He tried. They are friends and have great respect for each other. Mattia Binotto made an offer to Enrico Gualtieri to bring him to Audi as soon as the Reggio native joined the four rings team with full powers. There was a risk that, like another Enrico at Ferrari, Cardile, the technical director of the chassis division, he might leave Maranello.
While the 49-year-old Italian accepted Aston Martin’s overtures, “recommended” to Lawrence Stroll by none other than Adrian Newey, the head of the engine department made a decision of the heart, choosing to stay at Ferrari, despite an economic proposal that would have almost tripled his salary.
The Scuderia is preventing a potential exodus of technicians to ensure the stability of the Maranello team. Enrico Gualtieri is a crucial figure in the Ferrari Racing Division, serving as the technical director in the powertrain area. The mechanical engineer, who graduated from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2000, preferred to continue a story that saw him join Ferrari’s simulation department over twenty years ago, quietly building a career that led him to the top.
The 49-year-old Italian, Enrico Gualtieri, is a reserved individual who shuns the limelight, preferring to work behind the scenes while strengthening his team. Enrico manages a group of over 300 people, with all attention already focused on the emerging 2026 power unit, which has been running on the test bench for a few months.
The project, overseen by Wolf Zimmermann with the collaboration of Austrian experts from AVL, appears to be very innovative, and Ferrari harbors significant ambitions under a regulation that, at least initially, should return F1 to a primacy of the engine over the aerodynamic supremacy we’ve become accustomed to in recent years.
Enrico Gualtieri, therefore, finding himself at the top of the engine department pyramid, wants to lead a process that could bring the Ferrari team back to the top of Formula 1. The responsibility is enormous, and Enrico’s potential departure would have been a serious blow because the experienced Italian could have brought invaluable know-how to Audi.
The curiosity now is to discover who will be named Ferrari’s technical director, as Fred Vasseur plans to step down from the interim role he assumed after Enrico Cardile’s resignation. The Frenchman has reiterated that the new technical director will be an external hire (the chances of former Mercedes engineer Mike Elliott are diminishing). Some are pushing for Loic Serra, the Frenchman who will join Maranello’s staff on October 1st, although he has never held this position before. We’ll see. Meanwhile, the roles of the Italians working on the 677, the 2025 Ferrari that will mark a clear break from the SF-24, have been strengthened: Diego Tondi (aerodynamics), Fabio Montecchi (chassis), and Marco Audurno (performance).
Fred Vasseur is focusing on stability, and the respected Riccardo Adami, currently Carlos Sainz’s race engineer, is expected to retain his role even with Lewis Hamilton, with the hope of not making him miss Peter Bonnington, who remains at Mercedes to work with Kimi Antonelli.
Leave a Reply