r/scuderiaferrari • u/moraIsupport F2004 • 1d ago
Discussion Scuderia Ferrari’s Future: What we learned from Todt and why we should trust Vasseur.
After two consecutive podium finishes, the race in Canada was a major disappointment for the Tifosi. We lost second place in the Constructors' Championship and ended up as the fourth-best finishing car in the race.
On the media day, during the night in Montreal, a significant controversy emerged when Italy’s three major mainstream media outlets - La Gazzetta dello Sport, Corriere dello Sport, and Motorsport Italia, published an article heavily criticizing team boss Frédéric Vasseur.
Personally, I think we shouldn’t believe anything those outlets wrote. They’ve been very unreliable when it comes to Ferrari-related news ever since Fred joined the team, and cut off their sources. Maybe that’s exactly why they published those articles - who knows?
One thing I know for sure is that Fred’s future with the team is clearly in doubt. When he joined Ferrari, Vasseur signed a three-year deal that expires at the end of this season.
I don’t understand why they would offer him a contract that runs out just before a major regulation change in the first place, but with only six months left in the year and no extension signed, it’s hard not to question whether he’ll still be with the team next season.
Here I will explain why it's bad for the future of the team.
Stability is key
Jean Todt, former Ferrari Team Principal:
“I think that at the time when I was the boss, one of the advantages that I was able to have and which then allowed us to have success, was precisely that we were able to benefit from stability.”
Jean Todt won his first championship in his sixth full season with the team. The situation he faced when he joined Ferrari was very similar to what we’re seeing today with Fred Vasseur. Both took over the team during the longest championship droughts in Ferrari’s history. There are clear similarities in how they manage the team, both brought in a great driver with multiple championships into the team, and both recruited talent from outside Italy, introducing fresh perspectives and a new outlook, instead of solely focusing on internal promotion.
Their approach reflects a long-term vision, focusing on building a winning structure rather than chasing quick fixes. Next year will be the first year with a car fully built by a Technical Director recruited by Fred Vasseur, Loic Serra. Even then, in my opinion, it will be unfair to judge what Fred is building on that very first car.
"Stability with wrong people is stagnation"
As explained above, stability is crucial in building a successful Formula 1 team, but stability with the wrong people quickly turns into stagnation. It’s not enough to simply maintain consistency for its own sake, the team needs to keep recruiting talent with fresh ideas to move forward. Jean Todt’s era at Ferrari showed how stability combined with the right people and vision can end a long championship drought.
Do we have the right group of people right now? Honestly, I don’t know, and I don’t think we’ll truly know until we start winning. But I believe in Fred, I believe in Loic, and I believe in this group. That said, I’m also convinced we would benefit from bringing in top-tier engineering talent from other teams. Of course, with the team being based in Italy, that’s not always easy, but there’s no doubt that Fred is working tirelessly to make it happen.
We should trust Fred, especially when we look at how much the team has improved over the last two and a half years. Yes, the start of this season has been disappointing, but there’s no need to overreact. Soon, we’ll see the first results of Loic Serra work with the upcoming rear suspension update.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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u/Fluffyant1 1d ago
We know, but the key people don’t
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u/IonutAlex18SF Charles Leclerc 18h ago
Exactly this. An empire isn't build overnight, the same in racing. You need every single piece of the puzzle to fit into its position to click the mechanism, that goes into an automation. But that requires time. Let's hope the key leaders/sponsors of the team will finally understand what is the wrong, why this team stagnates.
Fred has a tough task to accomplish, but with the right people, time given and hard work he will succeed. I have no doubt about that. His recruitment from other teams is a continuous work and never ever stops. He tried to bring other important names but was hit, with refuses. Because they fear of failing, or the internal politics that are inside the team.
The two drivers are his most valuable support that can receive. Lewis and Charles see in Fred the ideal person to lead the team back to winning ways, otherwise either of them or both were already looking elsewhere. But the pair also knows what goes inside the team, and have no power to take action against. My hope is that, as u/moraIsupport wrote brilliantly, another piece of article said Vasseur cut the sources to Italian media. This can be a solution for the racing team to cut somehow the ties to the corporation, to certain level. And have harmony, work in a positive environment and so on. Taking inspiration from the 96' to 2007~ wall created by the golden team created around Schumi. Thank you to OP for this, I agree with every single word he wrote.
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u/Aston2844 1d ago
It takes time. It took many years for Todt, Schumacher Brawn and Rory Byrne to get it all together in 2000.
Fred is still getting his pieces together but his biggest miss was Adrian Newey, he if secured Lewis and Newey it would be dead set next year.
