Why Vasseur thinks Mekies exit won’t harm Ferrari

That was one of the obvious questions to emerge when the former’s planned move to Faenza was announced on Wednesday in the wake of rumours about his possible departure.

Vasseur remains bullish, insisting in essence that Ferrari is a big organisation and that it’s not about individuals.

However, there’s no doubt that Vasseur saw his fellow Frenchman and long-time friend as one of his key lieutenants in the years to come as he tries to rebuild Ferrari into a winning team. 

It’s inevitable that the plans that he has been putting in place will now have to change as he moves people around.

The fact that Mekies will remain in his post for the foreseeable future, and won’t make the move until sometime in 2024, says a lot.

Firstly, this has all happened very quickly and he’s needed to fulfil his usual duties for the time being, and secondly it remains an amicable situation. He hasn’t been dispatched on an immediate gardening leave, which sometimes happens straight away when a key player puts his hand up and says I’m off.

Indeed, Vasseur is adamant that he’s happy to see Mekies get a chance to join the exclusive club of team principals, while admitting that as yet there’s no agreement on the precise details and timing of his departure.

“First of all, I think it’s a mega opportunity for Laurent,” he says. “And I’m considering also that I have a good relationship with him, and I won’t block Laurent for sure.

“Then if you speak about timeline, I think that Toro Rosso [sic] was probably a bit aggressive on the press release, and we have a long-term contract with Laurent. And we’ll have to discuss about details.”

Vasseur confirms that there’s no decision yet on how long Mekies will remain on frontline duty with Ferrari.

“This will depend on the condition of the change. For sure as I said before, we have a long-term contract with him and we’ll have to find the best for Ferrari, and depending on when he will leave the company, and when he will move to Toro Rosso, we will decide the end of the collaboration.

“But I’m not scared about this, because we will do it properly, and the relationship is very positive.”

So when did Mekies tell his boss that he wanted to leave?

“This is the relationship between Laurent and myself, and I won’t disclose details,” says Vasseur. 

“But we had a very open discussion on this, because I’ve known Laurent for 30…