After the Belgian Grand Prix at the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the summer break began for Formula 1. Ferrari must use this month to return to the top and save the 2024 season, and there are already those working on developments.
In 2024, with Red Bull no longer dominating as it did in 2023, Ferrari was expected to become a benchmark again. However, the Maranello team has lost its way during the season and can no longer compete at the top. The situation is even harder to swallow since McLaren and Mercedes, who were behind at the start of the season, are now setting the standard. Ferrari must bring updates for the final stretch of 2024.
Ferrari is already pushing ahead
At Maranello, the Ferrari Racing Division has closed the F1 department for the summer break, but this hasn’t stopped the engineers from continuing to search for solutions for the SF-24. Among the engineers ready to go the extra mile, there’s even someone who has never been to Maranello. We are talking about Loic Serra. The former Mercedes engineer was announced by Frederic Vasseur at the end of last season and is expected to start working for the team in October. According to internal sources, as reported by various Italian news media outlets, the Frenchman was already guiding Ferrari’s engineers before the summer break and will continue to do so during it.
The “gardening leave” period should last for another three months, but it’s known to be easily circumvented, and internal sources say Loic Serra has already started working on a fix for the SF-24 single-seater.
Loic Serra’s role
Loic Serra, a 52-year-old engineer from France, was announced by Ferrari as the natural replacement for Italian aerodynamicist Enrico Cardile. The former Mercedes engineer will take on the role of Head of Chassis Performance Engineering. The task will be challenging because Loic Serra will need to coordinate various departments, including Track Engineering, Aero Operations, and Vehicle Performance. Ferrari brought him into GES for the vast amount of success he achieved with Mercedes. Collaboration between aerodynamics and chassis is a daily priority for Serra, and Maranello’s team certainly needs it.
The acquisition is not only valuable for the current season but also for 2025. The primary goal is to understand the SF-24, as team principal Frederic Vasseur put it in a “Binotto-like” manner, in order to allow the Maranello team to be competitive in the final races of the current championship and become a benchmark for the upcoming F1 campaign. The aim of these developments is therefore to save Ferrari’s 2024 Formula 1 season.
Will Ferrari be able to provide a competitive car for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton for the next championship? We can only hope so.
