As if Ferrari don't have enough problems, here comes another big one – and it may well be of their own making.
Laurent Mekies is on his way out. The Frenchman has been a faithful servant to the Scuderia, but his time at Maranello is coming to an end. And he won't even need to move house.
His new office is a little over an hour away from Ferrari's hallowed home, just the other side of the city of Bologna in Faenza. It is where the AlphaTauri team that has just hired him to be their new leader is based.
For the Red Bull sister team, it is the road not previously taken. Ever since the team was bought by the energy drinks giant back in 2005, wily and experienced operator Franz Tost has been the man overseeing everything it has done from the factory to the race track.
But the 67-year-old said just a few weeks ago that his days were numbered. He put a two-year time limit on his remaining time as AlphaTauri chief when he declared he would no longer be in the role by the time he turned 70, but the Austrian will not even be waiting that long before stepping back.
Tost has overseen two Grand Prix wins in all that time at the AlphaTauri helm and has played a role in the career development of some of the sport's top drivers, including the likes of Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.
Lately, though, things have not been going so smoothly for the team. For all their progress two or three years ago, AlphaTauri were slow to adapt to the new car design regulations which came into force from the 2022 season and suffered for it. Their 2023 car is arguably the slowest on the grid this year.
The problems don't stop there. The project has been haemorrhaging money of late, leading to plenty of recent rumours that Red Bull were willing to sell the team – speculation which Mirror Sport understands to be untrue. But no surprise, then, that this is the time chosen to try something new at the top level.
Tost will remain affiliated with AlphaTauri as a consultant, but a new management structure put in place will see former FIA chief Peter Bayer join as the new CEO. And the direct replacement as team principal comes in the form of Mekies.
It will be the first time the Frenchman has officially led a team in that role, although he has been getting plenty of practice in at Ferrari. Alongside previous Scuderia boss Mattia Binotto, whose expertise laid in the engineering side of the job, Mekies helped with the other responsibilities required of a team principal.
Under new chief Frederic Vasseur he was given the title of sporting director, but has been unhappy about reporting to Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna. It is not known whether Mekies would have returned to AlphaTauri anyway, but his decision will no doubt have been made easier by that management situation by which he was irked.
The end result is that Vasseur has lost his top lieutenant at a time when he is putting out several fires. Ferrari have started the season poorly and any hopes of a title challenge this year already seem to have evaporated.
Mekies' experience of helping Binotto to lead the team will have been invaluable to Vasseur as he settled into one of the most demanding jobs in Formula 1. And now the former Alfa Romeo chief finds himself without that assistance going forward, when there is already unrest at boardroom level with expectations notoriously high.
Tost's age and desire to take a step back was always going to mean Red Bull would have to make this decision at some point soon. But, by bringing Mekies back into the fold as his replacement at AlphaTauri, they have also caused a significant problem for their Ferrari rivals.
