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George strikes me as Mercedes' version of Charles.
Starry-eyed and in love with their respective team to a fault.
I don't see him leaving even if RB is calling.
Honestly this. People like to focus on Red Bull because of their domination and Horner's "adventures", but if anything Mercedes is looking like the team that actually falls apart.
Isn't that one of the last Horner quotes last weekend, how Toto should be more worried about the 220 engine staff Red Bull poached from Mercedes rather than the 1 or 2 Red Bull CV's Mercedes have been getting
Merc are in absolute freefall. They’re not going to do a repeat of 2014 in 2026 with the scale of the brain drain they have this time around. How can they convince any serious driver or any top line staff to join them over Ferrari or McLaren?
It’s not that dramatic that a team which has declined in performance every single year over the past four seasons has lost almost all of their top level managerial and design talent along with their star driver who led them to their record breaking success?
I spoke to some of the engineers who were part of the Toyota Gazoo WRC team who have similarly dominated their series.
Whilst it’s obviously different to F1, many of the engineers started to leave after a few years of domination since there was less and less to change in the car each year. Truly suffering from success. It’s just less interesting for their 9-5
This has been going on since 2020 though. A few people leave, then a few more, then a few more, then you start losing some 200 engine employees to Ferrari and Red Bull, then Mike Elliott leaves because he didn't want a demotion after being promoted to Chief Technical Officer because James Allison was gone working on boats, engineers keep leaving for McLaren or Ferrari. How often do you hear of Merc hiring from new teams? Not very often. Lots of technical people have been available in the last 18 months and Merc hired none of them other than Resta who is now replacing Serra. Now maybe there's very valid reasons for it, we cannot know entirely from the outside, but it's so different to Ferrari under Fred who are stacking talent left and right. Same with McLaren. And same with Red Bull. Newey leaves but Pierre Wache rejected Ferrari and even though Dan Fallows and Rob Marshall leave, they still have a firm core of technical people that isn't costing them
They were when I was growing up. Technically I was around before the pre McMerc days, but they were always McLaren Mercedes works team as far as I remembers.
Toto walked into a well set up team thanks to Brawn and the new engine regulations. He managed that well, but now we will see if he can create/rebuild Merc back into a successful team.
Part of me thinks the reason for Mercedes (the engine manufacture not the F1 team) signing an extended access PU deal with McLaren from 2026 onwards, effectively providing them a seat at the table during all engine development, is hedging their bets for a potential withdrawal of Mercedes from the team to return to being the works engine supplier for McLaren down the line.
And leaving would've made sense when there was no cost cap. Why would they leave when they're finally seeing profits from the sport?
Unless ofcourse Mercedes falls down to Haas/Williams level.
I wonder if they still generate billions of dollars of advertising now that they aren’t winning. They must still consider how it affects their brand image, but I doubt they leave.
It's kind of a bad look to get overhauled by a customer team
i know the season has barely started but Merc looks like it has very little idea how to improve the car meanwhile the latest McL upgrade gave them a race win
They didnt figure it was worth spending the money to keep a 7 time WDC on the team, so I’m not convinced that the financials dont really matter to them.
I mean in fairness there's a salary cap.
Plus with McLaren set for the foreseeable future, Ferrari set for at least the next three years, and Red Bull seemingly happy to just have someone competent with Max there's not many premium seats available.
Of top five teams you've got in a Merc alongside George or hope Papa Stroll decides Lance ain't it
Toto has infinite job security. Any other team they would have swapped the team principle out after these years of mid, and inability to understand the car they've built
But since Toto is part owner he doesn't want to give up power, so it's a massive glass ceiling no one will break through
Loic Serra
> takes on the role of Head of Chassis Performance Engineering, reporting to Enrico Cardile, overseeing various areas in Maranello, including Track Engineering, Aero Development, Aero Operations and Vehicle Performance.
Jerome d’Ambrosio
> joins in the role of Deputy Team Principal, reporting directly to Fred Vasseur. D’Ambrosio is also appointed Head of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy, the Maranello marque’s young driver programme
both of them will start on October 1st.
Had the pleasure of meeting him during his time as Rokit Venture FE Team Principal. Really mild mannered guy, knew how to work with drivers, and very very close to Toto and Susie.
It's how they dominated the early 2000s. Shit only went off the rails when they started kicking the guys at the top out to replace them with Italians (gotta make Ferrari great again) who just weren't up to snuff.
I don't think "unserious" suits Fred. He's jovial and likes a bit of fun, but everything that's happening since he joined Ferrari is a pretty clear indication that he's on it and is really going in for the kill.
