The recent statements made by Frédéric Vasseur during Scuderia Ferrari’s Christmas lunch have raised more doubts than certainties about the management of a disastrous 2025 season. What emerges from the words of the French team principal is a deeply worrying picture, shaped by questionable decisions, numerical contradictions, and a not-so-subtle attempt to shift responsibility elsewhere in order to mask what may be remembered as one of the worst seasons in the recent history of the Prancing Horse.
The numbers that do not add up: five or six Grands Prix, or 20 races remaining?
The first contradiction that immediately stands out is mathematical in nature. Fred Vasseur stated that Ferrari stopped developing the SF-25 “after five or six races”, only to then speak about “still having 20 races to run” without aerodynamic development. The problem is obvious: the 2025 calendar features 24 Grands Prix. If development is halted after five or six races, there should be 18 or 19 races left, not 20. Details that might appear insignificant at first glance, but which instead reveal a troubling level of approximation, both in the management of crucial decisions and in the way they are communicated.
However, the real scandal is not the incorrect numbers, but the sheer madness of the decision itself. Stopping the development of a Formula 1 car after barely a quarter of the season is an unprecedented move in the modern paddock. Not even during Ferrari’s darkest years had there been such an early and total admission of surrender.
The attempt to shift blame onto Cardile: far too convenient
Particularly irritating is Fred Vasseur’s implicit attempt to offload responsibility onto Enrico Cardile, stressing that “Cardile left the team in June 2024” and that when “Loic joined the team at the beginning of October 2024, the car was almost completely designed”.
The underlying message is clear: the SF-25 is Cardile’s creation, not Serra’s, and therefore the responsibility for the disaster should not fall on the new arrival. It is a convenient narrative, certainly, but one that completely ignores the chain of command. Who approved the project? Who gave the green light? Who decided not to intervene when problems emerged during winter development? The answer is obvious: Fred Vasseur himself, in his role as team principal.
The 2026 justification: a gamble that could cost five years
The official rationale behind stopping development is well known: focusing resources on 2026 and the upcoming regulatory revolution. On paper, such a strategy might make sense. The problem is that this gamble completely underestimates the complexity of the new regulations.
2026 is not a simple transition year, but the beginning of a potentially five-year cycle. As demonstrated by Mercedes’ disastrous W13 in 2022, getting the interpretation of a new set of regulations wrong can condemn a team for years. Mercedes needed three seasons just to return to competitiveness, and even now still struggles to fight consistently for the world championship.
Ferrari has chosen to throw an entire season into the bin in order to prepare for 2026, but what would happen if the 2026 car were also to fail? The comparison with the SF1000 of 2020 is unavoidable. That car at least had the mitigating factor of a very specific issue, namely the power unit penalised by a technical directive. The SF-25, by contrast, is simply a hopeless car, incapable of excelling in any conditions and, remarkably, performing even worse than the much-criticised SF1000.
The psychological aspect: a “small” oversight
The only moment in which Fred Vasseur appears to show a hint of self-criticism is when he admits that he “underestimated the psychological effect” of the decision to stop development. Even here, however, the analysis feels superficial and comes far too late.
What does it mean for drivers to know they will be racing for almost three quarters of the season with a frozen car, with no hope of improvement? What motivation can an engineer have when they know their work has effectively been declared a complete failure? How can competitive tension be maintained when the organisation itself has already waved the white flag?
Vasseur admits that he underestimated this aspect “both for the team and for myself”, but this admission arrives only after the season has ended, when the psychological damage has already been done. A team principal should have the sensitivity to anticipate such dynamics, not discover them after the fact.
Next year is 2031
Ferrari has long been a master of postponing success. The idea of “next year” is a mantra that fans know all too well. This time, however, the stakes are dramatically higher. This is not just about sacrificing one season in the hope of winning the following one. It is about entering a new regulatory cycle blindly, with the kind of presumption one would expect from a dominant force, not from a team that has ended the ground-effect era as a loser.
Amateur management disguised as strategy
What emerges from Fred Vasseur’s words is the portrait of amateurish management, disguised as long-term strategy. Contradictions in the numbers, the attempt to shift responsibility onto someone who has already left, the late admission of having completely ignored the psychological impact: all of this paints the picture of a team that has lost its way.
Ferrari has effectively turned the 2025 season into a year of paid waiting, with drivers and staff reduced to supporting actors in a wasted campaign. All of this for a bet on 2026 which, if it were to fail, would condemn the Scuderia to yet another five-year period of anonymity.
Thinking about the future often destroys the present
The SF-25 saga represents a textbook example of how not to run a Formula 1 team. Prematurely halting development, ignoring the psychological impact, shifting responsibility, and contradicting oneself on the numbers: this is not the management of a team aiming for the world championship, but that of a team that has lost its identity.
On 23 January, the “first real Ferrari of Loic Serra” will be unveiled, as Fred Vasseur described it. But before celebrating the future, Ferrari should take a hard look at the present: a season thrown away, a demoralised team, and a damaged reputation. Because the real problem at Ferrari is not technical, it is managerial. And until it is addressed honestly, no regulatory revolution will be able to save Maranello from mediocrity.
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