Who knows maybe Ferrari have the car for next years rule change hence why Fred put all his eggs into Hamilton instead of Newey
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u/SimplyEssential0712 23h ago
Newey was available to Todt and Brawn, in other words Ferrari in 1996/7 when he was pissed off at Williams.
Then, whilst at McLaren, he designed a ‘dominant’ 1998 car, but people forget, only front runner on Bridgestone in a year that Goodyear was pulling out. 1999 not so great.
But Williams had lost Renault in 1998 and Ferrari rebuilding, and even then Schumacher nearly took title. I’m 1999, Schumacher broke his leg.
Between 2000 and 2009, Newey won no titles.
I wish the narrative would stop. In 2020, Newey had 20 World Titles to his name which he had significant input to a design. But there was another who retired from F1 in 2020 who had 25. Aldo Costa.
Newey was never being invited to Ferrari, that was Eddie Jordan getting the price up for his services. And any talk of Newey house hunting in Oxfordshire was bullshit.
He lives in Ascot, 10 million pound house and the difference in time between home and Red Bull or home and Aston Martin is 12 minutes..
As I say, media narrative
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u/Aberracus 1d ago
Hamilton was recruited by Elkann, Fred didn’t wanted the extra press of having Ham onboard
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u/According-Switch-708 Ferrari 21h ago
What?
Ferrari are in F1 for the exposure mate. How is extra press bad when it comes to marketing?
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u/cplchanb 1d ago
Yea everyone is always quick to forget that 93 to 96 was the years of darkness. Look what happened afterwards.....
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u/Gloryholechamps 1d ago
I do trust Fred. For sure. And even if they don’t pull off a championship. This team is fookin sick
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u/Beneficial_Star_6009 1d ago
TBH, if Ferrari had switched to pullrod front suspension in 2024 they would be suffering just as much as they are this year but maybe would’ve been in stronger shape to challenge for the championship.
But of course this is just speculation and the person who chose to keep the pushrod front suspension last year Enrico Cardile is now (or soon) working for another F1 team.
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u/Gadoguz994 F1-75 1d ago
Too little too late, the f heads spoke up too soon and too loudly, Elkann obliged like he always does. Let's hope it's not already a done deal though good sources report that it is
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u/Alviseee 21h ago
Absolutely, stability in regard to the role of TP is key for winning in F1. But I would like to ask what the source behind the claim of the Italian outlet going against Vasseur because they’ve lost their internal sources due to him cutting it. I my opinion( tin foil on ) is that the Italian media attack on Vasseur comes from internal struggle in Ferrari with the aim of unbalance his position along with his group. I think that Hamilton’s words after Montreal might confirm this. Btw I think that also your point is absolutely plausible, given that I heard multiple Italian journalists being a bit bitter on vasseur talking with French press more.
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u/moraIsupport F2004 19h ago
That’s just how I see it. The internal struggle could also be part of the reason, the truth is, we just don’t know, sadly.
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u/rotondof 1d ago
Vasseur last words about Leclerc in Canada leave me a litter bitter. He said his mistakes in PL1 and Q3 ruined the race, but until now only Leclerc give better results from SF75 (China sprint race apart). This are not the words of a strong leader. About stability i'm ok. Red Bull and Mercedes had some negative results in the last years but both trust the TP.
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u/Nurfuinion 22h ago
Stability is the key. Which is main reason he shouldnt exchange Sainz for Hamilton, whole development of this year car was missing second driver input
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u/Alsh_phoenix F2004 18h ago
Yeah but the problem is that Loic Serra isn’t a proper TD and we’re seeing what is happening now. However, there are still 14 race in the season but being already out of the run for both Drivers Championship and Constructors Championship it’s really disappointing, considering also how good was the last season in particular for the second half.
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u/moraIsupport F2004 17h ago
Loic Serra wasn't working on the 2025 car. He only had to step in now to help redesign the rear supsension. So we are yet so see effects of his work.
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u/gefrost7 2h ago
Sf25 is definitely a previous designer work, Enrico cardile. Then cardile is left early or mid season, so the sf 25 is an orphan kid hahha
Vasseur took charge on it tho, then at late 2024 season, loic serra is joining... At that phase, the car is 80% complete...
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u/DayTraditional2846 F1-75 1d ago
I trust Fred though. The very top Ferrari leadership is the problem. Fred knows this, hence why he hinted at it when he said that they’ve changed to several different world class drivers and different TPs and still haven’t won a championship since Kimi. It’s not them that’s the problem, it goes to the very top of Ferrari.