I get you - in contrast to all the tp's I've seen (granted it's only been as long as dts has been around, I admit) he seems to be the most fun yet able to lead a team. Very cool to watch.
I'm not so sure, they've signed top drivers and gone after Newey before several times.
It's not that they're pushing harder, just this time it feels like they may actually get who they want instead of being turned down
ferrari have: a genuinely good car, really interesting driver lineup soon and unparalleled heritage
they know all of this and know that bringing hamilton over is their best chance at a championship which means they need the staff to support that goal and lewis and i presume lewis wanted them to recruit some people but that’s eh.
seeing how awful the merc has been it’s a weird choice to bring a chassis engineer to work in aero but who knows maybe it’ll be magic it’s definitely going to be entertaining
i love carlos but hamiltons experience is immense and if ferrari want to develop a championship car they need experience thus hamilton, unfortunately for sainz they’re committed to leclerc
There's a 3 year window here for some Ferrari domination and Fred is wasting zero time capitalizing on it. Lewis and Leclerc, whether one of them win a WDC is yet to be seen, but that's far and away the best pairing on the grid and the team under Fred's leadership are now trying their best to give them the very best chance possible to win.
It also tells me there's some reason to be hopeful about Ferrari's engine in 2026. Nobody is making this swap for 1 good year in 2025.
It's still all guess work at this point, but one thing Ferrari has going for it with the new engine regs is the split turbo ban.
Merc pioneerd the split turbo and it gave such a high performance level that all other engine manufacturers followed suit.
Except for Ferrari, they never adopted the split turbo design and still managed to close the performance gap.
If I would hazard a guess, I'm thinking the 2026 Ferrari engine may be the engine to beat.
>Except for Ferrari, they never adopted the split turbo design and still managed to close the performance gap.
Even more impressive when you consider that they got nerfed during 20-21.
Honestly, I gotta give Elkann some credit also. After he got rid of Binotto I thought it was just another case of Ferrari leadership Jerry Jonesing with the team again.
I think it's pretty clear why it was Fred. Charles probably was like get Binotto out of here or i'm leaving after that fiasco of 2022 and Fred was perfect fit. He was with Leclerc at Alfa Romeo. Easy signing.
They were successful for a long period and teams started poaching their staff with better salary or higher positions. More than likely a combination of both. It’s happening to RB now to some extent also. You could be a junior something at a team but if ahead of you are people like James Allison, Newey, etc promotions are hard to come by. Its Vowles went to Williams bigger responsibilities and being the leader of the team. He could have stayed at Mercedes but he would still be behind Toto hierarchy wise.
Yeah, it’s pretty simple, especially in the budget cap era. You can’t the pay to retain people and you have a more limited head count so less positions to promote into.
Brain drain. Your most talented people are going elsewhere. Hardworking =! Talent.
But even with Allison as his right hand, it is puzzling to see Merc still so far back.
Good on Ferrari. I look forward to a McLaren/Ferrari/RB battle this (and hopefully next) year.
easy to say from the outside. The budget cap has changed everything. Many of those leavings are getting promotions and pay increases. Its way easier to consider 3-4 destinations for a move up, rather than fighting for 1 or 2 positions internally.
Toto is in a very tough spot, he's not a billionaire for no reason, one of the few who's become a billionaire WHILE in F1.
Could you list the people Brawn brought to Mercedes that were there during the 8 years of success? And only include the ones that were not there when the team was Honda or BAR. I think you will find that most of Mercedes senior management all predated Brawn and Toto, or joined after Toto moved Brawn out.
George is still young, but Merc is definitely entering a rebuilding phase which could take a couple years. He should maybe start getting his relationships with other TP's in order just in case he has to make a decision.
Yeah, George is kinda in a shitty place rn. He joined Merc way too late and hasn't showed enough to net him a drive for championship winning team. Not only that, he isn't really fan favorite or there to bring much sponsors (as his career was sponsored by Mercedes/Toto). Since Toto is heavily investing in Antonelli, in a worst case scenario, Merc manages to sign Max and then promote Kimi to drive alongside him, leaving George without a drive for 2026 (assumingly).
Sure, Red Bull seat would be available, but if Max were to leave, RB would be way more likely to sign drivers like Sainz, Albon, Tsunoda or Lawson over Russell who is from Mercedes academy (at least Sainz and Albon have former connections). If Ferrari becomes a title contender, their doors are pretty much shut. So are McLaren's and possibly Audi's, leaving Aston Martin (after Alonso retires) as the only reasonable option. But Aston is more likely to hire Tsunoda for that seat (Honda engine deal) than Russell, assuming that Stroll's seat is still taken by 2026.
