“It is principally the identical as it has been for 3 years,” Ferrari workforce principal Frederic Vasseur stated of Ferrari’s engineering setup whereas dealing with questions from the media forward of the 2025 Imola GP. “We have made some errors with the automobile, however we all know the place to enhance.” The road of questioning directed at Vasseur will not be new in motorsport, nor at Ferrari’s Maranello HQ. If a automobile doesn’t dwell as much as expectations, who’s accountable? And may one hope {that a} technical division will produce a profitable undertaking if it options the identical individuals concerned in a single which has fallen brief? Lewis Hamilton’s dash race win in China is the outlier in a season during which Ferrari is lagging badly – fourth within the constructors’ standings and 152 factors behind the main McLaren workforce. The detached efficiency on observe has been shadowed by a wave of negativity concerning the SF-25 and its genesis. When issues go fallacious on observe, the response within the exterior world begins with evaluation and shortly shifts to the individuals behind the undertaking. At Imola, Vasseur was requested whether or not there may be full confidence within the technical employees engaged on the 2026 automobile. In response, he was exact in clarifying the place of Loic Serra, the technical director who joined from Mercedes final October to exchange Enrico Cardile, who stays on ‘gardening go away’ pending a transfer to Aston Martin. “When Loic arrived in Maranello six months in the past, the present automobile was already, for example, 90 % outlined,” Vasseur stated. “Then, after all, it will depend on particular person components, however the important thing selections behind the undertaking had already been made.
Loïc Serra, Ferrari
Photograph by: Ferrari
“I imply the load distribution, the wheelbase, the overall idea, and so forth. That is one thing that impacts all groups when there’s a change in technical management.” The message is evident: when Serra arrived in Maranello, he inherited the foundations laid by Cardile. But when the SF-25 will not be Serra’s undertaking, the identical goes for Cardile, who left Maranello on July 8. The truth is, the present automobile has no actual ‘father’, if by guardian we imply a technical director accountable for the undertaking. “Alternatively, 95% of the workforce is identical because the one which labored on the 2023, 2024 and 2025 tasks. I’m satisfied that simply because a undertaking has issues doesn’t imply the construction isn’t working,” stated Vasseur. “I’ve nice confidence in our working group – we all know we have to enhance, however that’s a continuing in motorsport. Even in case you’re main, it’s essential to maintain enhancing, in any other case you expose your self to assaults from rivals. “As for this yr, we’ve most likely made some errors with the automobile. We have to do a greater job, however the motivation is there and the mindset is there. I’m certain we simply must continue to grow [as well as] figuring out and fixing issues.” Vasseur rejects discuss of abandoning SF-25 improvement in favour of the 2026 undertaking and stays satisfied that past the event plan (which is to introduce main updates throughout the Spanish Grand Prix weekend), the workforce has but to completely exploit what it has at its disposal. “We regularly finish race weekends with the sensation that we haven’t extracted the utmost from the automobile. So long as we now have that feeling, I can’t say I do know the precise potential of the undertaking. “That’s why I imagine there are nonetheless indicators there may be room for enchancment.”
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