Last Updated on May 16 2025, 5:19 pm
Since the departure of Adrian Newey was announced, Red Bull Racing have been the Formula One team under there microscope in terms of suffering a ‘brain drain.’ The team not only lost their guru F1 car designer but over the past couple of seasons have seen other key individuals leave the team.
Rob Marshall left and joined McLaren at the start of 2024 and is believed to have been highly influential in turning around their poorly performing car at the start of last season, into one which saw the Woking based F1 team claim their first constructors’ championship since 1998.
Marshall is credited with engineering skills which may be behind the flexing ‘non-flexible’ body work McLaren are repeatedly accused of utilising. Jonathan Wheatley recently joined the Sauber/Audi F1 project as team principal having left his role as Sporting Director at Red Bull and recent poor performances from the pit stop crew have been put down to th loss of Wheatley’s trackside presence.
Ferrari best F1 car ending 2024
Yet the ebb and flow of senior engineers between the F1 teams is perfectly normal as Mercedes and others have found out. Toto Wolff lost the team’s performance director, Loic Serra to Ferrari. His role at Mercedes was similar to Wheatley’s where he oversaw the fine tuning of the tyres, suspension, aerodynamics and power unit during race weekends.
Serra joined Ferrari in the autumn of last season, taking up a more senior role as technical director for the Scuderia’s chassis and the timing of him starting work meant he was involved in developing this year’s SF-25. Ferrari had the fastest car come the end of 2024, closing down a 75 point gap on McLaren across the final six race weekends of the year.
However, Ferrari fell just 14 points short of their first title since 2008, when the team were champions in the constructors’ title race. The team then made a strange decision with just one year remaining of the current car design regulations as Fred Vasseur revealed in December at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“We are in the fourth year of applying these regulations and we know our previous project very well,” said the Ferrari boss. “That is why the 2025 car will be completely new.” Well evolution or revolution, Ferrari have lost their way in the opening quarter of the 2024 season.
Ferrari “new car” a step backwards
Yet Lewis Hamilton claimed a victory in the Sprint race in China and followed this up with a third place podium finish in the shortened race in Miami, but their best Grand Prix finish has been just one third place for Charles Leclerc in Saudi Arabia. The Scuderia currently lie fourth in the team championship but McLaren are close to having racked up three times as many points in the opening six rounds of the year.
Even Red Bull with just one car scoring points each race weekend are ahead of the iconic Italian racing team and with the signing of Lewis Hamilton, seven times world champion, serious questions are being raised as to who is responsible for Ferrari’s results going off a cliff.
The Italian media have begun to target Loic Serra as the culprit for Ferrari’s on track woes, he replaced the outgoing Eric Cardle who will join Aston Martin when his gardening leave period is over. Yet team boss Fred Vasseur now publicly defends his new recruit as the F1 circus descends on Italy for the first tine this year.
To defect the media hype, Vasseur points out much of the concept of the SF-25 was settled prior to the arrival of the Mercedes engineer. “When Loic arrived in Maranello six months ago, the current car was already, let’s say, 90 percent defined,” he explained.
Newey spills the beans on new rules
Vasseur admits mistakes
“Then, of course, it depends on individual elements, but the key decisions behind the project had already been made. I mean the weight distribution, the wheelbase, the general concept, and so on. This is something that affects all teams when there’s a change in technical leadership.”
The implication is clear, Vasseur insists Serra inherited a car whose architecture was largely shaped by Cardile. Even so, of we compare the influence Marshall had on McLaren last season, then Serra’s new ideas should be coming to fruition by the time of the Spanish Grand Prix. Fred Vasseur remains optimistic about the future development of the SF-25 and the core team of engineers in Maranello.
“95% of the team is the same as the one that worked on the 2023, 2024 and 2025 projects,” he revealed. “I’m convinced that just because a project has problems doesn’t mean the structure isn’t working.”
Yet given Ferrari have seen little success in ’24 and ’25, Fred’s assertion that the processes and structure of the team a reprove to be working is in fact moot. “We’ve made some mistakes with the car, but we know where to improve. As for this year, we’ve probably made some mistakes with the car. We need to do a better job, but the motivation is there and the mindset is there,” adds the Ferrari boss.
FIA constitution change to prevent electoral challenge to president Ben Sulayem
Barcelona a defining moment for Ferrari
“I’m sure we just need to keep growing [as well as] identifying and solving problems.” There have been suggestions that Ferrari should simply abandon the SF-25 development and throw all their resources behind the new car for 2026. However, Vasseur insist this is not the case.
“We often end race weekends with the feeling that we haven’t extracted the maximum from the car. As long as we have that feeling, I can’t say I know the exact potential of the project. That’s why I believe there are still signs there is room for improvement.”
There are reportedly major upgrades in the pipeline for the SF-25 now planned for the Spanish Grand Prix. The circuit de Catalunya in the city of Barcelona, is considered the most complete all round test of an F1 car, with a combination of high and low speed corners and a variety of traction zones.
Ferrari’s season will somewhat be defined by how their car performs in two weeks time on the Iberian peninsular. Although Vasseur will presumably suggest if the upgrades don’t deliver immediately, there is fine tuning to complete aver the European racing season.
Newey makes fresh demand of Aston Martin
Newey sets the tone for a transformational era at Aston Martin – Adrian Newey has broken his silence since officially taking up the role of Chief Technical Partner at Aston Martin on March 3rd, and he is already making waves. In his first public comments since his high-profile move was announced, Newey expressed both optimism and realism about the journey ahead.
Newey’s appointment was a clear statement of intent from team owner Lawrence Stroll, who has been unwavering in his ambition to turn Aston Martin into a championship-winning outfit. The Canadian billionaire has poured hundreds of millions into the project, building a state-of-the-art facility and aggressively pursuing top engineering talent. But while the infrastructure may be in place, Newey’s early comments underline a critical message – buildings don’t win titles, people do…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
