Man United in advanced talks to make signing from F1 team in shock move by INEOS

Manchester United are in advanced negotiations over making a key signing from a Formula One team, reports claim.

United's minority shareholders INEOS, the chemicals firm of which Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the chief executive officer of, are a principal partner to Mercedes-AMG Petronas as well as an equal shareholder.

INEOS are also heavily involved in cycling and have former coach Sir Dave Brailsford working at United as part of his Director of Sport role at INEOS.

But according to Mike Keegan from the Daily Mail, United are looking to bring in an important member of Mercedes' staff.

A new report states that United are currently progressing in talks with Michael Sansoni, who works as a senior performance simulation engineer for the eight-time world constructors' champions.

Sansoni is tasked with ensuring George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have a car which can produce the best performance on the track and it's believed United feel as though he can make a seamless transition from F1 to football.

He graduated from Southampton with a BEng Aeronautics and Astronautics and it's said the switch is being labelled a "move between the family".

Data science has proved to be a pivotal tool in sports on the whole and in football it has been fundamental for the success enjoyed by the likes of Brighton and Brentford.

But Ratcliffe feels as though United are still lagging behind in that department and even admitted as much during a wide-ranging interview with the United We Stand fanzine back in December.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe could be on the verge of a major cross-sport deal. Image: Getty

"Until we're are as good as anyone in the world, then it's not good enough for Manchester United," Ratcliffe said.

"We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn't really exist here. We're still in the last century on data analysis here.

"There's immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we're in the 'very poor' bracket with data analysis here. These things don't happen overnight."