Newey Rumored to Join Ferrari as Vasseur Restructures

Fred Vasseur is set to unveil Ferrari’s revamped organizational structure after the summer break, with speculation swirling about Adrian Newey potentially joining the team.

Who will replace Enrico Cardile at Ferrari?

Shortly after the UK Grand Prix, it was announced that the Scuderia’s technical director would leave his position. Next year, he will become the chief technical director of Aston Martin F1, overseeing Dan Fallows.

Adrian Newey is a name on everyone’s mind to replace Cardile. However, recently, the possibility of moving to Aston Martin F1 has gained traction to attract Newey.

Regardless, there is a potentially concerning void at the head of Ferrari’s technical direction. The clock is already ticking to be ready for 2026 and the new regulations…

Fred Vasseur, the team director, has hinted at the name of Cardile’s possible replacement, while downplaying the currently vacant office in Maranello!

“I will occupy the position during the summer holidays, as it is the easiest, but just after the summer holidays, we will announce the new organization.”

“However, in the end, we have a group of over 200 people working on these cars, and with 200 people, the departure of one is not always dramatic.”

But who could replace Cardile?

“I have a few five-letter names.”

We’ve done the math: Newey has five letters!

But even a Newey cannot do everything, according to Fred Vasseur.

“I always insist on explaining that individuals are less important than the group, and this is true when signing someone, and true when losing someone. The stability of the group is important. The other people work very well together, we have shown that we work as a team in difficult times.”

“I do not want to focus on a single event, but in 12 months between the two Hungarian Grands Prix, we have reduced the gap with the winner by a third, and that is thanks to the work done at the factory. This means that I have great confidence in them, but we must continue because I am not satisfied with the result, I am not happy to be 20 seconds behind the winner. But last year we finished 65 seconds from the winner.”

The development of the Scuderia has been concerning since Barcelona. The team seems to have fallen behind Red Bull and McLaren F1, although there has been improvement in Hungary, where Ferrari at least matched the pace of Mercedes F1.

“In the end, we had a high pace this Sunday,” reassures Fred Vasseur.

“Now, it’s not enough, but it’s clear that McLaren was faster than us. They were quicker by two or three tenths throughout the weekend. But considering our current situation and the last two or three events, we’ve made a good comeback. We now need to focus on the next event. We still need to improve our performance, but we are on the right track.”

Was Leclerc’s strategy in Hungary sloppy or well-adapted?

Frédéric Vasseur also commented on Charles Leclerc’s strategy in Hungary, which could be described as surprising or suboptimal.

The Monegasque indeed had a long first stint… followed by a much shorter second one. It appears that Charles Leclerc’s strategy was not optimized.

“We were expecting to do a longer stint,” Vasseur admits about the second stint.

“But when we caught up to Hamilton and Max, we got stuck behind them. At some point, we had to make a decision. If you stay on track and you have the same [tires] as the guy in front, you can’t overtake. You need to take aggressive options, either stay out as we did in the first stint, and then you have a tire advantage because you have 10 fewer laps. If the degradation is half a tenth per lap, with 10 laps, you have a half-second advantage.”

“Or you try to make an ‘undercut.’ We did, but Hamilton changed tires the same lap as us and we were a bit stuck behind him at the start of the stint. When you have two cars in front, it’s quite difficult.”

Ferrari’s pace was indeed stronger at the Hungaroring than at Silverstone: could Ferrari thus be more competitive in warm conditions (which would be the opposite of Mercedes F1)?

“It’s hard to say. It comes from the overall setup of the car, which suits longer stints or the temperature. But it’s true that we are in better shape. We fought throughout the race with the Mercedes and Red Bulls, and it was better than in qualifying.”

“I don’t want to say it will be the same at Spa because I’m not sure we will have very high temperatures. But after the break, we will have hot races and it will be better for us.”