2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[Schippke]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/rumors/ferrar ... or-vasseur

…

“I think he has a real problem. Normally, you don’t have to take every story that circulates on the internet seriously, but in this case, if you know the background at Ferrari and the politics at Fiat," it's a whole different scenario.

“Corriere della Sera and Gazzetta dello Sport released this story almost at the same time, that something was happening, that there were already other candidates as replacements and that the big Fiat boss and Ferrari president John Elkann is already talking to people who could and would have been a replacement."

According to Bach, Elkann, current Ferrari chairman and CEO of Exor, the parent company that controls Stellantis which includes Fiat, who the German states owns stocks in both of the Italian journals, gave his blessing for the stories surrounding Vasseur's potential exit from the Scuderia to be published.

“If it hadn’t been for these two newspapers, you would say, yes, these are only rumours. But from my own experiences, I know that Fiat is also a shareholder in the publishing house that publishes these newspapers."

“That means that if they write a story like that, they must check with the publisher. The publisher will then talk to John Elkann, who wants to do this and that, what do you think, and it’s like a blessing."

“That’s the problem, that it could mean something. I’m quite sure that Elkann found out about this story beforehand and didn’t stop it."

“The message is that he’s under pressure, he is being watched by John Elkann, who is looking for a successor but is not quite there yet, but it is the beginning of the end, you could say," concluded Bach.

Yes, I know it’s from GP Blog and all these stories should be taken with quite a large helping of salt… but the powers that be COULD’VE easily silenced these rumours if they want (not that they would either way, because let’s be honest… it’s Ferrari)… but they haven’t. So it’s further fuelled the fire, further pressuring the team and causing more instability… which then results in the cycle repeating itself.

Truly hard being a Tifosi at the moment… really not looking forward to the next few months, even if Ferrari’s performance does drastically improve. Puts a lot of negativity heading into 2026…

[Fakepivot]

Truly hard being a Tifosi at the moment… really not looking forward to the next few months, even if Ferrari’s performance does drastically improve. Puts a lot of negativity heading into 2026…

things like this makes me convinced that they will not win for another decade, hopefully it will be John Elkann
time to go by then. but I am more and more convinced that this is all but true, and Charles will also leave by 2027. not sure about Lewis. sigh! feels bad man.. feels bad.

[deadhead]

If things drastically improve this season he might keep his job but then does that mean that he is sacrificing the 2026 project now just to save his seat by investing too much time and resources into the SF25?

[ScuderiaLeo]

If things drastically improve this season he might keep his job but then does that mean that he is sacrificing the 2026 project now just to save his seat by investing too much time and resources into the SF25?

Haven't resources already been shifted to 2026?

The incoming suspension update is the only thing that was in progress for the SF-25.

[ScuderiaLeo]

New AR article with some info that's relevant to the current discussion, straight from Duchessa himself.

The key points:

• Even though Elkann was the one who supported Hamilton joining Ferrari the most, Hamilton openly backs Vasseur in this perceived Elkann v Vasseur discussion. A large number of important people on the team are too with Leclerc also being loud about his support for Vasseur.
• There are two groups of people in the team who are dissatisfied with Vasseur however. One group that believes the changes have been too conservative and want him gone. Another group want him gone but think it would be too embarrassing to change the TP now.
• It is expected that if Vasseur were to leave, there would be big changes in the team (relevant people leaving as a result.) The ideal situation is that Vasseur is extended to the end of 2026 so the team no longer has to deal with this pressure/politics and can focus on the car.
• Serra is only working on the 2026 car now. Therefore if anything else goes wrong with the 2025 car it will be on Vasseur's shoulders. If Vasseur leaves, they'll be looking for someone who can play the political game.
• In order to make the change the team needs, they need total support from all levels. They don't currently have this obviously.
• Vasseur wanted Newey and made a lot of effort to speak with him, but operating and logistics problems meant it was impossible.
• Coletta, if he were to join the F1 team would not be able to be on track every race like a normal TP. Ferrari and Coletta are committed to the WEC project so he's obligated to focus attention there no matter what. Perhaps Ferrari could go for an organization format where there's one manager for the team, one manager for technical operations, and one manager to deal with politics. But the cost of this would be greater if the plan failed.
• All development resources are on 2026 now. The PU is still being worked on as normal and the chassis is rapidly advancing. Despite all this discussion Vasseur hasn't changed his approach to work and doesn't seem to be stressed about their progress. His day to day relationship with Elkann is fine and they communicate regularly, but nobody except them can tell if this is enough for him to stay.

