The Emilia Romagna GP weekend will see changes afoot within Ferrari, in addition to their upgrades on the SF-24. After the Miami GP, the team revealed that Charles Leclerc’s long-time race engineer Xavi Marcos would shift to a new role within the squad. Bryan Bozzi will replace him, and Leclerc had an admission about this big personnel change.
Due to some nervy exchanges between Marcos and Leclerc on the team radio in the past, reports of the Monegasque asking for his sacking emerged. Leclerc, however, vehemently denied these rumors.
Ahead of the Imola race weekend, Leclerc said, (as quoted by Junaid Samodien on X),
“Obviously it’s very, very tight at the front of the field and everything makes a difference. But the decision was made between the team and Xavi.”
Asked about the switch of race engineer from Xavier Marcos Padros to Bryan Bozzi, Charles Leclerc told media today: “Obviously it’s very, very tight at the front of the field and everything makes a difference. But the decision was made between the team and Xavi.”
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) May 16, 2024
Personnel changes within F1 aren’t all that uncommon. However, race engineers being replaced, especially midway into a campaign, remains a rarity. It takes years for drivers to build a rapport with them, and their performance on the track directly depends on the duo being in sync.
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur terms the move as a “continuous process of improvement.” Meanwhile, Leclerc’s comments hint at the fact that the team is reshuffling members in a bid to get the best out of everyone within the outfit.
Ferrari wants to form the most formidable team with the right people in the right roles so that they face no hiccups in their bid to become a championship-winning team.
Ferrari looks to past mistakes as they try to construct a championship-winning team
The goal for Ferrari is clear; they want to dethrone Red Bull and become World Champions. However, to do that, only having a fast car is not enough.
In 2022, Ferrari had a car just as good as Red Bull’s in the initial stages of the season. However, errors on the pit wall and in the cockpit destroyed any chances they had of challenging the Maranello-based outfit.
️| Pierre Gasly:
“Charles came to me on the grid before the race and asked if I’m also going for a one stop, and I said no fucking way.”
“Looking at his face after the race, I think he wasn’t very happy with that strategy.”
Only Ferrari
— Ferrari News (@FanaticsFerrari) October 22, 2023
Even in 2023, Charles Leclerc and Xavi had a few incidents that caught Vasseur’s eye. For instance, after a mistake made by Ferrari, Leclerc lashed out at Xavi on the team radio, to which Vasseur later admitted (per GPBlog), “It’s true, we did something wrong at that moment, but it is what it is now.”
Replacing Xavi with Bozzi, however, won’t throw Leclerc in the deep end. Vasseur maintains that Bozzi and the Monegasque share a good relationship. Even the former admitted that he would not be ‘starting over’ from scratch with his new race engineer.
