Fred Vasseur has said that he would announce the new Ferrari organizational structure in September, suggesting that the Scuderia will soon have a new organizational setup in the technical department after Enrico Cardile, technical director of the chassis area, decided to leave the Italian side, where he was born and raised, to accept Aston Martin’s offer, which will become effective from the beginning of 2025.
While waiting to reveal the identity of “Mister X,” the engineer who will lead and coordinate the Maranello technical group, someone has come forward even before the company has officially announced Diego Tondi’s new role. The aerospace engineer who graduated from Pisa, a 41-year-old from Galatina, was appointed the new Head of Aerodynamics of the Scuderia at the beginning of August.
After David Sanchez left the racing department at the beginning of last year, Diego’s role in the aerodynamics department has grown: now he heads the entire department, including the wind tunnel, expanding his responsibilities in a sector that is under a lot of pressure in the development of the SF-24 and in defining the 677, the 2025 car that is in an advanced stage of design.
Diego Tondi’s “preemptive move” on corporate communication strategies shines a spotlight on the racing department, even though Ferrari will be closed from midnight on Saturday, August 3, for a two-week vacation.
We know that “Mister X” is not Italian, reopening the doors of the Maranello team to a foreign technician. Lewis Hamilton and Loic Serra, a vehicle engineer arriving on October 1 from Mercedes, would have rehabilitated the figure of Mike Elliott, the Englishman who botched the black-silver “zero pods” arrows that troubled Mercedes in the first two years of ground-effect cars.
Mike Elliott, after being elevated to the role of CTO, left the Brackley team. The British aerodynamicist, it should be remembered, previously contributed in the hybrid F1 era to Mercedes’ repeated world championships in the role of Head of aerodynamics and Technology director.
The Briton is on gardening leave and could be free in early 2025. Is this the man Frederic Vasseur will bet on, after the French manager hinted that Mike Elliott was not on the Maranello team’s radar? We must wait a few weeks to find the answer, but there are not many profiles of this caliber available on the market. Especially since Adrian Newey, the super consultant pursued by many teams, seems to want to stay in Great Britain and has stopped the negotiations with Ferrari.
Under Diego Tondi, Frank Sancez, an aerodynamicist who has been with Sauber, AlphaTauri, Marussia, Epsilon Euskadi, and Toyota, could also arrive.
