Marcos has been Leclerc’s race engineer since he joined Ferrari in 2019. Before that, he worked as a factory-based engineer when Carlo Santi was Leclerc’s race engineer predecessor, Kimi Raikkonen, in 2018. Jock Clear, a veteran Ferrari driver coach and race engineer, helped set up Leclerc’s engineering team for his first season with Ferrari.
However, Ferrari recently announced that Marcos will step down as Leclerc’s engineer starting next week. He’s moving to work on “other important company programmes,” as Ferrari stated.
This decision follows some tense moments between Leclerc and Marcos over the past few years. These tensions often stemmed from discussions about Ferrari’s race strategies, especially during the tumultuous 2022 season when the team was contending for the championship.
At the 2023 United States Grand Prix, Leclerc admitted to feeling frustrated and punched his steering wheel and helmet after hearing a call from Marcos regarding track limits. Marcos had actually been referring to Max Verstappen’s time being deleted for a track limits violation.
In the recent 2024 Chinese Grand Prix, there was another misunderstanding over the radio between Leclerc and Marcos. Marcos suggested Leclerc return to his “original line” at a certain part of the track, leaving Leclerc confused.
Ferrari also announced that Bryan Bozzi, who has been with the team for 10 years, will replace Marcos as Leclerc’s race engineer starting from the Imola round.
However, it’s still uncertain who will be Leclerc’s race engineer when Lewis Hamilton joins Ferrari in 2025, replacing Carlos Sainz. There’s speculation that Hamilton might bring his long-time Mercedes race engineer, Peter Bonnington, with him to Ferrari, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff mentioned in February that this is a discussion that will need to happen in the coming months.
