Charles Leclerc has a new race engineer at Ferrari

Upgrades are not the only changes coming to Ferrari ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc is getting a new race engineer as well.

The Formula 1 team announced a pair of organizational changes on Thursday, starting with the news that Xavi Marcos, Leclerc’s longtime race engineer, was being moved to a different role with the team. In a brief statement, Ferrari noted that “as of Monday 13 May, Xavi Marcos will bring his valuable experience gained as a race engineer with the Formula 1 team to the development of other important company [programs].”

Starting at Imola next week, Bryan Bozzi will move into that role, having most recently served as Leclerc’s performance engineer. In a second statement the team announced that organizational shift, stating that “ ... Bryan Bozzi, who has worked in the team for ten years, currently as Performance Engineer to Charles Leclerc, will now take on the role of his Race Engineer as from next weekend’s Gran Premio del Made in Italy and dell’Emilia-Romagna at Imola.”

Bozzi first joined Ferrari in 2012 as a wind tunnel research and development engineer, but after two years he moved up in the team to become an aerodynamics track group engineer. He shifted into a race engineering role in 2018, and assigned to work on Leclerc’s side of the garage along with Marcos in 2019.

This is the first time in his career that Bozzi will be working directly with a driver as a race engineer.

The change comes as Ferrari — along with McLaren — are trying to find every means of closing the gap to Red Bull at the front of the field. While upgrades are part of the story, Team Principal Frederic Vasseur also firmly believes that working strategy and “performance” are also other tools at the team’s disposal to close that gap. Speaking with the media, including SB Nation, following the Miami Grand Prix Vasseur highlighted those factors.

“And then again, on this, that we don’t have to expect that [upgrades] will be a game changer, but it’s so tight that we can work performance. What is true is that compared to one year ago when we are able to do a good job and to put everything together, we are there, it means that we are putting [Red Bull] a little bit under pressure. They have to take to be a bit more aggressive with the strategy,” stated Vasseur.

“They are not anymore in the comfort zone of last year when last year that doesn’t matter what’s happened after lap two, they were in front and it’s, I think it’s a game changer in the management of the race,” added the Ferrari boss. “And this, it’s an opportunity for us because that if we are doing another small step, I think that we will be really in a position to fight with them every single weekend.”

Will Bozzi’s maiden stint as a race engineer help improve that performance? We’ll start to answer that question in just over a week out in Imola.