Ferrari have another staffing problem to solve as their chief car concept engineer David Sanchez has left the team.
Sanchez has worked for the Scuderia for more than a decade, joining from McLaren in 2012 as one of the leaders of their aerodynamics department. He was promoted to become Ferrari's aero chief four years later and, in 2019, rose through the ranks again and was named as their head of vehicle concept.
But, having played a key role in designing the last two Ferrari F1 cars, his work at Maranello has come to an end. As per Motorsport.com, Sanchez has departed the team – which came as a surprise for Ferrari.
The timing is far from ideal for Ferrari. Not only is all focus currently on closing the not-insignificant performance gap to Red Bull, but there has already been more than enough upheaval among the team's senior leadership for them to deal with.
The most high profile change came at the top, following Mattia Binotto's resignation as team principal at the end of last season. His replacement Frederic Vasseur is experienced, but will still need some time to get fully up to speed with how things work at Maranello.
Meanwhile, Vasseur has not been afraid to make his own staffing changes. Head of strategy Inaki Rueda was removed from the pit wall on the eve of the season opener and given a factory role, and Ravin Jain given the responsibility for in-the-moment strategic decisions.
To fill the hole left by Sanchez, Ferrari will need to think outside the box. He will need to take a period of gardening leave before joining another team – and there is believed to be interest from some rivals – but the same will be true for anyone Ferrari want to bring in as a replacement.
That means the Scuderia will need to make some internal changes as a short-term measure until a new head of vehicle concept can be installed. Vasseur wants all of his team's employees to give a little bit more to help them to achieve their goals.
"Every single area of every single team has to improve," said the Frenchman. "This is important. It's the DNA of my business. We need to have the approach to try to do a better job tomorrow than today. And it's not just the race engineer or the chief of aero, it has to come from every person of the company including the production."
