Ferrari eyeing management shake-up for 2019
Robert Smedley could be shaping up to return to Ferrari.
Famous for being Felipe Massa's race engineer at the Maranello team, the Briton has more recently had a senior engineering role at Williams.
But he is leaving the beleaguered British team, and as he prepares to embark on 'gardening leave', his next move in F1 is not clear.
Speed Week reports that Smedley, who still has a house in Modena, could become head of car development at Ferrari.
"I'm going on holiday there in January if that helps," he smiled.
"I would say at this moment in time I'm not closing off any options."
It would not be the only change at Ferrari, which has been advised from all sides to improve its organisation after failing to win the 2018 title with arguably the best car.
"If Ferrari can eliminate the internal confusion and support Vettel more, concentrate better, then they have a better chance of being a serious rival to Mercedes in 2019," Igor Yermilin, a Russian motor racing chief, told Ria Novosti.
It is rumoured that Jock Clear, a senior performance engineer, could become Charles Leclerc's race engineer in 2019.
"I've recently made a longer term commitment to the team, and as such, I will use my skill-set wherever we feel that's best," he said.
And it is also rumoured that replacing Clear in the more senior role could be Laurent Mekies, who is currently Charlie Whiting's deputy race director at the FIA.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Ferrari need to focus on getting Vettel out since he has lost it and rarely lerforms when under
pressure even when driving one of the fastet cars on the grid! Also, sacking the Ferrari boss who can't do strategy to save is life.
Re- appointing a Williams race engineer will NOT do it for Ferrari to win in 2019. You need a driver who xam hd it together when the chips are down and team boss /manager that has at least one brain cell- my cat would be a more strategic team boss than the Ferrari man!
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.