F1 | Is Maranello too anchored to the past? Former Ferrari engineer speaks out

F1 | Is Maranello too anchored to the past? Former Ferrari engineer speaks out. Former Ferrari engineer Enrico Cardile explains why he left Maranello for Aston Martin.

Former Ferrari engineer Enrico Cardile has spoken publicly again after being at the center of media attention for his departure from Maranello and his move to Aston Martin. Unlike most other Formula 1 teams, Ferrari does not have a base of operations in the United Kingdom but has always maintained its headquarters in Maranello. For many, this distance from the heart of motorsport might seem like a limitation, while for the Scuderia it has always been a point of pride.

The Italian engineer decided last summer to leave Ferrari and join Aston Martin. After several months in the spotlight due to his extended gardening leave, Enrico Cardile has finally broken his silence, outlining Aston Martin’s concrete objectives for 2026.

2026 as a starting point

Having spent his entire professional career growing within Ferrari, Enrico Cardile decided to take on a new challenge in the United Kingdom just a few months ago. Under the leadership of Lawrence Stroll, Enrico Cardile is now working alongside Adrian Newey on the Aston Martin car of the future. In a long interview published on the team’s official website, the former Ferrari engineer clearly defined Aston Martin’s goals for 2026: “We have a clear idea of the objectives we want to achieve, and we are pushing hard to explore every possible option. It is a fascinating challenge. Part of the work involves deciding where to take risks: some development paths may not deliver immediate results, but they can help us reach ambitious goals in the long term. We are making some bold choices.”

He continued: “Naturally, we want to have a fast car at the start of the 2026 season, and right now we are trying to make the most of the time we have left.”

The Ferrari school

The former Maranello engineer, who was responsible for the design of the Ferrari SF-25, also described the differences he immediately noticed upon arriving at Silverstone compared to the Ferrari environment: “I think there is a cultural difference. The goals are the same — everyone is focused on winning — but Ferrari’s Formula 1 team has a very long and stable history, with already well-established processes and tools. Here, on the other hand, we are still in the process of building all of that. We have the new CoreWeave wind tunnel, the new simulator, and we must work to fully exploit the potential of these tools. We also need to develop our internal processes, the way we work, building a lean organization that avoids inefficiencies.”

Drawing inspiration without copying — this was one of the first messages Enrico Cardile wanted to convey to his new team: “It was one of the first things I told my team when I started: we need to find our own identity and use our vision to shape the organization so that it works the way we want it to. It’s fine to take inspiration from others, but copying what has already been done elsewhere is not the right path. We want to become a benchmark, not a clone of today’s leaders. You can’t simply copy what someone else is doing, even if it’s successful, because by doing that you become a follower, not a leader — and that is not the road to success.”