In a bid to boost their technical staff, the Mercedes F1 team have signed two key Red Bull figures Mark Ellis and Giles Wood.

Mercedes have created two new roles for the poached Red Bull engineers. Mark Ellis will join as Mercedes’ Performance Director, while Giles Wood will take up the position of Chief Engineer, Simulation and Development.

A Mercedes statement said the recruitment of Ellis and Wood would “further strengthen the team’s technical organisation, particularly in the fields of simulation and vehicle dynamics”.

The two engineers are the first two key appointments made by Mercedes’ new leadership team of Paddy Lowe and Toto Wolff who were appointed as co-team bosses of Mercedes in 2014 following the resignation of team principal Ross Brawn.

Both men are set to join the Mercedes Formula 1 team in June 2014, once their current contracts with Red Bull Racing have finished.

The announcement will come as a major blow to the Milton Keynes team as it comes just months after it emerged that chief aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou will be moving to McLaren in 2015.

Photo Credit: Mercedes F1