Laurent Mekies trying to lure several top technicians from Ferrari to AlphaTauri. Laurent Mekies has set his sights on several Ferrari top technicians.

The New Life of Laurent Mekies
In 2018, Laurent Mekies left his role in the Federation – where he served as the deputy race director – to join Ferrari. The French engineer became the sports director of the Scuderia and built a good relationship with then-team principal Mattia Binotto. With Binotto’s exit from Maranello at the end of 2022, rumors began circulating about the possible departures of ‘Mattia Binotto‘s men,’ coinciding with the new cycle initiated by Mattia Binotto.

After the customary denials, Laurent Mekies could not refuse the offer from AlphaTauri, which proposed him to become the team principal, choosing him as Franz Tost’s successor.
A true market negotiation unfolded between Ferrari and Red Bull (AlphaTauri’s owner), and Mekies had to observe the classic gardening leave period, starting to work in Faenza only at the beginning of 2024.

AlphaTauri’s Moves
The more attentive observers did not miss the Ferrari communication at the end of December, highlighting the change at the Maranello Academy, with Jock Clear appointed as the new head, replacing Marco Matassa, who left the Prancing Horse “to start a new professional adventure.”

Well, as revealed by Corriere dello Sport, Marco Matassa will be the first reinforcement for Laurent Mekies’ new AlphaTauri. For the Italian engineer, this is a return, as until 2018, he had been with Toro Rosso (working as a track engineer for, among others, Kvyat and Carlos Sainz).

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Journalist Fulvio Solms then drew attention to Laurent Mekies’ moves, not reassuring for Ferrari: “The worrying thing is that for a handful of days, the team principal of AlphaTauri is Laurent Mekies, dangerous for Maranello because he has a detailed and precise picture of the crucial men of the Prancing Horse, with all their phone numbers!” Moving from Maranello to Faenza would not be a Copernican revolution: that’s why the French engineer is trying to lure several top Ferrari technicians away.