Sauber has announced that soon-to-be-ex-Ferrari design chief Simona Resta will join the team as its new Technical Director in July.
Ferrari confirmed on Monday that Resta, with the team since 2001, would be departing his role as Head of Vehicle Project Co-Ordination at the end of the month to take up a role with another team.
Sauber announced shortly afterwards that Resta will occupy the position of Technical Director effective on July 1, and report directly to Team Principal Frederic Vasseur.
It will be the third Formula 1 team that Resta has worked for, having started his career at Minardi in the late 1990s before moving to Ferrari.
He has since occupied various roles, moving up to the role of Head of Vehicle Project Co-Ordination, and effectively Chief Designer, at the end of 2014.
Sauber, which has returned to Formula 1’s midfield pack this year, was left without a Technical Director following Jorg Zander’s exit earlier this month.
“Simone Resta has the best profile to take on the role of Technical Director,” said Vasseur.
“His arrival at Sauber a significant step ahead of a long term project that aims at strengthening the Sauber team in order to achieve ambitious results.”
The team has already enhanced its links with Ferrari since Vasseur’s appointment by returning to current-year power units and signing a title partnership with Alfa Romeo.
Sauber also fields Ferrari junior driver Charles Leclerc and has the Italian marque’s reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi on its books as a tester.
Resta’s switch to Sauber comes in the wake of Ferrari’s recent recruitment of FIA man Laurent Mekies, who will take up an as-yet-unconfirmed role in September.
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