Bob Bell joins Manor Marussia in consultancy role

Manor Marussia have announced several new technical appointments, including the arrival of former Renault and Mercedes technical director Bob Bell.

Bell left the world champions at the end of last season, having resigned his position in December 2013. He had been linked with a move to Ferrari in recent months.

In a statement, Manor Marussia said that Bell will act as a technical consultant for the balance of the current season ‘applying his considerable industry experience supporting and advising Manor’s senior management as they rebuild the team and formulate an ambitious long term plan’.

Furthermore, Luca Furbatto, who previously held the position of chief designer at Toro Rosso, has been appointed head of design, while Gianluca Pisanello had been made the team’s chief engineer. Most recently, Pisanello was head of engineering operations at Caterham.

Bell’s role sounds similar to that performed by Pat Symonds, who worked as a consultant at Manor Marussia for two seasons before joining Williams as chief technical officer midway through 2013.

Now 57, Bell joined Mercedes in 2011 having previously worked for McLaren, Benetton, Jordan and Renault.

Bell served as technical director at the latter outfit during their title-winning years of 2005/06 and even had a brief stint as team principal in 2009, when the previous year's Singapore GP deliberate crash controversy forced the resignations of Symonds and team boss Flavio Briatore.

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