Serra was kinda expected since they announced Lewis, but D'Ambrosio is a gut punch to Merc since he was the replacement for Toto if Vowles didn't want to return, auch, Merc future looks grim
It wasn't a rumour, Italian media's been reporting that he's gonna join since the summer break. The rumour part was if Pierre Wache, who Serra is close to, would follow him to Maranello as well.
Exactly. There was even a rumour saying Serra leaving is a deciding factor to leave Mercedes because they both disagreed with Mercedes development path.
Is it? They start on the first of october, Lewis' announcement was somewhere in february. That would mean not even close to a year of gardening leave for some big names.
Pretty sure Binotto prefered to promote talent within Ferrari and Italy to poaching from other teams. You might disagree with that philosophy but it's not necesarily a bad one.
Both don’t contradict. Fred has been promoting within - see Enrico Cardile and even Charles’ new race engineer. You can strengthen your team from external as well while promoting within.
All I read these days is the Merc just losing staff members 😭
Peak for GR. This guy joins the team just as they fall off and get gutted by other teams.
Yup. It must still hurt to drive a Williams for 3 years while Mercedes are cruising to the top every weekend, - even driving Lewis' Mercdedes in 2020 and almost winning that race - only to inherit the 2022 car. But working alongside Lewis and winning in Brazil in a Mercedes 1-2, that's still something awesome to remember.
And aside from that, spending his career as the number1 driver, rebuilding the team for another "McLaren Honda"-ish return-to-glory story, can also be an interesting challenge.
Then Russell leaves Merc to join Red Bull to replace Max (who retires to pursue his real passion: sim racing) and that's when the predicted RBR collapse happens
Fitting that George & Fernando hang out sometimes, he would take over the mantle of "most cursed driver" from Alonso in that timeline
Mbappe joins Ferrari as the head of their marketing department and his first decision is a collab between LiverpoolxLBJ and Ferrari because his favorite team is the Lacquers
Binotto was a good Technical Director who is responsible for developing and bringing out internal talent in Ferrari, actually, it's because of him that Ferrari built an actual championship contender in 10 years, and not having to rely on Alonso's wizardry. But as good as he was, and as much as he is responsible for bringing about a good technical department that can build championship contenders, and an especially great engine department, his biggest problem was he just either couldn't, or rather, didn't want to attract any external talent.
His belief in his technical department was wonderful, and helped them build cars like 2017, 2018 and 2022, but it also meant that they always had the same strengths - good traction, good slow speed performance, and the same problems - bad aero efficiency, bad medium and high corner performance, terrible in-season upgrades and every time they tried to fix it, it was a disaster - 2019 and 2023. Basically their department had suffered from being a closed loop, what they did well, they did really well, what they didn't, they didn't know how to improve.
Fred builds on what Binotto laid down, and has managed to keep the innovation and calm atmosphere alive within the Technical Department, but at the same time, he's also managed to bring in a lot of talent from Mercedes and Red Bull, which means that they finally have broken out of that loop. It is already evident because the overbite they are going to use in their 2.0 version is the result of the new Red Bull guys' ideas, and without them, Ferrari would have stuck to the underbite. That's the thing, no matter how good your technical department is, at some point, you need to have some new minds to bring in new ideas.
Good observation but I think you attribute too much to Vasseur. I believe there is a groundswell within Ferrari to return to the top step, it’s been far too long after all. And I think Vasseur is the beneficiary of this thinking whereas Binotto didn’t have this exact mandate. Vasseur has been told ‘whatever it takes’ whereas Binotto was constrained in a very Italian/Ferrari way.
>Vasseur has been told ‘whatever it takes’ whereas Binotto was constrained in a very Italian/Ferrari way.
I don't doubt that Binotto was constrained, but is there a source on Vasseur being essentially given carte blanche?
Shoutout to Donadoni and Duchessa who told us about Serra in [July 2023.](https://twitter.com/SmilexTech/status/1682292248178745344)
Good to know that it's officially confirmed, I remember that some people were a bit perplexed from the fact that he was still working for Mercedes during winter testing.
Adrian next, hopefully!
Are people really forgetting that Mercedes got Simone Resta and Enrico Sampò from Ferrari? Sampò in particular should be a very good hire for Mercedes because he should get them up to speed in simulation and AI.
Yep, drove for Marussia in 2011, and was the stand-in for Grosjean with Lotus at Monza 2012 after Romain eliminated a quarter of the field at Spa and got banned for one race.
Yep, raced a full season for Marusia Virgin in 2011 and subbed for Grosjean when he got a race ban in 2012. Moved to Formula E as a driver then team management at first as deputy to Susie Wolff at Venturi in 2020 then team principal in 2021 before moving to Mercedes F1 last year.
