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Mekies leaves Ferrari for AlphaTauri
Ferrari has confirmed sporting director Laurent Mekies is leaving the team this week in order to take up the role of team principal at AlphaTauri.
Mekies was named as the future team principal at his former team earlier this year, but an agreement had not yet been reached with Ferrari in regards to his release and start date. In an announcement ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Ferrari paid tribute to the racing director after four and a half seasons, saying “the entire team thanks him for his great contribution during those years.”
As part of the restructuring that follows Mekies’ departure, Ferrari outlined the changes that will be in place at Spa-Francorchamps, with Mekies not attending the race.
“As from the Belgian Grand Prix, part of Laurent’s duties on the pitwall will be carried out by Diego Ioverno, who takes on the role of sporting director,” a team statement read. “He will be responsible for all sporting matters, as well as liaising with the FIA. Ioverno is a veteran member of the Scuderia having worked in Maranello for the past 23 years.”
AlphaTauri has yet to confirm when Mekies will start work at Faenza, having previously said current team principal Franz Tost will remain involved to oversee the transition at the end of this season.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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