Formula 1 team Scuderia Ferrari is facing another technical upheaval following the sudden departure of head of vehicle concepts David Sanchez. Sanchez, who has been de facto responsible for the design and development of Ferrari’s F1 cars for the past two seasons, has worked at Maranello for more than a decade. He originally joined the McLaren team in October 2012 as chief aerodynamicist, replacing Dirk De Beer as chief aerodynamicist in 2016.
He then headed the entire aerodynamics department before being promoted to chief engineer in charge of vehicle concepts in 2019, where he was responsible for last year’s F1-75 and the current SF-23. Sanchez was one of Ferrari’s key figures in the era led by Mattia Binotto, and together with Simone Resta, made the SF-70H a race winner, and was credited with influencing the team’s recovery in 2017. Sanchez’s departure is long overdue of being ideal, with Ferrari already facing the challenge of how to close the gap to Red Bull after the disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix at the season opener. With other team executives needing to take long gardening breaks, Ferrari will almost certainly need to replace staff internally to make up for his absence in the short term. Sanchez himself will probably also need a long break before moving on to another job, and his next destination has yet to be decided. Sanchez’s departure comes as Ferrari F1 team principal Frédéric Vasseur revealed he will work to improve every department at Maranello. Before the start of the season, Vasseur said that no one will be immune from calls to increase their strengths. “Every team has to improve in every area,” said Vasseur. “This is important. This is the DNA of my business. It must come from everyone.” “If the people responsible for production can make it a little faster, a little lighter, a little cheaper, it will support the development that car.” We have to tell every member.” After a difficult weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix in which Ferrari lost to Red Bull and Aston Martin, Vasseur promised to look closely at what went wrong. “Starting DNF is never a good thing and I wanted to make sure I finished,” said Vasseur after the retirement of Charles Leclerc. “But I want to be consistent in my position,” he said. “Two weeks ago, before the test in Bahrain, I told the team that the championship would never end in Bahrain. It was the same today (in the race). “Now the most important thing is to have a clear picture of’ the situation in which we are failing, make a proper analysis of this and respond more strongly.”
