Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur revealed the challenges faced in securing two key recruits from Mercedes, stating that it took nearly two years to finalize their moves due to Formula 1’s “frustrating” rules on gardening leave.
The individuals in question are Loic Serra, formerly Mercedes’ performance director, and Jerome d’Ambrosio, previously in charge of Mercedes’ junior team. Serra joined Ferrari as chassis technical director in October, while Jerome d’Ambrosio assumed the role of deputy team principal and head of Ferrari’s driver academy.
The Scuderia has voiced its dissatisfaction with the restrictions posed by Formula 1’s gardening leave regulations. These rules mandate a transitional period during which high-ranking personnel cannot start work with their new team immediately after leaving their previous employer. While such provisions are standard across the grid and not exclusive to Ferrari, Vasseur emphasized that this knowledge does little to mitigate the frustration caused by such delays.
Fortunately for Ferrari, the situation did not apply to their recent acquisition of seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, whose transfer from Mercedes to the Maranello-based squad was unimpeded by gardening leave requirements.
Discussing Ferrari’s long-term strategy and reflecting on their second-place finish in the 2024 Constructors’ Championship, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur shared his perspective in an interview with Autosprint, highlighting the importance of these key additions to the Maranello team’s ambitions for the future: “We must maintain the same approach, work in line with our DNA as we are doing now. We always try to strengthen ourselves. As for the arrival of new resources, it is frustrating that it takes so many months before new hires can start working with them. But the rules are these and they are the same for everyone, even if they create rigidity. We have new resources that we contracted a year ago and only started six weeks ago. It’s a very long process. Resources recruited last year will contribute mainly to 2025 and 2026. To have people like Jerome d’Ambrosio and Loic Serra in the team, it took almost two years.” – the French manager pointed out.
“We must keep in mind that on the one hand, with twenty-four Grands Prix a year, we have to work to solve immediate problems within the next two days; on the other hand, instead, we have to think about other resources on a time level of two or three years. We must identify the areas where we need to improve in the immediate and resources able to work with the goal of the next season. We know that if we hire a resource in the month of November, its work will be reflected on the car two seasons later. My job is to keep a foot in every project, immediate or future.” – the Ferrari team boss continued.
Spanish driver Carlos Sainz left Ferrari to pave the way for Hamilton’s entry, signing a multi-year contract with Williams as part of the move.
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