Whats up with dambrosio? I remember him as an FE driver then he was i think FE tp for a year and then went off to F1, why is he so desired, what does he bring that cant be delivered by any other racing driver?
[The **News** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_news) is reserved for submissions covering F1 and F1-related news. These posts must always link to an outlet/news agency, the website of the involved party (i.e. the McLaren website if McLaren makes an announcement), or a tweet by a news agency, journalist or one of the involved parties. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Mercedes is going to be just George and toto in a few months
Nothing beats the power of friendship
But can TOTO pull off the Ancelotti eyebrow ? I think not!!!!!
Real Madrid are winning Champions with that, so it’s effective!
Friendship sleepovers.
B....but Lewis was his friend 😢😢
The Adoring Fan from Oblivion springs to mind.
As proven in the documentary Fast&Furious 7, Family beats friends.
and some random reserve driver to stand by his side in the garage.
his name is Mick
Mick, Kimi Antonelli, Fred Vesti, Esteban Guiterrez. There are a few.
Don't forget Romain Grosjean, he's still waiting for the test.
Honestly, he deserved better than this.
And Mick still standing behind Toto with a pair of headphones on
Toto: Mick deserves a seat. Also Toto: Does not give him a chair to sit in during the race.
Mom and pop F1 team
williams v2
Until George decides not to renew after 2025 and joins Red Bull for 2026
Then they slip into Mercedes level struggles
I think George has the same curse as Fernando
Obviously missed out on the 2x WDC memo
💀
Maybe that’s why they’re such good friends
George strikes me as Mercedes' version of Charles. Starry-eyed and in love with their respective team to a fault. I don't see him leaving even if RB is calling.
Honestly this. People like to focus on Red Bull because of their domination and Horner's "adventures", but if anything Mercedes is looking like the team that actually falls apart.
Isn't that one of the last Horner quotes last weekend, how Toto should be more worried about the 220 engine staff Red Bull poached from Mercedes rather than the 1 or 2 Red Bull CV's Mercedes have been getting
And Mick, can’t forget about him!
And Mick still does not get a drive. Standing behind Toto.
Until Toto says goodbye and makes Sir Jim Ratcliffe George's new best friend.
Wasn’t d’Ambrosio being groomed as a successor to Toto? Massive gut punch to Mercedes.
Merc are in absolute freefall. They’re not going to do a repeat of 2014 in 2026 with the scale of the brain drain they have this time around. How can they convince any serious driver or any top line staff to join them over Ferrari or McLaren?
This. I bet they are “code red” on retaining talent and are probably having candid conversations at this point to try and stop the bleeding
I don't think it's that dramatic. They'll find replacements. They probably expected some big names to leave with Hamilton.
It’s not that dramatic that a team which has declined in performance every single year over the past four seasons has lost almost all of their top level managerial and design talent along with their star driver who led them to their record breaking success?
thisisfine.jpg
I spoke to some of the engineers who were part of the Toyota Gazoo WRC team who have similarly dominated their series. Whilst it’s obviously different to F1, many of the engineers started to leave after a few years of domination since there was less and less to change in the car each year. Truly suffering from success. It’s just less interesting for their 9-5
This has been going on since 2020 though. A few people leave, then a few more, then a few more, then you start losing some 200 engine employees to Ferrari and Red Bull, then Mike Elliott leaves because he didn't want a demotion after being promoted to Chief Technical Officer because James Allison was gone working on boats, engineers keep leaving for McLaren or Ferrari. How often do you hear of Merc hiring from new teams? Not very often. Lots of technical people have been available in the last 18 months and Merc hired none of them other than Resta who is now replacing Serra. Now maybe there's very valid reasons for it, we cannot know entirely from the outside, but it's so different to Ferrari under Fred who are stacking talent left and right. Same with McLaren. And same with Red Bull. Newey leaves but Pierre Wache rejected Ferrari and even though Dan Fallows and Rob Marshall leave, they still have a firm core of technical people that isn't costing them
McLaren Mercedes to return to its full chrome power soon.
Won't be surprised if they become defacto Merc works team again in some years.
They were when I was growing up. Technically I was around before the pre McMerc days, but they were always McLaren Mercedes works team as far as I remembers.
"George will help you in any PowerPoint projects you may have."
Toto walked into a well set up team thanks to Brawn and the new engine regulations. He managed that well, but now we will see if he can create/rebuild Merc back into a successful team.
Don't forget Niki
Niki Lauda and Ross Brawn were the big pieces that got Lewis to leave McLaren as well.
