Forum Discussion

Hero (Retired)

Re: 2024 Season Grand Prix Megathread

@TheRagebeard Mostly rumours as of now, but Loïc Serra was poached by Ferrari last year and Riccardo Musconi has been linked to a potential move to Ferrari following Hamilton.

You'll notice a distinct lack of Englishness to their names - as it quite common with top performing staff in all of F1 teams, multiculturaled as they are.

There are gardening leaves and no-poaching clauses to defend from those things, but I would not downplay this possibility based on a "who wants to work in backwater Italy countryside for Ferrari".
It is Ferrari, for all the good and bad that that name entails in F1. And it is Italy, a EU country in a multinational sport brimming with international talent.

UK is indeed the motorsports engineering stable of talent, it is no coincidence that (German) Mercedes is based on Brackley. But the talent is international and Ferrari has long since pushed for a multicultural staff as well for those exact reasons - talent being bred and groomed in the UK.

TheRagebeard
Hero+
2 years ago
@mariohomoh Your right, I'm sure all of the top teams have international staff at the top levels. Ignore the standings as they're a bit skewed atm due to Max's DNF and Perez doing Perez things and not getting the Super Bull on the podium, but I feel like Ferrari are more than a 40 year old Hamilton and 2 engineers away from dominating F1.
Plus it's not like they're poaching engineers from the all-conquering Mercedes era. They're poaching engineers who helped design the porpoising zero side pod Mercedes who apparently has an evil twin sister. Also if Hamilton takes engineers with him than I'm sure Vettel and Alonso did too back in the day and that didn't exactly pay dividends.
I'm just saying it seems like Ferarri is trending in the right direction, other than Aston sticking their nose in their last spring and Mclaren doing the same last summer, Ferrari seem like the one most likely to catch Red Bull and now seems like a bad time to roll the dice and shake things up.
mariohomoh
Hero (Retired)
2 years ago
@TheRagebeard Hamilton's signing is the only shocker here. Well that and Horner's kicking up trouble and making the accosting of Red Bull's top talent even more severe. At this point, Newey and Max moving would all still be shocking but I don't think no one could say they did not see these cards slipping in the deck.

Mercedes has been bleeding talent for a few years now. The "Brackley Boys™" are no more - and I kid you not, that's how they became known in the paddock.
I don't think there's much sense into putting that much stock into any one's individual name. Yes, there's always been mini-exoduses and engineering talent following as a given driver's entourage. But those are the ebbs and flows of a collective sport and of a collective operation. They set a trend.

Loic Serra was with Mercedes since 2013 and the rumour mill has it that he was one of those that firmly rejected the zeropod aero concept of 2022. He was one of the key hires that Vasseur made in his project to revamp Ferrari's technical staff.
TheRagebeard
Hero+
2 years ago
@mariohomoh Well hopefully you are correct as I would like to see Ferrari give the bulls a proper run for their money, But I'm afraid I must remain skeptical until I see some solid dividends being paid out.