Charles Leclerc and Co. Slapped With “Big Question Mark” After Loss of Key Figure Results in Uncertainties

If there’s one team that’s lost key figures frequently over the past few years, it’s Ferrari. After the departure of its highly successful team principal Maurizio Arrivabene in 2018, Ferrari underwent a couple of tough years under Mattia Binotto’s leadership. And after Ferrari’s current team principal, Frederic Vasseur—who took the team’s reins this season after Binotto left Maranello in 2022—there hadn’t been any big movements in terms of key figures. Yes, Ferrari did try to get a few people from other teams on board, but no one was leaving the Scuderia. That was until Sporting Director Laurent Mekies announced he would leave Ferrari to join AlphaTauri as its team principal in 2024.

Although Mekies was to leave the team only at the end of 2023, Ferrari announced on the eve of the Belgian GP that he would be leaving Maranello sooner than expected—at the end of last week. With Ferrari promoting Diego Ioverno to take his place, Mekies wasn’t in attendance at Spa. But this movement in administration brought up a burning question on BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast: how will this affect Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz?

On the podcast, former Williams reserve driver Jack Aitken was asked if these situations affect drivers. He replied, “It will affect them in the sense of how that new management comes in and makes their presence felt; how smooth is the transition going to be. Are they going to be able to take the reins as effectively as Laurent Mekies was? It’s a bit of a question mark, and that’s not really what you want in a performance-oriented scenario.”

Considering that Ioverno— already in Ferrari and has experience working with Leclerc and Sainz—is replacing Mekies, the transition shouldn’t be too bumpy. And the team showed how well it handled it at the Belgian GP.

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Ferrari showed strong pace throughout the weekend. And despite Sainz’s early exit on Sunday, Leclerc managed his third podium finish of the season. And surprisingly, Ferrari made sure it happened without a hitch. This change seemed to have worked well for Ferrari at Spa, and it seems to be progressing in the right direction to get closer to Red Bull. Even so, Frederic Vasseur isn’t getting too ahead of himself.

Frederic Vasseur handed Charles Leclerc & Co. a reality check

Since the season started, the fight right behind Red Bull has been close. While it was just Aston Martin and Mercedes, to begin with, Ferrari joined the fray early on. And in the past few races, McLaren also became part of the pack. Needless to say, there’s a very small chance that either of the four teams beats the others, and their order keeps fluctuating depending on the circuit. So when Vasseur talked about Leclerc and Ferrai’s performance at Spa and their chances going forward, he kept his expectations to a minimum.

He said, “I would stay very calm. A week ago, we were talking about how we were stupid, and McLaren flew. But today, they are behind, and we are in front. We have to be careful and approach race by race. The group is very compact, and for a few tenths, you can move from second to eleventh position. We are only halfway through the season. There is a lot of work to do, but the result from Spa allows us to experience the break in a positive mood.”

These are uncertain times at Ferrari. But the summer break might help bring things back to normal after Laurent Mekies’ departure. Could Charles Leclerc and Ferrari keep the momentum they found in Spa going after F1 returns?

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