David Sanchez confirms being on gardening leave put on by Ferrari as he now waits for it to get over and move to a new F1 team.
News broke post the Bahrain GP that Ferrari’s Head of Vehicle Concept has resigned from the team amid restructuring of the F1 team under Frederic Vasseur. Sanchez joined the Italian outfit way back in 2012 as an aerodynamicist.
He gradually was promoted to Head of Vehicle Concept, a role that he held until the start of 2023 season. Despite the progress made in 2022 by Ferrari after two tough years, the team saw the exit of Mattia Binotto after decades of service in various roles.
They took in Vasseur who didn’t readily wanted changes but subsequently has made few with one being the promotion of Ravin Jain as the chief strategist on the pitwall. Further changes seems to be happening at Maranello, with Sanchez only the first of many.
Reports have marked several key personnel who have either left or wish to leave, with Laurent Mekies named too. More should be cleared this week in Saudi Arabia when media will get their chance to speak to Vasseur in the normal in-race weekend sessions.
Sanchez, meanwhile, is likely to join McLaren where he previously worked between 2007 and 2012. It is not clear for how long the gardening leave is, but reports suggests he was destined to leave irrespective of Vasseur joining Ferrari.
“After 10 years in Ferrari, I have decided to leave the team for another F1 project. My decision, thoroughly matured for quite some time. Looking forward to getting back to work,” wrote Sanchez on social media a couple of days ago.
It has been a rough start for Ferrari who were decimated in the race by Red Bull in Bahrain, even though they were close to them in qualifying. With Aston Martin showing good pace, it puts them in a stiff fight against them and Mercedes in the pursuit of Red Bull.
Here’s the sponsor list for F1 2023: https://formularapida.net/f1-2023-list-of-partners-sponsors-for-each-of-the-10-teams/
Here’s Carlos Sainz on bad degradation in Bahrain
Here’s Frederic Vasseur on Ferrari not needing concept change
Here’s Frederic Vasseur on the Bahrain GP problem