Timber The past few months have seen a significant change—whether remarkable or catastrophic is still to be decided—in the dynamics of Alpine. After receiving an influx of a $218 million investment from an investor group in June, July saw four key figures, including CEO Laurent Rossi and Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, leave the team. The leading contender to replace Szafnauer from 2024 onwards is former Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto, and he’s seemingly made moves to poach personnel from Ferrari, ringing alarm bells for Frederic Vasseur.
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Following Binotto’s threats, though, Fred Vasseur has already started making contingency plans, and he revealed what the Scuderia has been up to in the past few weeks, sending a stern message to Binotto and the entire paddock.
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Vasseur took over Ferrari this season, and since then, he’s been rebuilding the team from the ground up, trying to sort out the problems of past managements, including Binotto’s. The Frenchman has reiterated that it’s not an overnight process and takes time. But as he’s trying to get everyone settled under his reign, according to Motorsport Italy, Binotto is coming for his people. A recent tweet stated, “We hear that a handful of [Ferrari] engineers, specialists in the various areas of the power unit, could leave the engine department headed by Enrico Gualtieri. It would be neither Gualtieri nor Wolf Zimmermann, the project manager of the 2026 unit. But around these two people, there could be significant movements.”
via Reuters
Vasseur understands the repercussions of these actions and how that could put the Scuderia at a disadvantage. He also understands that the team needs to assess where it’s lacking and hire people as soon as possible. As quoted by formulapassion.it, he said, “We started recruiting massively. And this is also a message we have to send to the paddock and the team: we will do our best in every single sector.” [Translated by Google]
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He continued, “It’s not that performance comes only from aerodynamics, but from all the members of the company. We did a good job in terms of production, rushing the updates a lot. The response from the factory has been outstanding.” Ferrari has made considerable steps this season, considering where it started. Could this improvement, in some effect, be down to the new hires Vasseur made this season?
Ferrari’s Red Bull hires are helping Fred Vasseur reach his goalAt the end of May 2023, Red Bull aerodynamicist David George joined Ferrari, having previously worked in NASCAR and IndyCar as well. Considering how well Red Bull has been doing in terms of aerodynamics for the past couple of seasons, this move is proving to be a step in the right direction. Although Ferrari didn’t disclose the other Red Bull hire’s identity, they, too, were part of the Milton-Keynes team’s aerodynamics wing, hoping to bring that same level of expertise to the Scuderia as well.
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🚨| According to Corriere dello Sport, Ferrari recruited two engineers from Red Bull recently.
They are in gardening leaves and will work for Ferrari in 2024. Their names are not yet known.
Ferrari has hired 30 engineers in the last three years, including from RB and Mercedes. pic.twitter.com/icS46l9p0Z
— RBR News 🇳🇱🇲🇽 (@redbulletin) April 22, 2023
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With most teams gradually shifting focus to their 2024 challengers, the Red Bull hires aren’t just helping Ferrari develop this year’s car. They’re also majorly focused on 2024, with Ferrari’s aim to return to the front as it did for the first few races of the 2022 season. Considering the regulations will be the same for next season, everything Ferrari is learning now can be used in 2024. Along with their expertise, they seem to have brought an influx of new ideas, especially considering how Vasseur is trying to stray away from Ferrari’s traditional approach.
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Do you think Ferrari can return to the front in 2024 following Fred Vasseur & Co.’s imminent shake-up?