Ferrari’s 2024 Formulation 1 season can nonetheless be thought-about constructive. The Maranello staff, after a tough interval below Mattia Binotto’s administration, has been in a position, with nice effort, to get well and might be now on the suitable 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For too a few years now, we’ve got heard the identical outdated chorus about how the subsequent Formulation 1 season would be the one, and so forth and so forth.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 would actually allow it to battle for the highest.
Not too long ago, with an more and more restrictive Formulation 1 that provides little room to shake issues up from one race to the subsequent, 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 loads on that and danger being repetitive.
As an alternative, allow us to concentrate on the wonderful work being performed by Frederic Vasseur. The French staff principal has simply accomplished his second yr on the helm of the Ferrari Racing Division, however 2024 was his first full and true season. In 2023, he needed to overhaul every little thing 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 begin 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 needed step. Nonetheless, time and the suitable folks 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 Formulation 1 championship, the ultimate yr of this regulatory period, which may ship probably the most thrilling championships in current occasions because of the “equalization” of efficiency among the many high groups — one thing we probably is not going to see once more from the 2026 Formulation 1 season onward with the introduction of a brand new technical cycle. The Maranello staff can have Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time Formulation 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 Formulation 1, every little thing is relative,” commented the Frenchman. “Performing effectively doesn’t routinely imply being forward of the others. Purple Bull and McLaren are very sturdy opponents, and we work day-after-day to maximise outcomes from the beginning, conscious that spotlight will quickly must shift to 2026 and the brand new rules.”
There’s, subsequently, a touch of optimism about Ferrari’s challenge for the 2025 Formulation 1 marketing campaign. In fact, 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 because the summer season, there’s a way that the Italian aspect may additionally play a number one position in 2025, maybe for one thing even better. By no means say by no means.
— see video above —