Ferrari signed a new technical figure to reinforce the team and Vasseur went to Mercedes’ box. Discover the latest addition to the Scuderia.
Ferrari’s Team Principal Fred Vasseur mentioned a “Top Guy” ready to join the Scuderia of Maranello next season. In order to strengthen the team, he signed Toto Wolff’s engineer, Loïc Serra, presently the performance director at Mercedes. Vasseur’s intention is to include Serra in the Rossa’s Senior Engineers, due to his knowledge on vehicle dynamics, tyres and suspensions.
But who is Loïc Serra?
The history of Loïc Serra and Formula One is a long and successful one.
He was a quality engineer in Germany for Michelin, then in France where he worked in the Research and Development center for the French tyre manufacturer. This position gave him the chance to develop a vast understanding of tyres, suspension concepts and their interaction with the car. Afterward, he joined the F1 department, becoming part of the Formula 1 world.
When Michelin left the series in 2006, Serra decided to stay and the BMW Sauber F1 team hired him as their Head of Vehicle Performance. Once the Swiss team left Formula One, Mercedes hired Serra where he remained until this day. In 2019, Mercedes promoted him as their Performance Director, a role that he still covers. Serra works together with tyre, suspension, aerodynamic and Power Unit specialists with the purpose of developing a fast and reliable single-seat.
His work in Maranello will be basically the same, the aim will be creating an efficient car and make sure that next year’s project will have a better interaction between the different components. As a matter of fact, one of the main problems of the SF-23 is tyre degradation, alongside with the lack of reliability and predictability of the car.
Serra will join Ferrari’s “7 bello”, the team of engineers made up by Enrico Gualtieri, Erico Cardile, Thierry Baritaud, Diego Tondi, Marco Adurno and Fabio Montecchi.
His official goodbye to Mercedes is yet to be finalized, but the passage to Maranello seems to be quite certain. His profile sounds exactly what Scuderia Ferrari needs at the moment, someone who can help to reverse the negative trend of recent years.
Serra represents the beginning of a change in Ferrari
The French engineer is part of the reinforcement campaign that Vasseur wants to bring in Maranello. The TP announced that we should expect the announcement of important names from the F1 world very soon.
The team led by Enrico Cardile, the new Technical Director, will have to carry new and more brave ideas for 2024 to revive the results of the Scuderia. However, the effect won’t be visible until 2025, apparently.
The Prancing Horse team is facing a difficult season at the moment, it’s 4th in the constructors’ championship while the drivers are not even in the top 5 in the standings. After the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari has 167 points, Carlos Sainz is 6th with 87 points and Charles Leclerc is 7th with 80 points. Red Bull and Max Verstappen are dominating both championships while the Rossa is expected to do more and be better.
TEAM STANDINGS: @redbullracing in a class of their own #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/owAiw1wpn4
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 23, 2023
Starting the new season with a different project, a new mentality and new figures such as Loïc Serra in the team will, hopefully, bring Ferrari back on top.