[deadhead]

If things drastically improve this season he might keep his job but then does that mean that he is sacrificing the 2026 project now just to save his seat by investing too much time and resources into the SF25?

Haven't resources already been shifted to 2026?

The incoming suspension update is the only thing that was in progress for the SF-25.

It would make sense I think most teams have already switched to 2026.

The suspension is more of an emergency intervention, and hopefully it hasn’t affected the 2026 program.

[Seanspeed]

I do not understand the fascination with Coletta. He is a 'winner' in a lesser competition. And it's not even real competition due to BoP.

F1 is so much harder, and the competition much fiercer and with no 'balancing' to help anybody out. Honestly, being at the sharp end of F1 at all, even if you're not winning titles, is more of an accomplishment than winning in WEC.

[FW17]

New AR article with some info that's relevant to the current discussion, straight from Duchessa himself.

The key points:

• Even though Elkann was the one who supported Hamilton joining Ferrari the most, Hamilton openly backs Vasseur in this perceived Elkann v Vasseur discussion. A large number of important people on the team are too with Leclerc also being loud about his support for Vasseur.
• There are two groups of people in the team who are dissatisfied with Vasseur however. One group that believes the changes have been too conservative and want him gone. Another group want him gone but think it would be too embarrassing to change the TP now.
• It is expected that if Vasseur were to leave, there would be big changes in the team (relevant people leaving as a result.) The ideal situation is that Vasseur is extended to the end of 2026 so the team no longer has to deal with this pressure/politics and can focus on the car.
• Serra is only working on the 2026 car now. Therefore if anything else goes wrong with the 2025 car it will be on Vasseur's shoulders. If Vasseur leaves, they'll be looking for someone who can play the political game.
• In order to make the change the team needs, they need total support from all levels. They don't currently have this obviously.
• Vasseur wanted Newey and made a lot of effort to speak with him, but operating and logistics problems meant it was impossible.
• Coletta, if he were to join the F1 team would not be able to be on track every race like a normal TP. Ferrari and Coletta are committed to the WEC project so he's obligated to focus attention there no matter what. Perhaps Ferrari could go for an organization format where there's one manager for the team, one manager for technical operations, and one manager to deal with politics. But the cost of this would be greater if the plan failed.
• All development resources are on 2026 now. The PU is still being worked on as normal and the chassis is rapidly advancing. Despite all this discussion Vasseur hasn't changed his approach to work and doesn't seem to be stressed about their progress. His day to day relationship with Elkann is fine and they communicate regularly, but nobody except them can tell if this is enough for him to stay.

They should have continued with Mattia, maybe with a better person to deal with the race operations and part of the media commitments, Laurent Mekies was not the right person for that.

WRT Vassar, the team principal should ideally not be doing media duty. Sometime he seem to be having to defend his role to the media, which is unfair as a statement could be interpreted in many ways.

[Space-heat]

New floor in Austria. The AR brief's use of "conservative" for the new technical direction that Tondi and Serra are supposed to have defined does not fill me with expectations, but at least something is coming to the car.
https://autoracer.it/ferrari-sviluppi-s ... ornamenti/

[Fakepivot]

I do not understand the fascination with Coletta. He is a 'winner' in a lesser competition. And it's not even real competition due to BoP.

F1 is so much harder, and the competition much fiercer and with no 'balancing' to help anybody out. Honestly, being at the sharp end of F1 at all, even if you're not winning titles, is more of an accomplishment than winning in WEC.

Forget car and everything under coletta wec team Does lot of f-ups, in terms of race operation, they are not perfect.. mean while race operation of scuderia with the amount of pressure imo much better, yet online disconnection around this is incredibly stupid claiming wec team to be so much superior still regurgitated same old meme about strategy it's like they been using internet explorer and still stuck in 2022 first half.. I honestly lose my brain cells reading Some comments..

