Mark Hughes thinks it’s strange that Ferrari is once again letting someone leave Maranello. At the end of last year, team boss Mattia Binotto was said goodbye, after which aerodynamic leader David Sanchez announced his departure at the beginning of this year. Now sports director Laurent Mekies is also leaving after having been employed for about five years.
The Frenchman will replace Franz Tost as team principal of AlphaTauri. Tost will trade his current role after this season for one as an advisor, while Mekies will transfer from Ferrari to take over his position. However, Hughes thinks it is strange that Ferrari is once again letting go of an important team member. The journalist from The Race points to the top management of the Italian car brand.
It can be seen as a continuation of top management’s decision to remove Binotto from his role last year. Binotto had led a period of technical creativity and dispelled the climate of fear that had pervaded the team for too long. Mekies was a crucial part of that greatly improved working atmosphere within the factory.’
Ferrari is not making the progress demanded under Binotto and Mekies
In terms of performance, however, it left something to be desired at Ferrari, partly due to operational problems. “Someone with conventional race wisdom would have tried to bolster their positions with all the support they needed. Instead, chairman John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna chose a pattern from elite football to fire the man who had made progress but not enough for their demands. Demands made without full knowledge of F1.’
Hughes also thinks that Sanchez and Mekies were no longer convinced of the direction Ferrari was taking. “That is not a reflection of Binotto’s replacement Frédéric Vasseur, but more about the environment that top management has created with its choices. If management had thought that there would be no turbulence with Binotto’s departure, that the talent within would behave like automated employees rather than ambitious, creative, independent-minded people, it would have been naive.’
