'Key Mercedes engineer tipped for Ferrari switch'

Lewis Hamilton could be yet joined by another trusted Mercedes ally at Ferrari, according to Italian media.

Hamilton is to join Ferrari for 2025 after quitting Mercedes at the end of this season, following the previously-announced appointment of Loic Serra in Maranello.

Serra was in charge of vehicle performance at Mercedes, but grew frustrated at the direction of the flawed W13 and W14 machines that the team has struggled with. Not even the return of James Allison to the technical director role was enough to convince Serra to stay.

Hamilton regards Serra highly - and as RacingNews365 wrote on the day the shock news filtered through, Serra's departure was a key factor behind Hamilton's own decision to jump.

The future of his long-time race engineer Peter Bonnington is also up in question, with Toto Wolff revealing that talks about 'Bono's future' would be held in the coming months when asked by RacingNews365.

However, for a person in such as senior technical and engineering role, Mercedes would be keen for Bonnington to serve the usual gardening leave period, meaning he either leaves Mercedes and Hamilton in 2024 or could be delayed in joining him at Ferrari, if he wishes to.

But it is another race engineer at Mercedes who Hamilton wants to join him at Ferrari as well.

Riccardo Musconi was engineer to both Valtteri Bottas and George Russell at the team, before being promoted in 2023 and replaced in the role to Russell by Marcus Dudley.

Musconi is currently Head of Trackside Performance, and a similar role has been ear-marked for the Italian at Ferrari, according to Gazzetta della Sport.

If indeed Musconi was open to such a move, Ferrari would want him in place to work as much on the radical 2026 rules reset as possible, and like Bonnington, a period of gardening leave would be required to ensure he takes as little up-to-date information with him.