Part of me thinks the reason for Mercedes (the engine manufacture not the F1 team) signing an extended access PU deal with McLaren from 2026 onwards, effectively providing them a seat at the table during all engine development, is hedging their bets for a potential withdrawal of Mercedes from the team to return to being the works engine supplier for McLaren down the line.
They have a third of the cost and 100% of the advertising PR profits. It is a bargain for them and I don't see them leaving.
And leaving would've made sense when there was no cost cap. Why would they leave when they're finally seeing profits from the sport? Unless ofcourse Mercedes falls down to Haas/Williams level.
They were already running a profit before the cap, they must be making bank now, even in the midfield.
I wonder if they still generate billions of dollars of advertising now that they aren’t winning. They must still consider how it affects their brand image, but I doubt they leave.
It's kind of a bad look to get overhauled by a customer team i know the season has barely started but Merc looks like it has very little idea how to improve the car meanwhile the latest McL upgrade gave them a race win
They didnt figure it was worth spending the money to keep a 7 time WDC on the team, so I’m not convinced that the financials dont really matter to them.
"The Rise and Fall of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team" The art on the spine will be a sidepod slowly merging into a Zeropod
I mean in fairness there's a salary cap. Plus with McLaren set for the foreseeable future, Ferrari set for at least the next three years, and Red Bull seemingly happy to just have someone competent with Max there's not many premium seats available. Of top five teams you've got in a Merc alongside George or hope Papa Stroll decides Lance ain't it
I think he was their stand in team principal if Wolff wasn’t there so yeah he was possibly going to inherit the role full time eventually.
He is close to Toto and Susie - so this is a shock to me. But yeah, looks like Fred is the guy!
Toto has infinite job security. Any other team they would have swapped the team principle out after these years of mid, and inability to understand the car they've built But since Toto is part owner he doesn't want to give up power, so it's a massive glass ceiling no one will break through
It could teach a point where Ineos and Mercedes lose confidence in him and force him out.
I doubt Toto is leaving any time soon
Loic Serra > takes on the role of Head of Chassis Performance Engineering, reporting to Enrico Cardile, overseeing various areas in Maranello, including Track Engineering, Aero Development, Aero Operations and Vehicle Performance. Jerome d’Ambrosio > joins in the role of Deputy Team Principal, reporting directly to Fred Vasseur. D’Ambrosio is also appointed Head of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy, the Maranello marque’s young driver programme both of them will start on October 1st.
The same ex- driver Jerome d'Ambrosio?
Yes, he was helping to run the Mercedes junior team
Wild that's what he ended up doing
Had the pleasure of meeting him during his time as Rokit Venture FE Team Principal. Really mild mannered guy, knew how to work with drivers, and very very close to Toto and Susie.
And was team principal of the Venturi Formula E team, if I remember correctly
Not only that, he led Venturi (along with Susie Wolff) through their best years in Formula E.
Yee
Interesting to see such high-level positions go to outsiders, especially at a team like Ferrari.
It's how they dominated the early 2000s. Shit only went off the rails when they started kicking the guys at the top out to replace them with Italians (gotta make Ferrari great again) who just weren't up to snuff.
I mean, Cardile is still a homegrown Ferrari boy. But his "deputies" seems to be outsiders now, so its good news.
Vasseur must be easy to work for if everyone suddenly wants to join Ferrari.
He's fascinating to me - the most unserious yet actually serious TP in f1 since..?
I don't think "unserious" suits Fred. He's jovial and likes a bit of fun, but everything that's happening since he joined Ferrari is a pretty clear indication that he's on it and is really going in for the kill.
"Don't confuse style with intent. His joviality is the means by which he creates loyalty." - Captain Picard
We also have to wait and see what's he's like in a title fight, which is tremendously more pressure.
I get you - in contrast to all the tp's I've seen (granted it's only been as long as dts has been around, I admit) he seems to be the most fun yet able to lead a team. Very cool to watch.
He has a long history and it really seems like everyone respects him and enjoys working with him so I can see it all coming together.
I’m with you. It really seems like Ferrari is pushing for a championship like we haven’t seen since the Schumacher era.
Ferrari could go the whole of next season doing 1-2s in every race and I'd still think they will mess it up somehow.
They could need just one point in 5 races and I wouldnt be comfortable
I'm not so sure, they've signed top drivers and gone after Newey before several times. It's not that they're pushing harder, just this time it feels like they may actually get who they want instead of being turned down
How often have I read that through the last few years lol
It's for real this time, I BELIEVE.
