F1: Mekies will take Ferrari secrets to AlphaTauri (Update)

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Ferrari has made it clear that Red Bull must release some of its engineers interested in coming to Ferrari in Maranello, otherwise Mekies will stay at Ferrari.

This disrupts AlphaTauri’s restructuring plan because they would like Laurent Mekies to join the team in 2024.  Source

Helmut Marko says it’s hard to keep staff under the budget cap

“The factor that still keeps us halfway together as a team is the emotion, the passion. It also makes a big difference that you have a driver like Max. It radiates, and everyone wants to be a part of it.”

“That’s a big problem indeed [keeping staff under the budget cap]. Especially the amounts that are being bid [by other teams] “Sometimes they get twice what we paid them. The cost cap then makes it impossible for RB to be able to submit similar offers to the relevant people.”

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Ferrari has been left embarrassed by Red Bull after the signing of Laurent Mekies, a key man for Ferrari who has access to very sensitive information and future Ferrari programs.

Even after the announcement, he still sits on the Ferrari pit wall with an agreement with Red Bull family already in his pocket.

New Ferrari boss Frederick Vasseur said he did not want to stand in Mekies way, but he would have put Mekies on gardening leave immediately except for one problem – they do not have a replacement for Mekies yet.