Why are so many Red Bull engineers leaving the champions? Helmut Marko gives his take

Helmut Marko has stated that Formula 1's budget cap is the reason why Red Bull Racing are losing their personnel to Ferrari.

It has been reported that Ferrari are signing two engineers from rivals Red Bull. One of them has been identified as David George, an aerodynamics-focused engineer who has also worked in NASCAR, Indycar, and Formula 1 in his career.

The other, whose identity hasn't been revealed, is said to be an aerodynamicist who has hedged his bets on Ferrari's resurgence. These two are the first key changes made by Ferrari since Fred Vasseur took charge of the team ahead of the 2023 F1 season.

Helmut Marko, meanwhile, has blamed the team's loss of personnel on the F1 budget cap. He serves as the advisor to the Red Bull GmbH Formula One teams and the head of the team's driver development program.

In 2021, the FIA imposed a budget cap on all teams in an attempt to level the competitive abilities of all teams. Red Bull and Aston Martin breached the limits for 2021 and were subsequently fined for that.

"The budget cap in this sense is not a small problem, especially for the numbers being offered. Sometimes these are double what we currently pay the technicians in question . On a team level, passion keeps us united. Obviously having a rider like Max helps, because everyone still wants to continue being part of a winning team," Marko told formulapassion.it.

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Red Bull appoint Ferrari's Laurent Mekies as new AlphaTauri team principal

While Ferrari is hiring people from Red Bull Racing, the movement of staff between the team is not one way. The latter recently announced that Ferrari's Laurent Mekies will succeed Franz Tost as the team principal at their sister team AlphaTauri.

Mekies is currently the Assistant Team Principal and Race Director at Ferrari. He has previously worked for AlphaTauri in various roles — race engineer, chief engineer, and later the head of vehicle performance.

The Frenchman then spent four years as the FIA's Safety Director and Deputy Race Director, before joining Ferrari in 2018.

"Firstly, I’d like to pay tribute to Franz for the great job he has done over almost two decades in charge at Faenza. I wish him well for the future and I know that both Peter and I will rely on his input and advice in times to come," Mekies said about his move to AlphaTauri.