BEYOND THE GRID: Meet Simone Resta, the F1 designer who swapped Ferrari for Mercedes

When he left Ferrari to join Mercedes for the 2025 Formula 1 season, Simone Resta took decades of experience with him.

In Italy, he worked with Michael Schumacher and designed race-winning cars for Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Charles Leclerc. Now, his task is giving George Russell and Kimi Antonelli the best Mercedes he can.

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As Deputy Technical Director, Resta is focusing on the 2025 season, but he tells Beyond The Grid host Tom Clarkson he is also thinking about the opportunity of 2026, when the rules on car design and power units will change.

Resta talks about starting his career in the late-1990s with Minardi, a small team which struggled for results, his move to Ferrari, what engineers really want to hear from their drivers, and why he decided to leave his native Italy and ‘go for it’ with Mercedes.

To listen to this week’s episode of Beyond The Grid, simply hit go on the audio player above or click here to listen via your preferred podcasting platform.

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You can also check out a huge selection of previous episodes – spanning every decade of F1 – in our dedicated Beyond The Grid library here.