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Ferrari confirms arrival of ex-Mercedes F1 men D'Ambrosio, Serra

Serra, formerly the performance director at Mercedes, will take on the head of chassis performance engineering role at Ferrari on 1 October and will report to technical chief Enrico Cardile. The news of Serra's move was revealed by Motorsport.com last year.

The Frenchman entered F1 as an engineer for Michelin, before joining the BMW Sauber operation when the tyre company left the championship at the end of 2006.

When BMW withdrew, Serra moved to Mercedes and has remained with the team ever since, taking up a series of vehicle dynamics roles at the team before being promoted to performance director.

As revealed by Motorsport.com earlier this year, ex-F1 driver d'Ambrosio also leaves Mercedes to join Ferrari – where he is also set to start on 1 October - as deputy team principal to Fred Vasseur, thus exiting his role at Brackley as driver development director.

A driver at the Marussia Virgin Racing team in 2011, d'Ambrosio also competed in one race for Lotus in 2012 as a replacement for the banned Romain Grosjean at Monza, in addition to his reserve role at the team.

The Belgian then took a brief stint in GT racing before switching to Formula E for the all-electric championship's maiden season, driving for Jay Penske's Dragon outfit.

Jerome d'Ambrosio, Driver Development Director, Mercedes-AMG, Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG, watch the monitors (Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images)

After four years with the American team in which he secured two wins, he switched to Mahindra for the start of the Gen2 regulations in 2018-19. prior to hanging up his helmet at the end of the 2019-20 season.

He then became deputy team principal of the Venturi squad to Susie Wolff, and was promoted to the team principal role when Wolff moved upstairs into a directorial role.

After Maserati entered into a partnership with the team, d'Ambrosio left to join Mercedes in a directorial role to work alongside Toto Wolff at the team, and with driver development guru Gwen Lagrue.

It became apparent earlier this year that d'Ambrosio was set for a switch away from Mercedes, despite apparently forming part of Wolff's succession plan at Mercedes and frequently featuring alongside the Austrian in his customary pit garage perch.

The two will reunite with Lewis Hamilton when the seven-time F1 champion joins Ferrari in 2025.

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