While Ferrari gets its annual Wrooom! (the three ‘o’s and the exclamation mark are not typos) skiing junket underway at Italy’s Madonna di Campiglio resort this week, one of the first items of news to emerge from the Italian Alps is that the team has finally found a replacement for former chief track engineer, Chris Dyer.
The Australian – formerly the engineer behind the 2004 and 2007 championship titles won by Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen, respectively – was fired moved to a factory-based role almost a year ago as part of an internal team reshuffle.
While Ferrari of course denied it, many felt that Dyer was made to be the scapegoat for Fernando Alonso failing to secure the 2010 Drivers’ Championship, as it was he who called the Spaniard in for an early first pit stop during the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Alonso spent the rest of the race stuck behind Vitaly Petrov’s Renault, and lost the championship crown to Sebastian Vettel by four points.
But now it seems that a replacement has finally been appointed, with the role awarded to former Mercedes GP engineer Steve Clark.
Clark will assume the mantle of overseeing Andrea Stella and Rob Smedley, the chief engineers for Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, respectively.
Also joining the Ferrari payroll is former Bridgestone tyre engineer Hirohide Hamashima, who will work with the team in optimising its tyre selection and strategies.
[Images via Sutton Images]
Richard Bailey
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