The battle between Mercedes and Ferrari is not just on-track these days. According to reports, Frederic Vasseur and his team recently poached Loic Serra from the Silver Arrows in order to strengthen their technical side and get ahead of their rivals. However, Vasseur confirmed that the impact of bringing in Serra will only be visible in the next two to three years.
He said as per FormulaPassion, “In Formula 1 however, due to contracts, there is a great ‘latency’. When you identify a problem and decide to hire, the chosen one comes to the team 6 or 12 months later and works on the next machine. Very often, when you make a decision, you see the impact two or three years later.”
Loïc Serra, Performance Engineer at Mercedes since 2019, has moved over to Ferrari.
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— Mercedes-AMG F1 News (@MercedesNewsUK) July 21, 2023
Serra, the French engineer was associated with Mercedes as their performance director after he received the role in 2019. He was supposed to work for Ferrari starting 2024. However, due to the compulsory gardening leave, Serra will have to stay away from any team development in 2024. He can only start working on their 2025 car.
Serra was brought in to help ease Ferrari’s struggles. They haven’t won a championship in 2008. Even though they have showed glimpses recently that they are getting back to where they belong, they want to take that next step sooner rather than later.
Ferrari aiming to become a top team once again
Despite starting off the 2022 F1 regulations on a brilliant note, Ferrari failed to keep their momentum going. After a few initial wins last year, they fell behind massively. They ended the latest season as the second-best team on the grid.
The Ferrari challengers have quite some issues to deal with. But tire degradation has been a sector that has been hurting them for a long time now. This is something they need to take care of first before they can think about challenging Red Bull.
Serra, who comes from a mechanical engineering background and has ample experience with tires and suspension, seems to be a perfect fit for the Maranello team. His expertise could be a much-needed impetus for Vasseur’s team in the future. But again, he will not be allowed to work on the 2024 car.
All in all, Fred Vasseur and Ferrari would look to be in a better position than they are right now. Having only one win in a season might not be enough and there needs to be improvement on race pace as they once again failed to convert a lot of pole positions into a victories in 2023.