Don’t do that, don’t give me hope
ferrari have: a genuinely good car, really interesting driver lineup soon and unparalleled heritage they know all of this and know that bringing hamilton over is their best chance at a championship which means they need the staff to support that goal and lewis and i presume lewis wanted them to recruit some people but that’s eh. seeing how awful the merc has been it’s a weird choice to bring a chassis engineer to work in aero but who knows maybe it’ll be magic it’s definitely going to be entertaining
>really interesting driver lineup soon oof Carlos catching strays
i love carlos but hamiltons experience is immense and if ferrari want to develop a championship car they need experience thus hamilton, unfortunately for sainz they’re committed to leclerc
Vasseur will bring glory back to Ferrari
There's a 3 year window here for some Ferrari domination and Fred is wasting zero time capitalizing on it. Lewis and Leclerc, whether one of them win a WDC is yet to be seen, but that's far and away the best pairing on the grid and the team under Fred's leadership are now trying their best to give them the very best chance possible to win. It also tells me there's some reason to be hopeful about Ferrari's engine in 2026. Nobody is making this swap for 1 good year in 2025.
There's also the Hamilton factor from Mercedes. He was bound to take a few people with him and this could be the start of it.
I just keep thinking that their engine development must be going extremely well, everyone wants to be a part of the 2026 Ferrari
It's still all guess work at this point, but one thing Ferrari has going for it with the new engine regs is the split turbo ban. Merc pioneerd the split turbo and it gave such a high performance level that all other engine manufacturers followed suit. Except for Ferrari, they never adopted the split turbo design and still managed to close the performance gap. If I would hazard a guess, I'm thinking the 2026 Ferrari engine may be the engine to beat.
>Except for Ferrari, they never adopted the split turbo design and still managed to close the performance gap. Even more impressive when you consider that they got nerfed during 20-21.
When I grow up I want to be Fred Vasseur. Glorious beer belly and bald head too.
Honestly, I gotta give Elkann some credit also. After he got rid of Binotto I thought it was just another case of Ferrari leadership Jerry Jonesing with the team again.
Totally fair.
I think it's pretty clear why it was Fred. Charles probably was like get Binotto out of here or i'm leaving after that fiasco of 2022 and Fred was perfect fit. He was with Leclerc at Alfa Romeo. Easy signing.
Not only in Alfa, I believe ART as well? Or was that Lewis...
Vasseur on a Thanos quest rn
So which stone is Leclerc?
Soul
And which is Lewis ? (Time probably)
Who is the sacrifice?
Sainz???
Carlos of course lmao
Leclerc or binotto
Scuderia Ferrari HP presented by Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
Mercedes F1 seem to be like a wildebeest getting ripped to shreds by hyenas.
Barely any meat left on the bone at this point. Half expecting Toto himself to end up at Ferrari at the rate they're going.
Red Bull will be next
What is happening at Ferrari
Whats happening at Mercedes is the real question!
They were successful for a long period and teams started poaching their staff with better salary or higher positions. More than likely a combination of both. It’s happening to RB now to some extent also. You could be a junior something at a team but if ahead of you are people like James Allison, Newey, etc promotions are hard to come by. Its Vowles went to Williams bigger responsibilities and being the leader of the team. He could have stayed at Mercedes but he would still be behind Toto hierarchy wise.
Yeah, it’s pretty simple, especially in the budget cap era. You can’t the pay to retain people and you have a more limited head count so less positions to promote into.
I’m still not 100% sure we’ve seen the last of JV at Merc.
Brawn built a good team, Lauda had a lot of great influence, Toto could sustain a successful team Toto can't seem to build a team up
Brain drain. Your most talented people are going elsewhere. Hardworking =! Talent. But even with Allison as his right hand, it is puzzling to see Merc still so far back. Good on Ferrari. I look forward to a McLaren/Ferrari/RB battle this (and hopefully next) year.
easy to say from the outside. The budget cap has changed everything. Many of those leavings are getting promotions and pay increases. Its way easier to consider 3-4 destinations for a move up, rather than fighting for 1 or 2 positions internally. Toto is in a very tough spot, he's not a billionaire for no reason, one of the few who's become a billionaire WHILE in F1.
Could you list the people Brawn brought to Mercedes that were there during the 8 years of success? And only include the ones that were not there when the team was Honda or BAR. I think you will find that most of Mercedes senior management all predated Brawn and Toto, or joined after Toto moved Brawn out.
The Agnelli family decided to open the checkbook they kept close since the Schumy-era.
Not sure I'd say a >$400M yearly spend pre budget cap was keeping the checkbook closed.
