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Rumors
'After GP Miami negotiations between Ferrari and Red Bull over staff release'
- GPblog.com
Laurent Mekies is to succeed Franz Tost as team boss at AlphaTauri from next season, but with a switch comes a period of gardening leave. This is to prevent all Ferrari's secrets from being taken straight to the new employer. But Mekies is currently still just working for the Italian racing stable? How about this? More clarity on the Ferrari chief's situation will reportedly follow after next week.
Formu1a.uno now knows that Mekies' position will be discussed after the Miami Grand Prix. It is assumed that the 46-year-old Frenchman will 'just' be at the pit wall this weekend.
Mekies leaving Ferrari
Christian Horner and Franz Tost told GPblog last week in Baku that it is entirely up to Ferrari to decide how they want to settle everything with Mekies. AlphaTauri announced his arrival, leaving the initiative entirely with Ferrari.
"I expect him [Mekies] by the end of the year," Tost said. "He will be there. If not, Peter [Bayer] will be there. That's something Ferrari still has to figure out. It has nothing to do with us." Peter Bayer, former FIA chief, has joined AlphaTauri as the new CEO with immediate effect.
So it is still unclear when Mekies can join AlphaTauri. A gardening leave often lasts longer than six months, but presumably Ferrari is willing to release Mekies earlier. That is on one important condition, though: Red Bull employees ready to make the switch to Ferrari must then also be released earlier by Christian Horner and Helmut Marko's team.
Talks with Red Bull
The aforementioned medium further knows to report that Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna and Frederic Vasseur appear to be holding talks with Red Bull management in the near future to reach an agreement on personnel leaving, and snared.