Mercedes has officially confirmed that junior driver development chief Gwen Lagrue is to leave the team.
Frenchman Lagrue joined Mercedes in January 2016 as driver development chief and has been responsible for guiding the likes of George Russell, Kimi Antonelli, and Esteban Ocon into F1, having also previously fulfilled a similar role at Lotus (now Alpine).
However, over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, RacingNews365 reported that Red Bull had poached Lagrue to effectively replace Helmut Marko as the head of Red Bull's junior programme, with the veteran Austrian retiring at the end of the 2025 season.
After the Spa race, won by Antonelli, Toto Wolff addressed the speculation about Lagrue's future, which has not officially been announced by Red Bull.
"We're in discussions with Gwen about the future, but nothing's been agreed or decided yet," said Wolff on July 19th.
"Gwen has built up a fantastic team. We have about seven, eight or nine people running the junior programme going forward, along with a handful of juniors, and with Bradley [Lord] stepping up as deputy team principal.
"These things need to be worked out now. We want to do it together with Gwen, and then we'll see."
Lagrue's exit has now been confirmed, with the team announcing it via social media.
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