May 2, 2024
Mercedes sign Simone Resta as new strategic development director
Mercedes have signed former Ferrari designer Simone Resta as their new strategic development director.
The recruitment of the 53-year-old is a key part of Mercedes’ restructuring process as they seek to return to competitiveness.
Resta previously worked with the team’s technical director James Allison when the Briton was at Ferrari from 2013-16.
The Italian will join eight-time constructors’ champions Mercedes at an unspecified date in 2025.
In addition, Enrico Sampo will also join the Silver Arrows from Ferrari to become head of performance software applications.
Mercedes have also moved to replace performance director Loic Serra, who was poached by Ferrari last year. David Nelson has been appointed internally to that position.
Resta was made Ferrari chief designer in 2014 under Allison, who was then the Italian team’s technical director, by then chairman Sergio Marchionne.
He was in that role when Ferrari created their 2017 and 2018 cars, the most competitive F1 designs to have come out of Maranello in the past decade.
Both started the season as the fastest car in F1 and Sebastian Vettel led both championships for much of each season, before the team’s campaigns collapsed late in both seasons as a consequence of reliability problems and errors from both team and Vettel.
Resta then moved to Sauber in May 2018, returning to Ferrari in August 2019 and then joined Ferrari-affiliated Haas for 2021, where he stayed until the departure of team principal Guenther Steiner over last winter.
The moves come as Mercedes continue to struggle for competitiveness under the technical rules introduced into F1 in 2022, since when Red Bull have dominated.
And they are aimed at ensuring the team who won eight consecutive constructors’ titles from 2014-21 are in a strong position for the new technical regulations that will come into force from 2026.
These include revised power-units, with the hybrid part of the engine increasing its proportion of the total output to close to 50%, as well as major changes to the aerodynamic rules.
