Long-serving Ferrari engineer Simone Resta is moving to Mercedes where he will be reunited with the team’s technical director James Allison.
The pair worked together during Allison’s two spells at the Italian team, from 1999 to 2004 and 2013 to 2016. Resta joined Ferrari in 2001 and stayed there until 2018, after which he spent short stints at their customer teams Sauber and Haas.
Resta left the latter team, where he held the position of technical director, at the beginning of this year. He is due to take on the role of strategic development director at Mercedes, though the team is yet to confirm when he will arrive.
He is one of two former Ferrari engineers making their way to Mercedes. Enrico Sampo, who was in charge of Ferrari’s driver-in-the-loop simulator team, will join them as head of performance software applications. His arrival date is also yet to be confirmed.
Mercedes is bolstering its technical division as it seeks to turn around the slump in its form since Formula 1 introduced new technical regulations at the beginning of 2022. It has only won one of the 46 grands prix held in that time.
The team restored Allison to the role of technical director in April last year. In another change, David Nelson was promoted from senior vehicle dynamicist to performance director earlier this year, taking the place of Loic Serra, who moved to Ferrari during last season.
In reaction to its poor start to 2023, Mercedes committed to a drastic change in the philosophy behind its latest W15 chassis. Over the course of the first two rounds this year the team’s drivers have indicated they are happy with some of the changes that have been made, but they also reported a significant lack of performance in high-speed corners at the last round in Jeddah.
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Formula 1
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