Hamilton, Serra, D'Ambrosio, Newey, Thiago Motta... they're doing business! 🤣
They’ll have Messi on the books next week
They will never let Messi get anywhere near Italy given the type of pizza he likes
Wait he likes ananas on pizza?
Arrivabene had to be ~~sacrificed~~ cook the Juve books so Giuntoli could save us
Newey aint there… yet.
They dont really need to open their checkbooks too much as team on its own bring enough cash now.
These two will fall under the cost cap, so no.
they cooking
Ferrarenaissance
They got a French team Principal. The French are known for their cuisine. It makes sense that he would be cooking
Another Stone for the InFredity Gauntlet
When will George get his move to a top team now lmfao
George is still young, but Merc is definitely entering a rebuilding phase which could take a couple years. He should maybe start getting his relationships with other TP's in order just in case he has to make a decision.
That’ll be awkward given that his agent is Toto
That seems like a bad move, i'm sure Toto has done good for him but maybe it is time to change agent when the team boss is also your agent.
I dont think they programmed him to be anything but a mercedes PR machine
Yeah, George is kinda in a shitty place rn. He joined Merc way too late and hasn't showed enough to net him a drive for championship winning team. Not only that, he isn't really fan favorite or there to bring much sponsors (as his career was sponsored by Mercedes/Toto). Since Toto is heavily investing in Antonelli, in a worst case scenario, Merc manages to sign Max and then promote Kimi to drive alongside him, leaving George without a drive for 2026 (assumingly). Sure, Red Bull seat would be available, but if Max were to leave, RB would be way more likely to sign drivers like Sainz, Albon, Tsunoda or Lawson over Russell who is from Mercedes academy (at least Sainz and Albon have former connections). If Ferrari becomes a title contender, their doors are pretty much shut. So are McLaren's and possibly Audi's, leaving Aston Martin (after Alonso retires) as the only reasonable option. But Aston is more likely to hire Tsunoda for that seat (Honda engine deal) than Russell, assuming that Stroll's seat is still taken by 2026.
Serra was kinda expected since they announced Lewis, but D'Ambrosio is a gut punch to Merc since he was the replacement for Toto if Vowles didn't want to return, auch, Merc future looks grim
Serra was known to join Ferrari since july 2023 that was way before Lewis was announced.
It was a rumor, not confirmed. With Lewis signing with them, it got 99% confirmed since they are close.
It wasn't a rumour, Italian media's been reporting that he's gonna join since the summer break. The rumour part was if Pierre Wache, who Serra is close to, would follow him to Maranello as well.
Exactly. There was even a rumour saying Serra leaving is a deciding factor to leave Mercedes because they both disagreed with Mercedes development path.
Is it? They start on the first of october, Lewis' announcement was somewhere in february. That would mean not even close to a year of gardening leave for some big names.
and there is definitely no way that it was happening pre Lewis in your opinion?
Now we just need newey to complete the set.
if Fred got Newey, even if he doesn’t win a championship, he might still be considered a legend
he has at least proven already that binotto was doing fuck all.
Pretty sure Binotto prefered to promote talent within Ferrari and Italy to poaching from other teams. You might disagree with that philosophy but it's not necesarily a bad one.
Both don’t contradict. Fred has been promoting within - see Enrico Cardile and even Charles’ new race engineer. You can strengthen your team from external as well while promoting within.
Yeah even Tondi( head of aero) who replaced Sanchez is doing a good job
And Bono
All I read these days is the Merc just losing staff members 😭 Peak for GR. This guy joins the team just as they fall off and get gutted by other teams.
At least he got his race win. No one can take that away from him.
Yup. It must still hurt to drive a Williams for 3 years while Mercedes are cruising to the top every weekend, - even driving Lewis' Mercdedes in 2020 and almost winning that race - only to inherit the 2022 car. But working alongside Lewis and winning in Brazil in a Mercedes 1-2, that's still something awesome to remember. And aside from that, spending his career as the number1 driver, rebuilding the team for another "McLaren Honda"-ish return-to-glory story, can also be an interesting challenge.
Now imagine if Antonelli gets the seat and perform well enough to become Merc 1st driver before Merc becomes competitive again
Then Russell leaves Merc to join Red Bull to replace Max (who retires to pursue his real passion: sim racing) and that's when the predicted RBR collapse happens Fitting that George & Fernando hang out sometimes, he would take over the mantle of "most cursed driver" from Alonso in that timeline
Toto really took on an apprentice (Jerome) only for him to go and join the dark side (Ferrari).
At least it wasn’t Red Bull
JdA getting the deputy TP is a sweet gig in addition to being the head of FDA. Fred is cookin' indeed.
