By Carlo Platella
“Loic has great experience and will be a key element in our organization. It also brings a huge track experiencewhich is important for the team.” This is how Frederic Vasseur describes Loic Serra, freshly appointed as technical director of the Cavallino, and reading his CV it is easy to understand why. The French engineer worked in the research and development department of Michelin’s Formula 1 program from 2003 to 2006. Serra then moved to Sauber and in 2010 to Mercedes, working in both cases in the performance field. The added value of the new technical director is not the aerodynamic experience, but rather the years spent dealing with vehicle dynamics, suspensions and tuning, learning how to make a car work to extract its maximum potential. Even before skills, Loic Serra brings a gift mindset which will shape the next Ferraris starting from how they should behave on the track.
The needs of the track
Loic Serra’s work history demonstrates his profound knowledge of what allows a project to express its potential, of which design characteristics translate into gains on the clock. The new technical director’s track experiences lead him to listen and understand the needs of the pilots, to then be translated into numerical objectives for the design team. Formula 1 teaches how load and aerodynamic efficiency cannot be ends in themselves, but must be exploitable by the driver. It means ensuring correct distribution of loads on the four wheels, seeking a balance that accommodates the preferences of the drivers in all cornering phases. Never more than with abrupt ground effect cars is it a priority to give the driver a drivable car, instilling in him the confidence necessary to take it to the limit and express the potential of the project.
A similar discussion concerns the tyres, with Loic Serra decidedly knowledgeable in understanding how the distribution of aerodynamic loads and the characteristics of the suspensions affect the use of the tyres. He also knows himself well in the field of performance the value of a wide operating windowtherefore of a robust car, whose competitiveness is affected as little as possible by changes in external conditions. Last, but not least, those who work on vehicle dynamics and tuning are aware of the importance of a suspension assembly that offers numerous adjustment options. Ferrari now has in its new technical director a profound knowledge of all the practical needs of a car on the track, which there is reason to believe he will try to satisfy with the next projects that will arise under his supervision.
New concept
With the appointment of Serra Ferrari is moving towards a change of concept of their cars, not to be confused with simple aerodynamic lines. Rather this consists of “process through which you decide what you consider positive and what is not”, using the words of Mercedes technical director James Allison (Sky Sport F1). “It’s the method of filtering the countless solutions you could put in the car and only finding the ones you really think will improve the lap time.” With Loic Serra the Cavallino is therefore undergoing a change of concept understood as a methodology, of which the car itself will only be the result.
The new technical director’s task will be to exploit his experience in understanding the most rewarding qualities on the track, translating them into numerical objectives such as load distribution to the various configurations, stability, robustness to external conditions, suspension characteristics, vehicle dynamics parameters and so on . Given your area of expertise, it will instead be up to the other department heads devise the most suitable architectures and solutions to achieve these objectives, including the new aerodynamic manager Diego Tondi.
Transformation underway
The Ferraris of previous years lacked balance, stability and handling. The latest Reds showed flashes of excellent performances, but limited to qualifying and some particular conditions. They are the sign of a team capable of developing cars with very high load peaks and efficiency, limited however by a narrow operating window, poor driveability and therefore not very exploitable. There is therefore great curiosity to see if Loic Serra manages to better channel the skills already present in Maranellotranslating aerodynamic development into cars that are more consistent, predictable and capable of fighting for the title. In this, the choice of the new technical director is functional to the revolution undertaken this year with the SF-24, when driveability and race performance were placed at the center of the project.
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