The Scuderia’s enhancement campaign is underway: by the beginning of 2024, around fifteen young engineers finishing their gardening period will join from various top teams to reinforce various departments within the GeS. Four or five of them have already become part of the team in recent days and will enhance the simulation area, bringing a breath of fresh air. While they may not be high-profile names, they will contribute to accelerating the predictive systems of the 676 and, consequently, its development.
Ferrari has just concluded the 2023 Formula One season with a positive balance in the second part of the championship, offsetting the disappointing start well below the expectations of the Prancing Horse. However, at the Racing Department, it’s not the time to ease off, as the 676 is in an advanced stage of development, with aerodynamics led by Diego Tondi continuing wind tunnel aerodynamic research.
Enrico Cardile and Enrico Gualtieri are the two pillars around which the first true red car under Fred Vasseur’s management is taking shape—a car that is generating strong curiosity due to the expectations accompanying it. While the Maranello team finished the Constructors’ Championship in third place, the red car was the second force on the track in the latter part of the season, outscoring the Silver Arrows. Technical issues for Leclerc in Brazil, preventing the Monegasque from even starting at Interlagos, and two incidents for Carlos Sainz in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi deprived the SF-23 of the few points needed to surpass the W14.
The Sporting Management didn’t panic, aiming to consolidate the positives discovered even with a flawed car like the SF-23. While the top Ferrari executives discuss the renewals of drivers whose contracts expire at the end of 2024 – with talks of a three-year extension for Leclerc and a possible two-year deal for Sainz, as the Spaniard had vocally requested from Monza onwards.
The drivers are a stable point for Ferrari, and no one intends to question them; the area to reinforce is the technical one, awaiting the potential availability of Loic Serra from Mercedes, the head of development in Brackley, a profound expert in understanding what the tires need to avoid the degradation that the red car has often suffered in recent years.
Thus, the recruitment campaign mentioned by Vasseur during the summer is underway: for Serra’s arrival, the gardening period must be completed (Toto Wolff is not inclined to give discounts to his friend Fred). In the meantime, around fifteen people, each freeing themselves from their respective contractual ties, are expected to join the GeS team.
Four or five engineers, mostly young but not inexperienced, have already arrived in Maranello and will reinforce a strategic area of a modern F1 team: the simulation. The iteration between the track, wind tunnel, CFD, and simulator is crucial in the ability to develop a new car with modern calculation tools, useful for delivering credible predictive data in increasingly tight timelines.
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Beyond the constraints imposed by the budget cap, which set spending limits, instilling greater speed of action in the factory will serve not only to stay ahead of Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin but should also enable closing the gap with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in a season where the rules and, above all, the tires will remain the same as in 2023.
When President John Elkann, in an interview with BBC in Las Vegas, emphasized that there are young technicians interested in joining Ferrari, many sarcastically commented that the Scuderia had not made any announcements. Elkann stated, “The important thing is to have the best possible team: having women and men from different nationalities and backgrounds is very welcome to us. Our identity is very clearly Italian, and the backbone of our organization is Italian. But this is by no means a disadvantage. On the contrary, it is a foundation on which very strong talents from different places can integrate.”
The president outlined a concrete picture: indeed, the names that have already arrived may not be top-tier, but they are young figures bringing the know-how of other top teams into the fabric of the Racing Department—it’s like opening a window to let in a breath of fresh air.
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