Ferrari’s 2024 Components 1 season can nonetheless be thought of constructive. The Maranello staff, after a tough interval underneath Mattia Binotto’s administration, has been ready, with nice effort, to recuperate and might be now on the appropriate path to returning to the place that most closely fits such a historic staff because the Prancing Horse — specifically, the highest spot.
For too a few years now, we’ve got heard the identical outdated chorus about how the following Components 1 season would be the one, and so forth and so forth. Ferrari has not claimed the constructors’ title since 2008 or the drivers’ championship since 2007. Too lengthy, it’s true, however over all these years, for one motive or one other, the Maranello staff has by no means managed to place collectively a constant season that might actually allow it to combat for the highest.
Just lately, with an more and more restrictive Components 1 that gives little room to shake issues up from one race to the following, the problem has grown even harder. That is compounded by technical and managerial instability in a staff that has usually been removed from top-tier. We gained’t delve an excessive amount of into the Mattia Binotto period; we’ve written a lot on that and danger being repetitive.
As an alternative, allow us to concentrate on the superb work being executed by Frederic Vasseur. The French staff principal has simply accomplished his second 12 months on the helm of the Ferrari Racing Division, however 2024 was his first full and true season. In 2023, he needed to overhaul the whole lot after uncovering the (to place it mildly) weaknesses of an SF-23 that was disastrous, leaving drivers, engineers, and Ferrari followers alike in despair.
Frederic Vasseur had the braveness to start out altering Ferrari from the second he arrived. Even in the course of the first laps on the Fiorano circuit after the February 2023 launch, it was clear that the automobile was a dud, and a technical overhaul was the primary mandatory step. Nonetheless, time and the appropriate individuals had been wanted. Some staff members left even earlier than the season opener on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit, whereas others adopted shortly after.
The main focus is now completely on the 2025 Components 1 championship, the ultimate 12 months of this regulatory period, which may ship one of the crucial thrilling championships in current occasions because of the “equalization” of efficiency among the many prime groups — one thing we possible is not going to see once more from the 2026 Components 1 season onward with the introduction of a brand new technical cycle. The Maranello staff could have Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time Components 1 world champion, on board alongside Charles Leclerc.
Each drivers hope to have a automobile able to profitable, and from the early impressions — together with Frederic Vasseur’s personal — it appears issues should not going badly on the Prancing Horse’s manufacturing unit: “The brand new Ferrari appears promising, however in Components 1, the whole lot is relative,” commented the Frenchman. “Performing effectively doesn’t robotically imply being forward of the others. Crimson Bull and McLaren are very sturdy opponents, and we work every single day to maximise outcomes from the beginning, conscious that focus will quickly must shift to 2026 and the brand new laws.”
There’s, subsequently, a touch of optimism about Ferrari’s mission for the 2025 Components 1 marketing campaign. After all, it’s nonetheless December, the championship ended lower than per week in the past, and anticipation for the brand new season — maybe greater than ever — is already excessive, regardless of the months of downtime forward. Curiosity is constructing, but when Ferrari maintains the development curve seen for the reason that summer season, there’s a way that the Italian aspect may additionally play a number one position in 2025, maybe for one thing even larger. By no means say by no means.
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