Mercedes reach ‘agreement’ to sign two Ferrari targets after ‘face-off’ behind the scenes

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Mercedes have seen numerous key figures join Ferrari in recent times. Most notably, of course, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is headed to the Italian team for 2025.

But there has also been movement behind the scenes. This week, Ferrari announced that Loic Serra had joined from the Brackley outfit as head of chassis performance and engineering.

Meanwhile, Jerome D’Ambrosio has made the same move to take up the post of deputy team principal under Fred Vasseur. Former F1 driver D’Ambrosio had looked like a potential successor to Toto Wolff.

And the exodus to Maranello might not stop there. The fate of Hamilton’s longtime race engineer Peter Bonnington apparently remains undecided.

Vasseur will view Serra, D’Ambrosio and, above all, Hamilton as key signings as he tries to lead Ferrari back to the top. The Scuderia haven’t won either championship since 2008.

For Mercedes, meanwhile, each exit represents a fresh blow as they continue to flounder in F1’s ground effect era. The Silver Arrows are 175 points behind leaders Red Bull ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, and 123 behind Ferrari.

Mercedes strike ‘quid pro quo’ deal with Ferrari

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Chequered Flag podcast, journalist Andrew Benson revealed that Mercedes had managed to strike back. They apparently found themselves at loggerheads with Ferrari over two employees they had poached.

In the end, with Serra and D’Ambrosio moving in the opposite direction, the two teams reached a mutually beneficial compromise. Mercedes have yet to announce their two new signings but it’s only a matter of time.

Benson said: “I understand, by the way, that there’s a bit of a quid pro quo [that has] gone on. There’s two figures from Ferrari that are going the other way.

“There was a gardening leave face-off between the two teams and they came to an agreement over it. Mercedes just haven’t announced those two people yet, but they are coming.”

‘Toto Wolff will stop Lewis Hamilton visiting Ferrari factory’

The Imola circuit is just over 50 miles away from Ferrari’s Maranello HQ. As such, F1 journalist Tom Clarkson wonders whether Hamilton will pay his future team a visit after the race.

Damon Hill believes that Wolff will stand in the way of any such move. The Austrian would remind his star driver that he’s still under contract for the remainder of the year and shouldn’t be ‘fraternising with the enemy’.

The team principal has publicly praised Hamilton’s professionalism in the aftermath of the Ferrari announcement. He’s been surprised to see him remain in good spirits despite Mercedes’ struggles.

Karun Chandhok suspects that Hamilton will have ‘enjoyed’ seeing the Scuderia’s improvement this season from afar. They won the Australian Grand Prix through Carlos Sainz, and have scored a combined six podiums.

There’s still a possibility that the two teams perform an inadvertent driver ‘swap’. That will depend, though, on whether Sainz is willing to accept a one-year with the option of a second.