Laurent Mekies is one of those responsible for the step forward that allows Scuderia Ferrari to fight for victories this season. As is logical, he is also one of those indicated when things do not end up going well in the structure.
Ferrari is one of the benchmark teams in Formula 1, perhaps the best known and with the greatest impact worldwide. Therefore, his movements are analyzed with a magnifying glass, from the hiring of drivers and engineers to his career strategies. In this point, Mattia Binotto is in the center of all eyes as team leader of the Scuderia Ferrari, but there is another proper name in the resurgence -and also in the failures- of the Italian formation. This is Laurent Meckies..
This 45-year-old French engineer is one of the names of Scuderia Ferrari in his role as assistant to Mattia Binotto and racing director of the brand. Although his role may remain in the background, Mekies is in charge of solving a large part of the challenges that Scuderia Ferrari has encountered on a day-to-day basis since he arrived at the formation in 2018. And they are not few, so has an important role in this Ferrari that is once again the protagonist.
“The level of vigilance that must be of the budget limit has to be extremely high”
Important role that is sometimes overshadowed by bulk errors that draw a bipolar Ferrari that Laurent Meckies try to unite in a coherent way: «My role is to make sure that our racing team has everything it needs to perform at its best. The racing team is made up of many different departments, so technical and non-technical come together. Our job is to ensure the best environment, but also that all our processes make us work in the most efficient way possible».
A technician with a sports role
Although Laurent Mekies has a technical profile, his work at Ferrari has been shaping up towards a more sporty areasomething she considers natural, even if she has a degree in mechanical engineering and has spent years in roles more suited to her profile. A transformation that is not very common in Formula 1but that also carries an extra responsibility that is sometimes difficult to manage, especially when things do not end up working.
Although Mekies suffers the ups and downs of Scuderia Ferrari in a remarkable waythis 45-year-old French coach has things very clear, since he considers that «every talent we have at Ferrari must be able to express themselves, so we have to do one in a way that gives us a competitive advantage. I am the race director and Iñaki Rueda now also participates in the sports advisory committee. In the end it’s about getting involved, trying to learn and contributing to the sport we love. It’s a fantastic thing to be able to do it from different prisms.”
Beyond the idyllic vision of Mekies and his contribution to the resurgence of Ferrari, Laurent faces a major challenge, balancing the accounts of the Scuderia to adapt to a budget limit that limits maneuverabilityas it has historically been one of the biggest budgets on the grill. A key role in ensuring not only Ferrari’s upline, but also consistent performance and stability at a sporting, technical and economic level.
In this sense, Laurent Mekies believes that the biggest problem at a general level is to control that the teams comply with the rules: «The level of restriction is enormous. There are several steps to define the budget limit, there are also the new cars that have entered the equation. We are at the beginning of an adventure, since the real discussion is not about the figures, if they go up or the effects of inflation, but about surveillance. We are facing something that greatly limits the best teams and, therefore, the level of vigilance that there must be of the budget limit has to be extremely high».
Font: RacingNews365
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Photos: Scuderia Ferrari