Revolving doors between Ferrari and Red Bull
2023 began with an important change at the top of Ferrari’s Racing Division, where Frederic Vasseur took over from Mattia Binotto at the head of the Italian team’s sports management. The French manager took the time to get to know his men thoroughly, but from the first interviews, he made it clear that he would not hinder any departures from the team, with the aim of creating a cohesive and determined team. After a few weeks, it emerged that Inaki Rueda had been assigned another role within the company, with Ravin Jain taking his place as a reference strategist. Subsequently, David Sanchez, a long-time aerodynamicist, asked Ferrari to join McLaren, fueling rumors of possible new departures from Maranello.
A few days ago, the news of the imminent departure of sports director Laurent Mekies had leaked, confirmed twenty-four hours later by Alpha Tauri, which officially announced the hiring of the Frenchman, who will take over from the historic team principal Franz Tost at the helm of the Red Bull’s minor team.
During the Baku weekend, however, Laurent Mekies was present at the Ferrari pit wall, reinforcing the rumors a lack of the exact transfer date to Faenza in the official statement was a clear indication of a not too friendly departure between the parties. Speaking to Sky Italia microphones, Fred Vasseur commented: “It wasn’t a surprise, honestly. This opportunity presented itself for Laurent, and when you do this job, there are only ten team principal positions in the world, and I couldn’t think of stopping him. We must take this situation as an opportunity to reorganize, reorganize the team, improve the system, and progress.”
But the movements are not just outgoing for Ferrari, given that in recent weeks, there has been talk of two Red Bull engineers ready to leave Milton Keynes to join Maranello. During the Azerbaijan weekend, the name of Enrico Balbo emerged, head of aerodynamics for Christian Horner’s team and essentially the number 3 of the team in terms of aerodynamics after Adrian Newey and Pierre Waché.
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Helmut Marko excludes favors exchange with Ferrari
Given Laurent Mekies’ arrival at Alpha Tauri and ongoing negotiations between Ferrari and some Red Bull engineers, Helmut Marko was asked about a possible exchange of favors between the two teams. As is known, those who change teams must undergo a forced break, called gardening leave, to avoid transferring industrial secrets from one team to another. The waiting time varies depending on the importance of the role and status of the respective engineer, unless there is an agreement between the teams involved. Marko, speaking to Sky Deutschland, ruled out this possibility: “Laurent Mekies will become team principal of Alpha Tauri after a certain period of gardening leave. Usually, agreements are made between the parties, but the names circulating will not be part of these discussions,” explained the Austrian consultant of Red Bull.
