Christian Horner shuts down Ferrari poaching rumours
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of talk regarding a supposed recruitment campaign by Scuderia Ferrari in terms of staff, engineers and technicians from other teams. At least two Red Bull engineers should arrive in Maranello, but they are not high-profile figures, at least according to what the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed yesterday in the official press conference at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA.
The chassis designer Pierre Waché and the aerodynamics chief Enrico Balbo were reportedly approached by Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur in an attempt to convince them to pack their bags and head to Maranello (an attempt that seems to have been unsuccessful based on some recent reports from the media).
Christian Horner downplayed these “speculations” by saying, “I have read hypotheses about a ‘hostage exchange’ to free Laurent Mekies and allow him to join AlphaTauri. Well, there are no hostages, no personnel is moving to Ferrari, certainly not as far as the senior and even ‘mid’ levels of our technical organization are concerned,” he pointed out at the press conference.
“The people who have been mentioned in relation to a possible move to Ferrari came to see me last week – Christian Horner added – and mentioned their disbelief in some of these rumours. But it’s Formula One, that will inevitably happen, but there’s no plans for any senior members of our team to be joining Maranello.” So it seems that Enrico Balbo and Pierre Waché may not be leaving their desks in Milton Keynes at this moment.
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Christian Horner’s statement was therefore a clear rejection of the possible ‘exchange’ of gardening leave periods between the engineers who will leave Red Bull to join Ferrari and the contract that will force Laurent Mekies to wait a few months before he can take the helm of AlphaTauri’s pit wall. The British manager defended the ‘integrity’ of Red Bull and its senior figures, who will still be able to rely on the guidance of Adrian Newey, as the aerodynamics wizard has reportedly reached an agreement with the Anglo-Austrian team to renew his contract as Chief Technical Officer.
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