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Luca Baldisserri, a key Ferrari strategist during Michael Schumacher's run of five successive Formula 1 world championships, has joined Formula Renault Eurocup squad GRS as its chief engineer.

The 57-year-old Italian had previously been announced by US F4 outfit Jensen Global Advisors as its technical director for this year, but will instead take up a position with the Spanish Global Race Services team after attending a test with W Series newcomer Belen Garcia and Xavier Lloveras.

GRS finished seventh in the teams standings last year, the first using the new Tatus-built 1.8-litre turbo cars equipped with Halos.

Baldisserri first joined Ferrari in 1989, and after engineering Gerhard Berger and Eddie Irvine, switched to Schumacher's side of the garage for 2000 as Ferrari's 21-year wait for a driver's title came to an end.

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He was promoted to senior track engineer in 2003, famously devising the innovative four-stop strategy that helped Schumacher to win the 2004 French Grand Prix, then appointed head of track operations in 2006 after the departure of technical director Ross Brawn.

When Ferrari failed to score points in the first two races of the 2009 season, Baldisserri was moved into a factory role and subsequently tasked with running the Ferrari Driver Academy, where he mentored the likes of Jules Bianchi, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll.

He was also responsible for setting up Ferrari's Florida Winter Series - in which Max Verstappen made his singleseater debut in 2014, before departing the Scuderia in early 2016 to follow Stroll - who joined the FDA aged 11 in 2010 - to Williams.

He took on engineering duties for Stroll at the end of the 2017 season while James Urwin was on paternity leave and continued in the role alongside Urwin in 2018.

The expanded 10-round Eurocup calendar, in honour of the 50th season of Formula Renault, commences at Monza on April 17-19 and concludes in Abu Dhabi in November.