When Ferrari announced Fry as the new team member of their F1 operations, it stated that the Brit would work alongside technical director Aldo Costa from as early as next week. The first project Fry will work on will be the 2011 single-seater, which made many people wonder if the Athens-born engineer will find his place at Maranello from now on.
This is actually what triggered the first rumors of a potential Tombazis departure from Ferrari to, say... Mercedes GP. We're not sure why the Brackley based team was chosen to be part of the rumor mill, but the guys at Mercedes GP don't seem too thrilled with the idea. When asked about it by the reporters in Valencia, team boss Ross Brawn left no room for further comments: “I'm not interested.”
On the other hand, Ferrari themselves have moved away from speculation that Tombazis is on his way out of Maranello, with a spokesman from the team telling Germany's Auto Motor und Sport that Fry will rather “complement” than “replace” the existing structure at Ferrari.
However, as far as the 2011 season goes, we're quite sure Fry will take on a more responsible role within the Ferrari organization, and unless Ferrari wants to develop two entirely different cars for the same campaign, one of the existing members of the development structure will have to leave. We're figuring Tombazis is now praying for the F10 to develop into a title winning car by the end of the season...
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