10/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Charles Leclerc is to have a new race engineer from next weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
His current engineer, Xavi Marcos, who has worked with the Monegasque since he joined Ferrari will now work on "other important company programmes".
Form next weekend, Leclerc's (current) performance engineer, Bryan Bozzi, will take over as the youngster's race engineer.
"Ferrari announces that, as of Monday 13 May, Xavi Marcos will bring his valuable experience gained as a race engineer with the Formula 1 team to the development of other important company programmes," said the Maranello outfit in a brief statement.
"Bryan Bozzi, who has worked in the team for ten years, currently as Performance Engineer to Charles Leclerc, will now take on the role of his Race Engineer as from next weekend's Gran Premio del Made in Italy and dell' Emilia-Romagna at Imola."
The reason for such a change during the season wasn't given, but there have been a number of noticeable disagreements between Leclerc and Marcos over strategy over the last year.
"Grazie mille di tutto Xavi," wrote Leclerc on social media in reaction to the news. "So many years working together, my first pole, my first win as well as my first year in Ferrari was alongside you and you always got the better out of me by pushing so hard no matter the situation we were in. Thank you for everything and good luck for your new adventures in the future."
While the change appears to have the blessing of the driver, the same clearly cannot be said of the recent decision to change Valtteri Bottas's race engineer (Alex Chan) at Stake, with whom the Finn had worked since 2022.
Speaking in Miami, Bottas revealed that he was given no warning of the change which is understood to be part of the ongoing development of the Swiss team as it metamorphoses into Audi.
Asked the reason for the sudden change, Bottas told reporters: "I think that's more a question for the team.
"It was quite a quite a sudden change," he added. "Obviously, it's a Sprint weekend, so working with a fresh guy will be not easy, but also trying to make most out of it. He's getting lots of support but yeah, it's quite a sudden, sudden change.
"Things are changing," said the Finn. "Obviously, some changes are for long term. I don't obviously know all the reasons behind every decision that is being made, but it just tells us that the change is happening. People are leaving and people are coming in."
Of course, the news followed confirmation that Nico Hulkenberg is to join the team next season, leaving Bottas' future - and that of his teammate, Guanyu Zhou - very much in doubt, especially as it clearly has its eyes on Carlos Sainz for 2026.