The driver’s silly season might have cooled off. But, there are a lot of movements happening in the technical staff of all teams. So far, Red Bull has been the biggest loser as all championship-winning teams are. However, the Austrian outfit isn’t the only one being subjected to poaching of their key technical personnel. Ferrari also lost some of their talented engineers. Still, Frederic Vasseur’s vision is shaping up nicely.
Ever since his appointment, the Frenchman has been scouting personnel for the team, aiming to make the Italian squad multinational. This recruitment policy was evident when they signed Lewis Hamilton as well. However, it is more evident back in Maranello.
Ferrari has made a lot of changes in the technical staff in the last year. Now, there’s been more development which was confirmed thanks to one of the team employees’ recent LinkedIn activity.
Per Motorsport.com, Diego Tondi updated on LinkedIn that he’s the new head of the Aerodynamic Department at Ferrari. The wind tunnel will also come under him after the recent promotion. This new structure was supposed to be announced by Vasseur in September. However, Tondi’s eagerness has at least solved one part of the puzzle.
There is talk of Mike Elliott (ex-Mercedes) as Cardile’s heir and Frank Sancez, an aerodynamicist who has been at Sauber, AlphaTauri, Marussia, Epsilon Euskadi and Toyota, could also arrive and work under Tondi.
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Now Tondi’s work will largely define how the Ferrari cars will perform on the track. The team faced difficulties with bouncing recently. He will have to mitigate that and bring the SF-24 back to the same level of performance it enjoyed at the start of the season. However, apart from Tondi, there’s a large part of the structure at Ferrari that is yet to be revealed.
The massive changes coming to Ferrari which started in a domino effect last year
It was revealed last year that David Sanchez will leave Scuderia Ferrari, now Enrico Cardile, the chassis technical director will also follow in his footsteps. While Laurent Mekies left to become the team principal at V-CARB, it helped Vasseur to further restructure the team. Even the team’s veteran Gino Rosato also left when the Frenchman was appointed as team boss.
However, these changes, dismissals, or restructuring are all part of a larger picture. Vasseur has a vision for the Italian team and there are a few key areas that still need to be filled. According to rumors ex-Mercedes man, Mike Elliott — who was lead designer of the troubled W13 — is also on Ferrari’s radar. However, the team has refuted all such claims.
Ferrari has already successfully poached Loic Serra from Mercedes. Elliott might also join this growing list. With Adrian Newey’s links cooled off as the genius British engineer reportedly wants to stay in the UK; Ferrari might fill its ranks with other available talented individuals.
