The 2025 Formulation One season is in full swing. A 12 months that, beginning with the Australian GP, has already delivered clear verdicts and fairly a number of surprises, each optimistic and destructive. However past all of the on-track subjects, this championship appears destined to revolve round one key theme it doesn’t matter what: Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari. The transfer of the century for the Circus, which, at the start of 2024, introduced collectively probably the most profitable driver and probably the most iconic staff, fulfilling the desires of thousands and thousands of followers. And searching intently, it additionally fulfilled these of the British driver, who by no means hid his want to put on crimson. A transfer whose significance he understood as quickly as he landed in Italy.
The path is obvious
A transfer that got here like a bolt from the blue, stunning the whole paddock and triggering a domino impact within the driver market. It has assured Ferrari a number of advantages linked to the status and expertise of the seven-time world champion—not solely by way of driving (regardless of the difference issues he’s dealing with or the automobile’s lack of competitiveness), but additionally by way of expertise and dealing strategies. Moreover, with this transfer, the Scuderia despatched a transparent message to its rivals, displaying its willpower to return to profitable methods after years of drought, by way of a plan launched months in the past. The Hamilton deal marked the ultimate step in a course of that included the arrival of Loic Serra, the renewal of Charles Leclerc, and the recruitment of a number of engineers from rival groups. A sequence of strikes initiated by staff principal Frédéric Vasseur, who, from the second he arrived in Maranello, got down to form Ferrari in his personal picture to lastly obtain the aim that a lot of his predecessors failed to succeed in.
The previous Ferrari staff member speaks out
Roberto Boccafogli, a former member of the Scuderia, mentioned Fred Vasseur’s work within the Racing Division, in addition to sure human features of the French staff principal, in his ebook “Cuore Rosso”.
“His expertise are simple: he’s an skilled racing supervisor, with a really feel for and a tradition of observe work […] a tireless employee. […] At occasions, his lack of empathy creates troublesome relationships that may require dialogue, which he isn’t at all times keen to permit. He’s assured in his concepts, significantly his human evaluations. His world is split between dependable collaborators and unreliable ones: should you’re not dependable, there’s little or no you are able to do to alter that… […] He deserves credit score for having established distinctive work at Ferrari: cautious planning, readability in not getting carried away when profitable or discouraged when issues go fallacious. He’s very robust in driver administration. […] He was the one who made Lewis Hamilton’s deal occur. […] Enrico Cardile left Maranello as a result of he wa motivated by a brand new problem. But in addition as a result of one thing broke between him and the staff principal, who’s steadily constructing the staff he desires round himself—generally with out even sharing selections or reasoning together with his closest experiences, who’re instantly affected by these modifications in construction and group.” – Roberto Boccafogli wrote.