Loic Serra explains why most influential improvements are these not seen

February 22, 2025

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Frederic Vasseur made it clear that the SF-25 just isn’t a revolution of its predecessor however fairly an evolution, primarily as a result of the small margins in final yr’s championship confirmed that it was pointless to fully change the automotive, however fairly to deal with key areas.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply that Maranello’s newest creation doesn’t characterize a transparent break from the earlier season’s automotive, as some modifications are extra vital than they might seem.

Though the SF-24 ended the yr on an upward trajectory and fought for the Constructors’ Championship title till the ultimate race, it had reached its peak evolution. As usually occurs, extra substantial modifications have been wanted to unlock additional potential. Such interventions are usually postponed to the event of the next yr’s automotive, particularly in the event that they contain the chassis or vital modifications to the suspension system.

This was additionally the case for the SF-25 challenge, whose improvement, at the least in its embryonic section, started final March, properly upfront of the top of final season. Nevertheless, it advanced in parallel with the 2024 single-seater to know which areas required probably the most radical interventions to unlock further efficiency in 2025.

The improvements open new improvement paths
Talking on the sidelines of the filming day of the brand new automotive, throughout which the SF-25 accomplished its first kilometers, technical director Loic Serra emphasised this facet and the way sure modifications, even seemingly minor ones, have been made particularly to transcend the bounds of its predecessor.

“The work on the SF-25 started in March of final yr, so by way of improvement, it’s a development of the SF-24. It’s because I solely arrived at Ferrari in October when all the choices had already been made. However we must always not assume that the whole lot was finalized as early as September as a result of this can be a steady course of that lasts all through the whole season,” Loic Serra defined in a latest interview for the Italian media after the official reveal of the brand new Ferrari System 1 automotive for the 2025 championship.

“Generally, the strategy is to search out room for enchancment in improvement. All of this had turn into not possible with the SF-24. We basically needed to make sense of it by optimizing what we already had.”

“For the reason that technical laws have reached their remaining yr, with these vehicles, the whole lot relies on particulars. We targeted on the entrance suspension, however that’s solely probably the most seen a part of the tip of the iceberg. A lot of the automotive is new, and it’s not essentially one thing that may be seen with the bare eye from the skin, however these are exactly the elements which have the best affect,” added Loic Serra.

There are additionally many much less eye-catching however essential points, such because the redesign of the gearbox and the modification of the wheelbase—modifications that go hand in hand with quite a few interventions aimed toward unlocking potential even within the medium-to-long time period. The change to the pull-rod format on the entrance is probably the most simply noticeable innovation, however modifying the suspension format and repositioning the elements additionally means rethinking airflow administration alongside the bodywork, opening up new improvement paths that had reached their restrict with the SF-24.

The event of the SF-25 was designed on two fronts
Ferrari’s engineers have subsequently labored on two fronts. Some interventions have been aimed extra at delivering fast efficiency, in order that, at the least within the engineers’ hopes, the 2025 challenge might be aggressive proper from the beginning of the yr with out having to chase rivals.

Different modifications, alternatively, function a kind of groundwork for the medium time period, anticipating the updates that can arrive within the early a part of the championship. “The primary goal with the SF-25 was to create room to push aerodynamic improvement, but in addition, extra usually, for the updates that can come all through the season. The SF-24 ended the season very properly, nevertheless it had turn into not possible to search out additional margin for efficiency enhancements.”

It isn’t uncommon for sure winter modifications to be aimed extra at unlocking efficiency within the medium time period fairly than instantly, and it’s no coincidence that Frederic Vasseur has defined how this yr’s improvement program will probably be versatile.

There will probably be a much less steep studying curve
Twelve months in the past, Ferrari was in a totally completely different state of affairs from the present one. In 2023, it determined to desert the idea that debuted with the F1-75, shifting in the direction of options utilized by its rivals, with a definitive transition to a special philosophy that materialized with the SF-24.

This clearly required a interval of understanding the challenge to raised grasp its functioning, in addition to its strengths and limitations. Quite the opposite, though there are vital modifications this yr, such because the change to the pull-rod suspension, the idea of the SF-25 has remained similar to that of its predecessor.

This may make the training curve much less steep than up to now: “Although the automotive has modified rather a lot, it’s a continuation of its predecessor. We’ve got modified many inner elements, however the philosophy stays the identical. We hope that the event margin will give us that additional increase in comparison with final yr.”

Particulars could make the distinction, beginning with the tires
Clearly, the Frenchman solely joined Ferrari as technical director final October, so many key challenge selections have been really made by different engineers. Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply that Serra can not contribute as early as 2025 and never only for 2026.

In his earlier experiences, Serra was thought of a tire specialist, and this is among the areas the place Ferrari, like different groups, can nonetheless extract potential, notably in qualifying, the place final yr it struggled to get the tires into the suitable working window.

In latest weeks, we have now mentioned how some modifications adopted with the SF-25, notably within the suspension space, have been designed to deal with among the weaknesses of its predecessor. This isn’t simply in regards to the entrance pull-rod suspension, which was chosen primarily for aerodynamic causes, however extra importantly in regards to the inner elements that make it up, such because the torsion bars and dampers, in an effort to maximise the efficiency of the Pirelli tires.

The SF-24 was a automotive that was light on its tires within the race, able to making them final a very long time, however to turn into an all-around aggressive automotive, it wanted to make progress in single-lap efficiency by bettering tire administration. Attaining this stability is actually not easy, nevertheless it was one of many key strengths of the McLaren MCL38. A few of the modifications on the SF-25 are aimed exactly on this course.

Loic Serra himself is satisfied that, as an professional in car dynamics, there may be nonetheless rather a lot to extract from the tires, particularly contemplating that with such a tightly packed grid, as is anticipated for many groups, each fraction of a second may make a major distinction in positioning and race prospects.

“If we take into consideration final yr’s grid, the automotive forward of us was about 30 milliseconds quicker. Based mostly on that, each single millisecond we will discover aerodynamically, within the suspension system, or, most significantly, in tire administration, actually makes a giant distinction. In qualifying, the tires can provide extra.”