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Ralf Schumacher has revealed that Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has tasked the Austrian constructor’s latest hire with recruiting staff from rival F1 teams on the grid, including his former employers, Ferrari.
Towards the end of May, it emerged that Red Bull had acquired the services of long-time Ferrari employee Gino Rosato as a consultant to the F1 team, after spending nearly three decades with the iconic Italian racing outfit across several stints.
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The Canadian-born Italian worked closely with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen during their respective stints at Maranello, and is also understood to have a strong relationship with Max Verstappen’s camp.
He was an integral part of Ferrari’s day-to-day operations, with Rosato previously detailing how close he came to signing legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey for Ferrari. According to Ralf Schumacher, he has been tasked with something similar at his new employers.
Ralf Schumacher has heard Red Bull’s latest hire has been tasked with ‘poaching’ Ferrari staff
Speaking via the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, the former F1 driver outlined what he had heard regarding the part that Rosato is now playing for Red Bull.
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“You hear that Gino [Rosato] has been appointed, a long-serving employee who had been at Ferrari for ages – he was actually quite high up in the pecking order himself at one point – and he’s now effectively in charge of recruiting people for Red Bull, and he’s doing it from Italy.
“That means everyone who was once at Ferrari under Fred Vasseur is now effectively on the market. I’m curious to see how they’ll explain that. It’s all apparently down to Laurent Mekies, who’s naturally very close to the Ferrari people too, and is now simply recruiting people.”
Interestingly, Schumacher is not optimistic that Mekies’ new tactic will work. It’s not the first time a Red Bull chief has resorted to poaching staff members from their rivals, with Christian Horner a big advocate for stealing other teams’ talent.
“It’s an intriguing story,” Schumacher continued. “Whether it’ll actually work out remains to be seen. I mean, if they’re now bringing in people who didn’t work out at Ferrari, I’m not sure that’s really such a good idea.
“Former Ferrari staff and people at Aston Martin – these are the sort of teams where you have to be a bit cautious, where you shouldn’t necessarily be poaching staff.”
The Austrian constructor’s want for new talent comes after a two-year period in which some of the outfit’s most important personnel have jumped ship to rival brands across the pit lane.
Newey has taken his talents to Aston Martin, while McLaren have managed to poach a total of three members from Milton Keynes: Rob Marshall, Will Courtenay and Gianpiero Lambiase. The latter is expected to make the move to Woking in 2028.
This is understood to be one of the many factors behind Red Bull’s regression in recent years, but Mekies is clearly being proactive about it as the Frenchman attempts to bring the six-time constructors’ champions back to the front of the field.
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