Mekies to leave FIA for Ferrari

Laurent Mekies, deputy race director and head of FIA safety, will leave the federation at the end of June. The French engineer will join the Ferrari technical team from September 20, 2018, where he will work under the orders of Mattia Binotto, technical director of Maranello.

Published on 14/03/2018 à 15:20

⁰ View comments)

At the federation, Mekies handled medical and safety issues across all FIA championships, while overseeing research and development, as well as homologation activities for both series and motor racing.

At the start of 2017, this ESTACA graduate was appointed assistant race director to support Charlie Whiting, replacing Herbie Blash. Involved in the additional frontal protection project since the very first work, Mekies is one of the linchpins in the arrival of the Halo this season.

After three years spent at the FIA, the Frenchman finds a role within a team, having arrived in F1 at Arrows in 2001 before joining the Minardi team, which later became Toro Rosso.

In recent news, Mekies is not the only FIA employee to join a contending team as Renault hired Marcin Budkowski, former member of the FIA technical department, last year.

A recruitment which did not fail to create controversy among other teams, worried about seeing their secrets potentially revealed. Renault finally proposed doubling Budkowski's period of forced inactivity from three to six months, the length of time that now separates Mekies from his new job.