Ferrari has identified its new technical director

Ferrari is soon going to shake up its organizational chart. As announced by the team’s boss, Frédéric Vasseur, on the occasion of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Italian group, still looking for a technical director to replace the departure of Enrico Cardile, who moved to Aston Martin, has set its sights on the Frenchman Loïc Serra, recently recruited by Ferrari from Mercedes. A decision that will bring a new dynamic to the team, as Serra has a lot of experience in the sport and a significant track record of success with the German team.

After starting as a tire-vehicle interaction engineer, the Frenchman discovered the world of Formula 1 in 2006 when he became head of performance at BMW Sauber. In 2010, he decided to join Mercedes, which was returning to Formula 1 as a constructor. For 11 years, he worked as head of vehicle dynamics before becoming performance director in 2018.

Initially, Serra was supposed to hold this position at Ferrari and report directly to Cardile, covering areas such as track engineering, aerodynamic development, aerodynamic operations, and vehicle performance. However, the departure of the Italian last month disrupted the initially established program. The Italian media Formu1a.uno announces that Loïc Serra should therefore combine several positions, namely that of technical director and head of the chassis department for the Maranello team, a task originally entrusted to Enrico Cardile and now temporarily taken over by Vasseur, who nevertheless promised changes within the technical division when the season resumes.

Inspired by McLaren to regain the heights.

Choices that are not without echoing those made last season by McLaren in order to return to the front positions. Ferrari seems to want to imitate the structure of Woking by appointing three different technical directors with Serra, Diego Tondi, responsible for aerodynamics this year, and Fabio Montecchi, chief engineer of projects, who will have to work closely together to take charge of different parts of the car, with the hope of regaining the performance of the early season.

This resolution also demonstrates the direction taken this year by Ferrari, which had to make important decisions, especially in terms of recruitment. Among these, the decision not to turn to Mike Elliott, who has been without a job since leaving Mercedes last year. Vasseur indeed stated that it did not fit into Ferrari’s plans, as the Briton had wanted to continue the « zero-pontoon » concept introduced by Mercedes during the 2022 regulations, which had not truly worked.

Many reserves thus prompted the Ferrari director to turn to Serra, who was much less favorable to this concept. A recruitment that should therefore satisfy Lewis Hamilton, future driver of the Italian team and having collaborated 12 seasons with the Frenchman, sharing along the way his concerns about the concept of the zero-pontoon that had forced him to go through two seasons without a victory.

A relevant transfer, to which that of Jérôme d’Ambrosio, former Marussia driver who will become the deputy team principal in October, is added. His boss, Christian Horner, explained that he did everything to keep him, rewarding him several times with new contracts at the slightest opportunity to counter the attempts of Ferrari and its boss Frédéric Vasseur to sign him.

Ferrari will therefore have to make a decision quickly regarding Loïc Serra since the resumption of F1 is fast approaching, and the Italian team will certainly be much more focused on improving its car on the track than on tensions outside of it.