12 March 2024 , 12:56
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Toto Wolff has admitted the path is clear for one of his top lieutenants to follow Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari at the end of the season.
The seven-time world champion has agreed to leave Mercedes after 11 years to race for the Italian team from next year. Fortunately for the Silver Arrows, a clause in Hamilton's contract prevents him from tapping up his current colleagues to join him.
However, there is an exception, it seems. Driver development director Jerome D'Ambrosio is out of contract at the end of the season and, according to Autosport, is planning to leave at the end of the year to also join Ferrari.
Team principal Wolff admitted the Belgian could leave, telling reporters: "I think he's with us at the moment and the situation is more personal reasons that he's evaluating the options of what to do and I think it's something he should speak about. But all is good, all is good, we'll see what happens."
D'Ambrosio only officially joined the team at the start of 2023 having previously worked in Formula E. However, his influence has been significant and he, along with communications chief Bradley Lord, was left in charge last year when Wolff missed two races to undergo knee surgery.
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As a result, he has been tipped as a potential future successor to the Austrian. But it seems he is likely to give up that potential opportunity and continue to work with Hamilton at Ferrari - though there is not believed to be a direct link between his potential move and the racer's switch to the Scuderia.
Should he make the move, D'Ambrosio may be given control of the Ferrari Driver Academy. It is currently overseen by the long-serving Jock Clear, but he has plenty of other trackside responsibilities on race weekends and so it is something which may be taken off his plate.
Despite Wolff's relaxed public reaction to the idea of losing the Belgian, it would surely be another blow. He has already lost strategy chief James Vowles and chief technical officer Mike Elliott in the last 12 months, while other key staff have left in recent years.
And last year he made it clear how much he valued having D'Ambrosio around, telling reporters: "He's looking after the young driver programme in very close cooperation with Gwen [Lagrue], who has been doing it very successfully over the last few years. With Gwen's team we are looking at grassroots motorsports from the early stages of go-karts, and this is where Gwen is very active, and he was the one working with James [Vowles].
"And now within the Brackley structure it's Jerome who has taken that over, and he's looking at things and there's plenty of scope with what James did beyond the strategy work. So I see Jerome growing in the organisation, but at this stage, that's his area."