The FIA’s security director joins Ferrari
New weight shift at the FIA: Laurent Mekies, the safety director and especially the deputy race director of F1, will leave Place de la Concorde to join Ferrari.
Five months after the strong controversy surrounding Marcin Budkowski’s departure from the FIA in favor of Renault, a new departure may stir up trouble in the paddock. This time, it is the Frenchman Laurent Mekies who may fuel the controversy.
Just like his former colleague, Laurent Mekies was in contact with all the teams as he was the deputy race director in F1 and was seen by many as a natural candidate to succeed Charlie Whiting.
The Federation did not delay in reacting by announcing that Laurent Mekies would immediately step down from his F1-related duties to focus on safety: « Until his departure from the International Automobile Federation planned for the end of June, Mr. Mekies will continue to carry out his mission as FIA Safety Director. However, he will immediately stop fulfilling any role in Formula One and intervening in any Formula One-related matters, by stepping down from his position as Deputy Race Director in F1 with immediate effect. »
The back and forth between the teams and the FIA is frequent since Laurent Mekies came from Toro Rosso before joining the FIA in 2014. More recently, former chief designer of Ferrari, Nikolas Tombazis, also joined the Federation as technical director for the single-seater commission.
