Long-standing Ferrari designer and head of vehicle concept David Sanchez has resigned from the Italian outfit.
Ferrari did not wish to comment on Sanchez’s exit but the move comes just days after the Scuderia’s downbeat opening race in Bahrain last weekend.
Sanchez began his ten-year tenure at Maranello as the team’s chief aerodynamicist, working under James Allison and Simone Resta.
The Frenchman was a key figure in Ferrari’s engineering department who helped the Italian outfit’s revival during F1’s hybrid era, and who led the design and development of last year’s race-winning F1-75 as well as this season’s new-spec SF-23 contender.
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According to the website The Race, Sanchez’s resignation isn’t linked to Ferrari’s disappointing start to its 2023 campaign, but to a move to a British F1 outfit after a lengthy period of gardening leave.
Sanchez’s resignation nevertheless leaves the Scuderia in need of a senior technical figure at a time when team boss Frederic Vasseur intends on pushing every department at Maranello to improve the performance of its 2023 car and bridge the gap with Red Bull Racing, which dominated F1’s opening round of racing in Bahrain.
After last weekend’s race in which Charles Leclerc retired due to an engine reliability issue and Carlos Sainz finished fourth, Vasseur expressed his conviction that only set-up work – not a new concept – will be required to boost its car’s performance relative to Red Bull.
“It’s a matter of set-up and some choices on the car,” said the Frenhcman. “It’s not a matter of concept at all. So, we don’t have to go into this direction.”
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