F1: reasons behind David Sanchez's resignation as Ferrari Head of Vehicle Concept

David Sanchez has resigned from Scuderia Ferrari, this was the most highly reported news in the last few days. An expert in aerodynamics, he has been Head of Vehicle Concept of the Maranello team and had been with the Maranello team since the end of 2012.

After ten years in Maranello, David Sanchez, born in 1980, originally from Pézenas in France, has decided to leave Scuderia Ferrari. The resignation, officially announced yesterday, is in fact not related to the results of the pre-season testing session of the first Grand Prix of the 2023 Formula 1 season in Bahrain, but it is closely related to two other factors:

The first is the one that led to the departure of Mattia Binotto from Scuderia Ferrari, which started last summer and finalized between November and December, followed by the appointment of Frederic Vasseur at the top of the Ferrari Racing Division. The second reason is linked with the promotion of Andrea Stella to the role of McLaren Team Principal.

The Italian engineer had known David Sanchez at Scuderia Ferrari where they worked together for a few years, before Andrea Stella moved to McLaren in 2015 alongside Fernando Alonso. The McLaren Team Principal allegedly took advantage of the situation in Maranello to make contact with some engineers, as we understand other teams have also done, to convince them to leave Ferrari and bring them to England.

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At the same time, last year the F1-75 turned out to be one of the most successful single-seaters on the grid and Ferrari’s aerodynamics department had nevertheless entered the sights of the competition, which is always looking to snatch some “talent”. Mattia Binotto‘s exit and Andrea Stella‘s promotion actually favored all of this.