(Motorsports news) On October 1st, Serra—who was previously Mercedes’s performance director—will join Ferrari as head of chassis performance engineering, reporting to technical chief Enrico Cardile. Motorsport.com broke the news of Serra’s relocation last year.
When Michelin withdrew from the Formula One Championship at the conclusion of 2006, the Frenchman joined the BMW Sauber team as an engineer.
After BMW pulled out, Serra joined Mercedes and has been a part of the team ever since. He held a number of positions in vehicle dynamics before being elevated to performance director.
Ex-F1 driver d’Ambrosio also departs Mercedes to join Ferrari, where he is also scheduled to start on October 1, as reported by Motorsport.com earlier this year. There, he will serve as deputy team chief to Fred Vasseur, leaving his position as driver development director at Brackley.
In addition to his reserve position with the team, d’Ambrosio participated in one race for Lotus in 2012 at Monza as a substitute for the suspended Romain Grosjean. In 2011, he was a driver for the Marussia Virgin Racing team.
After a brief career in GT racing, the Belgian moved to Formula E for the inaugural season of the all-electric championship, where he drove for Dragon, owned by Jay Penske.
He won two races over his four years with the American squad. In 2018–19, he made the transfer to Mahindra for the start of the Gen2 regulations, and he hung up his helmet at the end of the 2019–20 campaign.
After Susie Wolff moved up to take on a directorial job, he was elevated to the position of team principal and became the Venturi squad’s deputy team principal.
Following Maserati’s collaboration with the team, d’Ambrosio departed to take a directorial position at Mercedes, where he collaborated with driver development expert Gwen Lagrue and teammate Toto Wolff.
Even though d’Ambrosio appeared to be a part of Wolff’s succession plan at Mercedes and regularly appeared with the Austrian in his usual pit garage seat, it became clear earlier this year that he was poised to leave the team.
When the seven-time Formula One champion joins Ferrari in 2025, the two will cross paths again with Lewis Hamilton.
