Mercedes signs 2 senior Ferrari engineers in aftermath of Lewis Hamilton coup, according to reports

Mercedes have managed to lure two engineers away from Ferrari, according to reports.

It has been an interesting time in the hiring department for Mercedes and Ferrari, with both teams scooping up major names from each other. Loic Serra, and Jerome d’Ambrosio joined Maranello after Lewis Hamilton's deal with the Scuderia was made public. As reported by Motorsport.com, the German team has landed Simone Resta and Enrico Sampo from Ferrari to join their technical team.

Resta has been a key figure in the Italian team having worked under the current Mercedes technical director James Allison as a chief designer from 2014 to 2018. He later joined Alfa Romeo as their technical director in 2018 but returned to Maranello in 2019 only to be loaned out to Haas from 2021 to 2023 as their technical director. Resta will join Mercedes as their Strategic Development Director and will once again work closely with James Allison to push forward the car's development.

Sampo, on the other hand, will join as the Head of Performance Software Applications at the former world champions having worked as Ferrari's Driver Simulator Team Leader for the last couple of seasons.

It is unlikely that Resta and Sampo will join Mercedes before the 2026 season, given their contract situations.

Lewis Hamilton chimes in on facing a fresh challenge at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton stated that joining Ferrari and racing for them was an 'ultimate challenge' and he was looking forward to racing for them next year.

Speaking with F1.com, the seven-time world champion said:

“I'm on the back end of my career. I love a challenge, and this is the ultimate challenge, really, to go to a team that is incredibly iconic, has also amazing history, but also has not had as much success, I guess, as they would have hoped in the past decade or so. My goal is to beat them this year. And obviously, that switches next year on.”

Lewis Hamilton added that he had done everything possible at Mercedes, adding:

“As I said, it's all about a new chapter in my life, and I really feel like I've done everything I could possibly do with this team.”

The Brit would hope to replicate his success at the Italian team that he claimed at Mercedes during his 12-year stint with them from 2013 to 2024.