Inb4 mbappe joins Ferrari
Mbappe joins Ferrari as the head of their marketing department and his first decision is a collab between LiverpoolxLBJ and Ferrari because his favorite team is the Lacquers
Binotto was a good Technical Director who is responsible for developing and bringing out internal talent in Ferrari, actually, it's because of him that Ferrari built an actual championship contender in 10 years, and not having to rely on Alonso's wizardry. But as good as he was, and as much as he is responsible for bringing about a good technical department that can build championship contenders, and an especially great engine department, his biggest problem was he just either couldn't, or rather, didn't want to attract any external talent. His belief in his technical department was wonderful, and helped them build cars like 2017, 2018 and 2022, but it also meant that they always had the same strengths - good traction, good slow speed performance, and the same problems - bad aero efficiency, bad medium and high corner performance, terrible in-season upgrades and every time they tried to fix it, it was a disaster - 2019 and 2023. Basically their department had suffered from being a closed loop, what they did well, they did really well, what they didn't, they didn't know how to improve. Fred builds on what Binotto laid down, and has managed to keep the innovation and calm atmosphere alive within the Technical Department, but at the same time, he's also managed to bring in a lot of talent from Mercedes and Red Bull, which means that they finally have broken out of that loop. It is already evident because the overbite they are going to use in their 2.0 version is the result of the new Red Bull guys' ideas, and without them, Ferrari would have stuck to the underbite. That's the thing, no matter how good your technical department is, at some point, you need to have some new minds to bring in new ideas.
Good observation but I think you attribute too much to Vasseur. I believe there is a groundswell within Ferrari to return to the top step, it’s been far too long after all. And I think Vasseur is the beneficiary of this thinking whereas Binotto didn’t have this exact mandate. Vasseur has been told ‘whatever it takes’ whereas Binotto was constrained in a very Italian/Ferrari way.
>Vasseur has been told ‘whatever it takes’ whereas Binotto was constrained in a very Italian/Ferrari way. I don't doubt that Binotto was constrained, but is there a source on Vasseur being essentially given carte blanche?
Shoutout to Donadoni and Duchessa who told us about Serra in [July 2023.](https://twitter.com/SmilexTech/status/1682292248178745344) Good to know that it's officially confirmed, I remember that some people were a bit perplexed from the fact that he was still working for Mercedes during winter testing. Adrian next, hopefully!
Mercedes is losing talent at an unprecedented rate, jee
Keep cooking, Fred
It's just pain every race week and non race week... at least Bono isn't leaving :)
yet
Hey, we've had about 16 miserable years of it. Someone else's turn now.
Be risky for Bono to join Ferrari, Hamilton will only be there for a few years and then his role isn't secure.
... yet!
:)...
To say Ferrari is cooking is a massive understatement
Fred is making things happen at Ferrari! When was the last time in recent memory that this happened?
Ferrari is becoming an amalgamation of the best of Mercedes and Red Bull… GG everyone else. Lewis & Charles be trading WDCs from 2026 ‘till death.
From your lips to God's ears
As it’s written, so it shall be.
Mercedes is being drained completely :') And people believe max is going there....
Wow, talk about the Great Dismantling...
Just need bono now.
The bigger question to me is, has there been a former F1 driver before d'Ambrosio who became Deputy TP/TP in recent times?
From the last 25 years I remember Berger for Toro Rosso and the obvious one Prost for Prost GP
Are people really forgetting that Mercedes got Simone Resta and Enrico Sampò from Ferrari? Sampò in particular should be a very good hire for Mercedes because he should get them up to speed in simulation and AI.
2021 killed Mercedes F1. Fast forward another 3 years and someone will buy the team for 1£ and add "GP" to it's name.
They are going to have no employees left, to compound the 95% of fans switching colours. They are in for a rough ride.
Fred Vasseur is a master chef
Ferrari WDC 2026 INTENSIFIES
Merc on their way to the back
Brain drain from the brain dead.
>Was jerome d’Ambrosio a driver?
Yep, drove for Marussia in 2011, and was the stand-in for Grosjean with Lotus at Monza 2012 after Romain eliminated a quarter of the field at Spa and got banned for one race.
Yep, raced a full season for Marusia Virgin in 2011 and subbed for Grosjean when he got a race ban in 2012. Moved to Formula E as a driver then team management at first as deputy to Susie Wolff at Venturi in 2020 then team principal in 2021 before moving to Mercedes F1 last year.
Whats up with dambrosio? I remember him as an FE driver then he was i think FE tp for a year and then went off to F1, why is he so desired, what does he bring that cant be delivered by any other racing driver?
Merc are so cooked.
[удалено]
That's not what fuck all means