Ferrari chairman John Elkann and Frederic Vasseur

Ferrari boss acknowledges underestimating F1 project's inertia

17:40, 15 Sep

Updated: 18:44, 15 Sep

byNorberto Mujica

Ferrari boss Frédéric Vasseur said the Scuderia had experienced an improvement in the past two years, whilst admitting that he underestimated "the inertia" at the beginning of the project.

Hamilton, Leclerc and Vasseur at Monza. Photo: RacePictures

So far, Ferrari has not had the 2025 title-fighting F1 season it was foreboded to have. Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Vasseur admitted that the process of rebuilding the Scuderia into championship-contender status has been a difficult one.

“It’s quite intense,” Vasseur said. “For sure, we’re up and down on the sporting side, we always want to get more.

“But I would say, overall, it’s positive that we had, let’s speak about the last two years, a good improvement," he added before acknowledging he had failed to correctly assess the 'inertia' of the project.

“What we underestimated, or I underestimated, is also the inertia at the beginning.

“To rebuild something or to do things differently takes time, but it’s OK. The most important thing is that the mood in the team – even if we are emotional, even if we are Latin, even if you have bad results or bad sessions – it’s tough, but at the end the mood is on the positive side.”

One major snag that all F1 teams have to face is gardening leave. When a key staff member wishes to switch teams, they are subject to a no-work period of up to a year to prevent sensitive data from transferring from one team to the next.

“It’s true also that in F1 today, with the contracts that the key personnel have, it means that if you want to recruit someone or if you want to change a little bit the organisation, it will take two years,” Vasseur later explained it more carefully by alluding to Ferrari's new Technical Director of Chassis.

“You can take the example of Loic [Serra, Ferrari’s Chassis Technical Director], for example, who joined the team [from Mercedes] eight months ago. We probably started the discussion two years ago. And then the first car of the Loic era will be the next one.”

Frederic Vasseur, the team manager of Ferrari

Hope for success tied to Serra's first Ferrari car

Come 2026, the Scuderia will roll out onto the track the first F1 car designed by Serra, former Performance Director at Mercedes. Amid the major changes that are set to take over Formula One next year, understanding and interpreting the chassis and aerodynamic regulations will be pivotal for Ferrari to vie for titles, the part Serra has direct control over.

As for the changes to the power units—dropping the MGU-H and aiming for a 50-50 power-output deployment ratio between the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) and the electrical side—successful interpretation of the engine regulations will also be necessary to achieve ultimate success.

So, an all-encompassing effort will be required if Ferrari is to be crowned champion at the end of next year. Will Vasseur's approach of revamping the culture at the traditionally Ferrari team be finalized come next year, or does the Scuderia still have a way to go before they're able to end their title-less drought?