The Ferrari team principal, in an exclusive interview with The Race, explains Maranello’s mental revolution and the key role played by Loic Serra
Ferrari is not simply searching for more performance. The Scuderia is trying to change itself. In an exclusive interview with the British website The Race, Frederic Vasseur offered a very interesting insight into the internal transformation taking place at Maranello, describing an environment that, until not so long ago, tended to protect itself more than it dared to take risks.
According to the French manager, that mentality was costing Ferrari valuable tenths of a second. Fred Vasseur’s words describe a deep, almost radical cultural change, where the pursuit of outright performance must take priority over every form of technical and organizational caution. In this process, the contribution of Loic Serra is considered crucial.
“It’s not that there was a culture of fear or blame or anything like that, but perhaps there was a bit of difficulty,” Fred Vasseur explained to The Race. “The first thing that shocked me when I arrived was the margin we had on every single topic, simply because we didn’t want to get caught out.”
According to the Frenchman, Ferrari systematically tended to leave a margin in every area of the car: weight, fuel, cooling and aerodynamic configuration. These were small safety buffers which, when added together, produced a huge impact on the stopwatch.
“You add one extra kilo, half a litre or more of fuel, open the sidepod more, one extra step. In the end, when you put everything on the table, it was two tenths.” In modern Formula 1, that is an enormous amount of time. “You can’t be at zero margin. But between zero and two tenths, there is one tenth. And if you consider that the average gap between us and the rival ahead of us last year was three hundredths of a second, you can imagine the impact of one tenth over a season.”
Vasseur’s new Ferrari: freedom to dare and fearless innovation
One of the most interesting aspects to emerge from the interview with The Race concerns the new internal philosophy Vasseur is trying to impose at Maranello. The concept is simple: no one should be afraid to propose aggressive or unconventional solutions if they can help the team find performance.
“This mentality, I’m pushing with all my strength to convince everybody that everyone contributes to performance. It’s also Loic’s mentality.” The reference to Loic Serra is no coincidence. The former Mercedes engineer is described as a deeply competitive figure, obsessed with chasing the smallest useful detail to gain performance.
“In terms of innovation, it’s a message we need to push to say: ‘don’t be shy’.”
“If you have something to propose, be open. We never blame someone if you have something to propose and it doesn’t work.” Fred Vasseur suggests that some of the solutions already seen on the current Ferrari are the result of this new design freedom. “You have seen some examples on the car, and more will come. They have this mentality. We are pushing to innovate and it is a big help.”
However, the Frenchman immediately sets a very clear boundary: innovation alone is not enough, because it must produce lap time. “The goal is not to innovate. The goal is to win. Innovation only makes sense if it works.” Then, with irony, he added: “I don’t want the wings doing things…” while mimicking theatrical movements with his hands, “if it is not delivering results.”
Behind the joke, however, there is a fundamental principle of the new Ferrari: every department must work only in the interest of the car’s overall performance. “The team’s only target must be lap time.”
“Too often in a racing team, the target is downforce for the aero people, power for the engine people, and they don’t care about weight or cooling. I am trying to make everyone understand that, collectively, the only target is lap time.”
Loic Serra and the development war: Ferrari prepares its attack
In his conversation with The Race, Fred Vasseur also discussed the process of integrating Loic Serra into Ferrari’s structure. It was not a simple task, especially considering that the French technician joined when the project was already underway. “When you join an F1 team, you need a couple of months. Honestly, the situation was not easy, but he managed to focus on operations. And I think that was important for us.”
According to Fred Vasseur, the final part of last season represented an important turning point from an operational point of view. “At times, we did a very good job last year in terms of operations. And it was the best preparation for this year.” But what impressed the Ferrari team principal most was Serra’s competitive nature.
“Loic is a competitor with huge racing experience. He is a true racer, chasing the final fractions of a second everywhere. It was a good push for the team.”
The final part of the interview then focused on what will become the real theme of the season: the development war. Vasseur knows perfectly well that Ferrari will have to accelerate the pace of its upgrades if it wants to close the gap to those currently ahead. “We need to have the mindset that we have room to improve everywhere.”
The French manager expects upgrades to have a much greater impact than in the past. “Last year, upgrades gave us hundredths. This year, they will be tenths. For me, the ratio is one to ten.” It is a statement that shows how strongly Ferrari believes in its own development window and in its ability to extract much more potential from the car.
“More than the picture on track, it will be the team’s capacity to develop, the team’s ability to understand where we can improve, where others are doing a better job and why,” explained the former Sauber boss.
Finally, The French manager closed with a concept that now sounds like the manifesto of the new Ferrari. “To have the ability to develop, you need ideas, you need production capability.” His words confirm that Maranello is not only working on the car, but above all on the collective mentality of the team.
The interview therefore highlights Frederic Vasseur’s strategic vision for Ferrari, emphasizing a cultural shift from caution to aggressive innovation to reclaim F1 dominance. By empowering key figures like Loic Serra and focusing solely on collective lap time improvements, the Scuderia is laying the groundwork for a sustained championship assault in the 2026 season.
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