Marko dismisses swap deal with Ferrari: 'It's not a bazaar'

In 2024, Laurent Mekies, Ferrari's current technical director, will take over from Franz Tost at AlphaTauri. F1-insider.com says Mekies could possibly leave Ferrari before then, but there is a condition. And Dr Helmut Marko is not taking up the offered deal.

Ferrari would possibly let Mekies go to Red Bull earlier (AlphaTauri falls under the Bull camp). Team consultant Marko is not such a fan of the plan. Indeed, the condition set by Ferrari is that three Red Bull engineers must go to Ferrari. Only then can Mekies move to his new team sooner.

Marko doesn't like Ferrari proposal

One of the three engineers Ferrari has set its sights on is Pierre Waché. The Frenchman is seen as Adrian Newey's right-hand man and is responsible for implementing the plans Newey has. Waché was already a key link in the Sauber F1 team's operation before he joined Red Bull in 2013.

Marko does not like the swap deal and responds in typical fashion for the Austrian: "We all want Ferrari to be competitive, but this is not how it works. We are not in a Arab bazaar here. Apart from the fact that Waché doesn't want any change at all, we won't accept this set condition either."