Ferrari appoints new chief aerodynamicist

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Ferrari has continued its internal shakeup of technical staff following the departure of former chief technical officer James Allison last month.

The team has announced that David Sanchez has been promoted to the position of chief aerodynamicist, following former engine chief Mattia Binotto's own promotion into Allison's vacant role at the end of July.

Sanchez joined Ferrari four years ago from McLaren. The Frenchman trained at the Ecole Nationale Superiore de Mecanique et d'Aerotecnique and was signed up by Renault F1 in 2005 before moving to Woking two years later, where he eventually became a senior aerodynamicist

Sanchez takes over as chief aerodynamicist from Dirk De Beer. Although Ferrari is yet to make any official announcement about De Beer's status with the team or confirm that he would be leaving, he had been appointed to the role by Allison in 2013 and his exit from the team had been widely expected in the wake of Allison's own departure.

Sanchez' appointment indicates that team principal Maurizio Arrivabene is getting serious about tackling the team's recent decline in on-track performance which has been linked to the SF16-H's aerodynamic design as well as tyre and reliability issues.

Arrivabene is on record as saying that he wants to lift the team's existing talent out of "suffocating" minor roles in order to allow them to reach their full potential.It's thought that Arrivabene prefers promoting from within where possible, believing that it ensures continuity rather than sweeping changes being made by new hires keep to make their mark.

Ferrari's senior performance engineer Jock Clear said last week that "Mattia is going to need help from everybody. We’re going to have to pull together.

"The team is going to have to work pretty hard to support everybody and cover those gaps," he added. "But the fact is Ferrari has to move forward and we have to make the most of this situation as it is, and I know everybody is committed to pulling together and covering any of those areas where James was very, very strong."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.