Ferrari is on a mission to return to the top of Formula 1. And to aid in this dream, the Scuderia Team Principal Frederic Vasseur wants to leave no stone unturned. Already, the Frenchman has roped in Lewis Hamilton, the 7-time World Champion, from Mercedes. But his quest for making the best squad in F1 has not ended here. As of now, Ferrari has not decided who will be its new Technical Director since Enrico Cardile will be exiting from the team in 2025.
Fred Vasseur wanted Red Bull’s aero-wizard, Adrian Newey, to succeed Cardile. However, Ferrari’s headquarters are situated in Maranello, Italy, and Adrian Newey might not want to move there from his home in the UK. This leaves Enrico Cardile’s spot empty as of now, but for how long? Vasseur’s focus has already shifted to the other heavyweight Mercedes officials to convince them to switch to Ferrari. The 56-year-old has been successful in hiring Loic Serra, the current Silver Arrows engineer who will lead the Chassis Performance Engineering team from October this year.
Thus, Lewis Hamilton will reunite with Loic Serra in 2025 when the Briton debuts for Ferrari. But even then, they need other able engineers at the top spots to take care of the operations at the Scuderia. For this, longtime Ferrari recruit Diego Tondi has been promoted to the role of the Head of Aerodynamics. While no official confirmation of this change has come yet, Tondi has already updated his LinkedIn profile to reveal his new position.
But as Fred Vasseur has set out to completely restructure Ferrari, he still needs a Technical Director. As per the Italian Motorsport, the new TD is some “Mister X” who is not Italian in origin. This indicates that Mercedes’ Mike Elliot might join Lewis Hamilton and Loic Serra as the new Technical Director of the Scuderia. Elliot has submitted his resignation to Toto Wolff and is currently serving a gardening period.
The 50-year-old engineer is a longtime associate of Lewis, as the two were together at McLaren, which makes him just the ideal person to take the reigns at Ferrari when Hamilton moves there. But what did Lewis Hamilton say about playing a role in convincing Mike Elliot to quit Mercedes?
Lewis Hamilton clarifies about his role in Mike Elliot’s Mercedes exit
Losing Lewis Hamilton might cost Mercedes dearly, but losing him in addition to some reliable engineers will be disastrous. That might be the case now for Toto Wolff‘s army. Since the Briton, who has been with Ferrari for 12 years now, is leaving the squad, several people might follow suit and join wherever Lewis is going. Did Mike Elliot leave Mercedes for this reason? Well, Lewis Hamilton says he has had no hand in persuading Elliot to leave the Silver Arrows.
The Stevenage native said, “It’s important for people to know that I wasn’t part of Mike’s departure. I’ve known Mike since I was at McLaren. I had a great relationship with Mike. It’s always difficult for someone in his position. It often falls on them, but it’s collective. It’s not just one person. Unfortunately, there are people that maybe from the outside would be like: ‘It’s one person’s fault.’”
Well, even though Lewis Hamilton has claimed to have no part in Mike Elliot quitting Mercedes, he didn’t deny the possibility of the British engineer going to Ferrari now.
First Hamilton, then Loic Serra, and now possibly Elliot–Ferrari keeps scoring the best and the bravest from Mercedes. Do you think the new joinings will help Frederic Vasseur and Ferrari get back to their dominating best? Share your thoughts in the comments below.