs necessary to be competitive. Today we can confirm that over the coming weeks that the team staff numbers will increase in key areas.

We, broadly speaking, have three groups of people who visit this site and contribute to the forum. Firstly, there are those that are fans of the team or of one it's drivers and will always look for the positives and offer messages of support no matter what happens. Secondly, there are those (and it has to be said a growing number) that are sitting on the fence waiting to see how this team develops and taking a neutral stance on most situations. Lastly, there are the antis and the less said about them the better.

All three groups admit that the team could do with a boost in the team staff department, and the team too have admitted since the M16 was launched that they want to recruit the best staff from all over the world to fill key positions.

Yesterday we received news that the Wind Tunnel in Brackley would be gaining a new Mechanical Design Engineer in the form of Tony License who joins the Midland F1 team from Williams.

"Tony's role in the Aero Department is to help us continually improve the technology level of our wind tunnel model, and assist us in the preparations for migrating to a larger scale model as part of the upcoming wind tunnel upgrade," Simon Phillips Head of Aerodynamics was quoted as saying about the appointment.

The team also informed us that this appointment would not be the first, and that in fact there would be many more in the coming weeks. That wasn't enough for me though, I wanted to know what areas of the team were going to benefit. "Let's just say there will be additions to both the race team and factory staff -- the people who actually make the car go faster," was all I could get, but it's enough for me to feel confident that this team will improve in future seasons.

I was told in April of this year (by an F1 journo) that the team would be sold by the end of that month, and we're still here. The media also recently claimed that the team do not have enough money to continue racing after the Monaco Grand Prix in a few weeks time - with this news it doesn't look as if that story holds either does it?

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