[JordanMugen]

• It is expected that if Vasseur were to leave, there would be big changes in the team (relevant people leaving as a result.) The ideal situation is that Vasseur is extended to the end of 2026 so the team no longer has to deal with this pressure/politics and can focus on the car.
• Serra is only working on the 2026 car now. Therefore if anything else goes wrong with the 2025 car it will be on Vasseur's shoulders. If Vasseur leaves, they'll be looking for someone who can play the political game.

The political machinations at Ferrari and Alpine are always fascinating!

It's a far cry from the boring focus on building fast race cars found at garagiste teams.

Do we have a reputable source on this 'fact' that Ferrari's structural organization is fixed and team principals have no power to change it?

• Vasseur wanted Newey and made a lot of effort to speak with him, but operating and logistics problems meant it was impossible.

Does Vasseur have the authority to overhaul Ferrari's operations and logistics as Seanspeed suggests?

[deadhead]

New floor in Austria. The AR brief's use of "conservative" for the new technical direction that Tondi and Serra are supposed to have defined does not fill me with expectations, but at least something is coming to the car.
https://autoracer.it/ferrari-sviluppi-s ... ornamenti/

The logical thing here would be that this new floor is meant to work with the new rear suspension but they are not bringing them together for whatever reason. Maybe it’s easier to see what the new floor is doing with the old mechanics first

[ScuderiaLeo]

New floor in Austria. The AR brief's use of "conservative" for the new technical direction that Tondi and Serra are supposed to have defined does not fill me with expectations, but at least something is coming to the car.
https://autoracer.it/ferrari-sviluppi-s ... ornamenti/

The exact wording in this article is pretty interesting

Calling it a "minor upgrade" is a mistake—this is a major component, fundamental to the car’s mechanics, and it's difficult to extract more downforce from it at the end of the current regulatory cycle.

From pre-season testing, the SF-25 showed its limitations: a car unable to operate within an optimal window to fully exploit its aerodynamic load. This was an unexpected and serious handicap, widely discussed since the opening race in Australia. The difficulties that emerged in Melbourne forced engineers Diego Tondi and Loïc Serra to completely rethink the initial development plans. The upgrade arriving in Austria is thus the first true attempt to make deep corrections to the SF-25 project after months of work in Maranello, filled with technical meetings and budgetary decisions. [...]

Miracles aren't expected, but Austria is a short circuit where the field is typically close together, so even minor gains will be crucial—especially in qualifying. The new floor was approved some time ago after its natural development in the wind tunnel. Bringing these “remedial parts” to the track wasn’t feasible before June: in Canada, logistical and setup constraints made it impossible to bring new parts. In fact, the new component was initially planned for Silverstone, which will be a major upgrade stop for much of the grid. Its early arrival by one race represents a "push" from the technical department to speed up recovery. The Red Bull Ring package is no miracle cure. Nobody in Maranello expects this to suddenly make the car a race-winner, but the Austria package is part of a necessary effort to reopen the operating window. [...]

The reason this upgrade comes so late is due to the time needed to understand and correct the conceptual errors exposed in the early races. Serra and Tondi had to work behind the scenes to establish a new technical direction—more conservative but functional compared to the initial ambitions. The development delay was also a necessary choice: these cars, built on past mistakes, require a pause for understanding and a careful approach.

[deadhead]

So what the floor upgrade they had in mind in the beginning of the season probably aimed at bringing even more DF but they had to toss that aside because the current and even the upgraded suspension can’t handle the load?

Wonder if the new floor produces less DF or they just moved it around?

Vanja please tell us how this works

[FDD]

So what the floor upgrade they had in mind in the beginning of the season probably aimed at bringing even more DF but they had to toss that aside because the current and even the upgraded suspension can’t handle the load?

Wonder if the new floor produces less DF or they just moved it around?

Vanja please tell us how this works

Vanja already posted some excellent analyses and his opinion, based on that.

Keep in mind that none outside the team know the real problem.
Suspension maybe can not handle properly the DF generated by the floor or there is an aero problem between rods and the floor, for example.
Maybe the problem is on the both sides.

One thing is 100% for sure, there is no structural problem with the gearbox, as some journos claimed.