Loic Serra and Jerome d'Ambrosio will join Ferrari on October 1 after leaving Mercedes; Serra joins as head of chassis performance engineering; D'Ambrosio will become deputy team principal to Fred Vasseur; watch the Emilia Romagna GP live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend
Monday 13 May 2024 22:06, UK
Ferrari have confirmed the signings of two key figures from Mercedes, with Loic Serra and Jerome d'Ambrosio to join the Italian team in October.
Serra is taking up the position of head of chassis performance engineering in Maranello having left his role as Mercedes performance director earlier this year.
D'Ambrosio has been appointed as deputy team principal under Fred Vasseur at Ferrari, and will also take charge of the Ferrari Driver Academy, in a similar role to the one he held at Mercedes.
The duo, who are both currently on gardening leave, will start work for Ferrari on October 1, 2024.
They follow Lewis Hamilton, who in February confirmed he would leave Mercedes at the end of the season to join Ferrari in 2025.
The double signing is the latest coup to be pulled off by Vasseur, who has made a positive impact on Ferrari since taking over as team principal at the start of 2023.
The Italian team are also heavily linked with signing outgoing Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey, who will become in free agent in April 2025 when his contract expires.
Serra will work under Ferrari technical director for chassis and aerodynamics, Enrico Cardile, who took up his role last year.
Serra joined Mercedes in 2013 as head of vehicle dynamics, before being promoted to his position as performance director in 2018.
Confirmation of the departure of D'Ambrosio, who drove for Marussia during the 2011 Formula 1 season, comes little more than a year after he joined Mercedes.
Despite having only been with the team for a short period, D'Ambrosio deputised for Mercedes boss Toto Wolff when the Austrian was absent for two races last season following knee surgery.
The departures come as Mercedes continue to attempt to return to competitiveness having struggled since the introduction of new design regulations at the start of 2022.
The Brackley-based squad had won eight successive constructors' titles before the 2022 rule changes, and have made their worst ever start to a season in 2024.
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