Ferrari sign Italian aerodynamicist from Mercedes. Ferrari sign Italian aerodynamicist from Mercedes.

Scuderia Ferrari have confirmed the signing of a new Formula 1 aerodynamicist from rivals Mercedes as the Maranello team look to continue their development plan and keep the pace advantage seen in in the start of the 2022 championship. The new rules and technical regulations which have have been introduced this year mean that Formula 1 mechanics, designers and engineers have been working on a completely new concept for the 2022 challengers, as they look to gain as much as possible in terms of performance from the new cars.

The Italian side focused on this moment from the early stages of the previous campaign, when Ferrari started developing for this season, aware that in 2021 they had no realistic chance of fighting for race wins. On the other hand, Red Bull and Mercedes were involved in a close battle for the 2021 Formula 1 titles and therefore had to invest in their cars until the final stages of the championship.

Scuderia Ferrari scored five podium finishes with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc during the previous campaign, a result which the Italian side has already matched after the first three rounds of the current campaign, while scoring as many race victories so far this year as they had done in the three seasons previous. This was possible also as a result of Charles Leclerc’s impressive drives, with the Monegasque winning the Bahrain Grand Prix and most recently the Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park circuit. A solid P2 finish at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit completed this year’s positive results.

Such an impressive progress in 2022 was possible thanks to the relentless efforts of the existing workforce at Maranello as well as acquisitions of staff from other teams, including those that had an important role in Mercedes’ Formula 1 dominance for almost one decade. One of those now is Gianluca Romani, whose education in the engineering field has taken him to Arizona, Valencia and Milan – 153 miles west of his birthplace in San Martino di Lupari.

He joined Mercedes as a graduate in 2019 and, after two successful years in Brackley, was taken on as a full-time aerodynamicist midway through last season. He returned to his homeland to team up with the Maranello side a few weeks ago: “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Aerodynamicist at Ferrari,” he posted on LinkedIn.

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Austrian former professional racing driver and current advisor to the Red Bull team, Dr Helmut Marko, recently said that the poaching of some Mercedes team members by his own side will likely have caused “some difficulties” for the Silver Arrows, who have had a poor start to the 2022 Formula 1 championship, as they attempt to recover the gap to Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull for what is expected to become a a three-way fight in the second part of the campaign.