Solved

Hire pilots with other teams

My plan was to find a high talented pilot with one team I use, end the contract immediately and hire that young pilot with another team I use. I sometimes did that in the past already. Now it did not work anymore. I understood that there was an update and since that update it is only possible to hire new pilots from the transfer market or from the teams own academy. And that the "3 token transfers" that let you switch pilots between different teams without using the transfer market are not working any longer.

That's totally OK for me. But how can it be that someone else was able to get the pilot I have found with my academy? I could not hire him with another team but someone else can? 

https://igpmanager.com/app/d=driver&id=10263579

Cause when you released it, it was auctioned in the transfers market so anybody could buy it. Also you could have with your other team, if you had noticed it first.

The most likely explanation is that the drivers contract expired and the game put him on the auction list. Another team would either have won the auction or "Buy Now" for 9 tokens.

There is a new system being introduced in the near future so the advice below is time limited, but you can still transfer from team to team in two ways...

1. If you are switching staff between teams (I.e. Chief Designer) and the CD has already been employed by the buying team at some point in the past it is still possible to transfer using "Sell Now" with the selling team and "Buy Now" with the buying team for 3 tokens avoiding the auction.

2. If the driver or staff member has never been employed by the team you are transferring to you need to use the "Sell to Auction" option on the selling team. Immediately after pressing the sell button, load the driver/staff into the buying team (previously having shortlisted to make it easy) and use "Buy Now" for 9 tokens before anyone else has chance to bid.

Oh, I see. Pilots and staff are automatically sent to the transfer market when the contracts expire. Didn't realize that. Thank you both for the help and thanks for the detailed tips, Kevin!