Vasseur working on the Ferrari mindset
In the early stages of the 2026 World Championship, Ferrari stood out not so much for the results but for the ability to introduce innovative technical solutions, such as the “Macarena” wing and the small flap on the exhaust that set a trend but which the FIA would even like to ban from the next championship.
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These are elements that are not game-changers, as team principal Frederic Vasseur likes to say, but they demonstrate a continuous search for small competitive advantages and, in general, a change of mentality within the Scuderia. For too many years in Maranello, the willingness to experiment emerged less than in other contexts, perhaps out of fear of failure: an approach that, also with the help of Loïc Serra, the team principal wanted to overturn, as shown by the fourth year of his management.
Vasseur’s words
“It’s not that there was a culture of fear or of ‘pointing fingers’ at someone, but maybe we were a bit on the defensive,” these are Vasseur’s words in an interview with The-Race. “The first thing that struck me when I joined the group was the distance we had on every single topic, simply because we didn’t want to expose ourselves. So to be safe, they added a kilo of weight, or half a liter of fuel, opened the sidepod more, or something else. And when you put everything on the table, it was two tenths.”
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“You always have to have a margin of safety, you can’t be at zero. But between zero and two tenths there is one tenth. And if you consider that the average difference between us and those ahead of us last year was three hundredths of a second, you can imagine the impact of one tenth on the season,” he added. “I am trying with all my might to convince everyone that this mentality is fundamental for the success of the project. And it is also Loïc’s mentality. We have to push to the maximum in terms of innovation, without fear. If an engineer has something to propose, let them say it. We never blame anyone if someone has a proposal and it doesn’t work. Now we have seen some examples on the SF-26, and more will come.”
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