https://www.gazzetta.it/motori/ferrari/ ... auri.shtml
Translated by GT.
Mekies will leave Maranello to move to Alpha Tauri
The race director would have already signed and could move this year. Will he be the team boss after Tost?
Louis Perna
April 25, 2023
Laurent Mekies' future will be far from Maranello, but always in Italy. Ferrari's "race director" is in fact destined to move to AlphaTauri, a team in the Red Bull system, which is based in Faenza. For the Frenchman with the D'Artagnan mustache, it will be a return to his origins, as he had started most of his F.1 career with Minardi, the team that later became Toro Rosso (2005) and eventually his current name. It was no secret that Mekies wanted to leave. He had already looked around for another team at the end of last season, after the earthquake that led to the replacement of Mattia Binotto at the top of Sport Management. Even the arrival of the new team boss Frédéric Vasseur, with whom he has been friends since their days at the Higher School of Aeronautical Engineering, does not change the situation. Likely factored into Mekies' decision was the fact that Ferrari's top management, from president John Elkann to CEO Benedetto Vigna, did not view him as the successor to Binotto, of whom he was a trusted right-hand man.
Mekies' move to AlphaTauri could take place during this championship if an agreement is reached, otherwise in 2024. He will join historic team principal Franz Tost, with whom he already worked in the Toro Rosso years when he was head of the team engineers witnessed the triumph of young Sebastian Vettel in the 2008 Monza flood. It could also be a matter of future choice. Tost, 67, recently stated his intention to leave F.1 within three years so that Mekies could have the chance to take charge of the team in 2026, barring immediate surprises.
