According to the Italian edition of Motorsport.com, the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix will be Laurent Mekies’ last weekend on the Ferrari pitwall, before taking up a period of gardening leave.
It was announced ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that Ferrari’s race director would be joining AlphaTauri at the start of 2024, to replace Franz Tost as team principal.
Tost is currently deciding whether to retire or to accept a new two-year contract, as a consultant for the team.
Mekies has continued working for Ferrari since his move to the Red Bull sister team was announced, with a departure date having not been confirmed.
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However, the penultimate race before the summer break at the Hungaroring is reportedly when Mekies will make his final appearance in red, prior to a period of gardening leave.
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur is believed to have been frustrated by AlphaTauri’s announcement ahead of Azerbaijan, given that a departure date for Mekies hadn’t been decided at the time.
Vasseur is believed to have met with Ferrari president John Elkann and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner during the Monaco Grand Prix, to confirm when Mekies would make the official switch.
When the initial announcement was made ahead of Baku, Horner actually spoke very highly of Mekies and how he’d be a “great addition” to AlphaTauri.
“Of course, naturally I was consulted on the replacement [for Tost],” Horner said, as reported by PlanetF1.com.
“Laurent is a very capable guy, was at the team previously, speaks the language – I think he will be a great addition as a team principal.”
Whilst it’ll be Mekies’ first team principal gig, he has worked for AlphaTauri before.
Mekies worked for AlphaTauri as a chief engineer when they were formerly known as Toro Rosso, before departing in 2014.
READ: Franz Tost reveals two-year contract
He went on to work for the FIA where he rose to the position of chief race director in 2017, meaning he worked with the late Charlie Whiting.
The Frenchman left the governing body to make his move to Ferrari in September 2018, where he initially worked as a sporting director.
Ferrari are expected to replace Mekies by promoting from within Maranello; however, it’s believed that they’re going to split Mekies’ roles between two individuals.