From Seidl to Mekies: these may be the candidates Ferrari is considering

Ferrari director Benedetto Vigna informed that "the process of finding a new Ferrari team boss is underway. We expect to complete this process next year." So an official announcement will not follow until 2023. F1-Insider, meanwhile, knows who is on Ferrari's candidate list and who has already turned down the position in the meantime.

F1 team bosses reject Ferrari

In earlier reports, it was already clear that Christian Horner and Andreas Seidl are Ferrari's dream candidates, but the two team bosses themselves were not convinced. Horner would only switch if his future at Red Bull Racing is no longer certain following the death of Dietrich Mateschitz, but the team boss is unlikely to lose his position by the end of the year. Seidl, meanwhile, is said to have received a new offer from Ferrari. F1-Insider has learned that McLaren would not want to break his current contract, which would require Ferrari to pay tens of millions to bring Seidl in.

Franz Tost, team boss of AlphaTauri, is also said to have been approached by the Italians. He too turned down Maranello's initial request. Tost lives very close to the Maranello factory, but the team boss would like to pursue his future with the Red Bull family. Fred Vasseur, meanwhile, has also been mentioned several times as Binotto's replacement. However, Nicholas Todt, the son of former Ferrari boss Jean Todt and manager of Charles Leclerc, would like to prevent Vasseur from coming to the Italian team. The two men apparently parted on bad terms within the ART junior team.

Fifth, the German medium mentions Monisha Kaltenborn, former Sauber team boss. During her time in Formula 1, Kaltenborn had good contact with Ferrari's management. However, Maranello would not yet be ready to entrust the role of team boss to a woman.

Should Ferrari look within its own company?

So the search for a new team boss seems to be more difficult than expected. A more likely option would be an internal solution. According to F1-Insider, three names are currently circulating within the motorsport world. The first is Laurent Mekies, Ferrari's sporting director. The Frenchman did take to the track in 2022 several times as Binotto's replacement. However, Mekies was part of Binotto's team that made too many mistakes. So the question is whether Ferrari will entrust Mekies with the role of team boss.

Jonathan Giacobazzi would also be a contender. His father was a close acquaintance of Enzo Ferrari and he himself has been working as Ferrari's Executive Race Manager for five years. Giacobazzi would be an important liaison figure between the race team and the Ferrari top. He is therefore said to be in good contact with president John Elkann and Enzo Ferrari's son Pierro Lardi-Ferrari. His good relationship with the top of the Italian team could possibly work in his favour.

The third name remaining is Antonello Coletta, the man who has been the head of Ferrari's successful GT department for many years. However, his expertise will also be needed at Le Mans, where Ferrari will participate with a hypercar in 2023.