Fred Vasseur defends team: “Enrico Cardile responsible for 90% of the SF-25 design”. Fred Vasseur defends Ferrari’s current efforts on the SF-25.

It is now a fact that the SF-25 project has failed to meet the enormous expectations placed on it, amplified further by the arrival of none other than Lewis Hamilton at Maranello. The Tifosi are disappointed, and even the Ferrari team members – starting with the drivers – are far from satisfied with how things have unfolded in this first quarter of the championship, with over 140 points to recover on McLaren.

At Imola, Frédéric Vasseur took responsibility for this traumatic start, strongly defending those involved in the delicate phases of design in Maranello. All this while keeping in mind that the work on the SF-25 was largely carried out under the guidance of the previous technical director Enrico Cardile, who remained in the role until his resignation on July 8 before moving to Aston Martin.

The new technical director, Loïc Serra, only took over in October 2024: “At that point we didn’t really focus on percentages, but 90% of the work on the SF-25 was already completed,” said Fred Vasseur. “I don’t know if it was 80% or 95%, but it was probably over 90%. When Enrico (Cardile) left the team, we were still just under that percentage.” – the French manager pointed out.

“In general, though, I don’t want to give percentages because it would be a misleading interpretation. It’s impossible to say ‘we’ve fixed X% of the car’; the first step is to fine-tune the fundamental foundations of the project: the layout, the wheel placement, the general concept. Only after that do you move on to the details. You don’t work starting, for example, from the front wing and continue with fixed percentages. And often the problems lie precisely in the details,” Fred Vasseur concluded.