“Something is off at Brackley” - F1 fans reacts to Ferrari's recent Mercedes hijack after making two key signings

F1 fans were left wondering after two major Mercedes team members left for rivals Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season, looking to accompany Lewis Hamilton on the Italian team for next year's campaign. The German racers have been struggling with their car's competitiveness since new regulations were effected in 2022.

Expectations that Mercedes might close the gap on Red Bull heading into 2024 arose after they finished just behind them last year. But the Brackley-based team seems to have fallen even further and currently sits at P4 in the Constructors' Championship.

Amid Mercedes' struggles, Lewis Hamilton recently announced that he would be leaving the team at the end of the 2024 season to join Ferrari, and now the Prancing Horses have announced the signing of Jerome d’Ambrosio and Loic Serra, who will join them on October 1, coming, like Hamilton, from Mercedes' headquarters in Brackley, England.

D'Ambrosio will join Ferrari as the deputy team principal, a role he fulfilled alongside Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff the past couple of seasons. Serra will be Head of Chassis Performance Engineering, reporting to Enrico Cardile, Technical Director of Chassis and Aerodynamics at Ferrari.

F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia

F1 fans took to X reacting to the two key Mercedes men leaving. One said:

"The fact that Toto’s right hand man has decided to leave as well, yeah I’m sorry something is off at Brackley."

"Lewis won't miss Mercedes then?" mulled another.

"Ferrari is going to steal everything from Mercedes ( Do the same with Redbull and steals Newey )" another fan wrote.

Here are some more reactions:

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Mercedes F1 director sheds light on their upgrade package for Imola

Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin recently stated that they will introduce the second half of their upgrade package in Imola this weekend. In the team's official race review, Shovlin said:

"We managed to pull forward about half of our update kit to Miami and then the other half is going to arrive in Imola, and we are working hard on the future races to try and bring developments to them as well."

Shovlin also provided an update on the upgrades from Miami, saying they worked as expected and explaining:

"Did it work as expected? Yes, it all looks like it is delivering the performance that we were hoping for from the floor. We have also got quite a good sort of thread of updates that will be coming over the next three or four races."

It would be interesting to see if the upgrade package can make the German team more competitive in upcoming races and close the gap on their rivals.