The tradition continues. At Ferrari they did not find fertile ground to express their ambitions and abilities and had to go to the competition's home to fully demonstrate their qualities. The privileged Maranello – Brackley line has reopened, because for action there is reaction.
Fred Vasseur went to shuffle the cards of Mercedes: he “stole” Lewis Hamilton from Toto Wolff for 2025, signing the transfer coup of the year, the head of the Driver Academy, Jerome D'Ambrosio after he had convinced his compatriot Loic Serra to leave the Star to become the Cavallino coach in 2025. The Frenchman, joining Enrico Cardile's staff, will have to conceive the 2026 single-seater as soon as he has concluded his gardening period, given that Loic, still operational, will leave Mercedes in the next few days and his place will be taken by an internal promotion.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Jerome d'Ambrosio, Driver Development Director, Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Simone Resta's arrival in Brackley, therefore, has exactly the flavor of an… exchange: revolving doors have opened and the engineer from Imola, who found the entrances to the Gestion Sportiva blocked upon his return to Maranello after three years technical director at Haas, he saw fit to get on the elevator that takes him straight to Great Britain to make a change in his career.
Resta becomes the Strategic Development Director with the task of drawing the first lines of a Mercedes for the 2026 regulation which will have to be created without the errors that have characterized the latest black-silver arrows.
Aldo Costa in Mercedes: today he is technical director of Dallara
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
And the memory can only go to Aldo Costa, the Ferrari pioneer who opened the route in 2011, followed by James Allison in 2015, by the engineer Lorenzo Sassi in 2017 and by Giacomo Tortora in 2020 who was responsible for the dynamics of the vehicle and the simulator.
Giacomo Tortora
Photo by: Franco Nugnes
In the wake of Simone, who obtained the prestigious role at Mercedes that they didn't want to give him at Maranello, Enrico Sampò also arrives in Brackley and will become head of performance software applications.
Enrico Sampò, Ferrari, Head of driving simulator who will go to Mercedes in 2025
Photo by: Ferrari
The engineer from Bagnolo Po will bring with him the experience of the Ferrari simulator, considered among the most advanced and modern of current F1, giving impetus to development in the Brackley simulation area after the W15, like the two previous single-seaters , reveals an inadequate correlation between the wind tunnel and the track. It is curious to note how the battle is not only fought on the track, but also in the factories which are constantly evolving structures to incorporate the latest innovations that technology makes available.
It is interesting to note how James Allison, who fell out with Sergio Marchionne, Ferrari president at the time, created a sort of enclave of the Cavallino at Mercedes: it is no mystery that Simone Resta, just like Lorenzo Sassi, were two reference figures of the British technical director when he was head of GeS and with whom they had also found a good human connection.
Mercedes has been looking for an expert figure who has complete knowledge of an F1 single-seater: after having dominated the era of hybrid cars, the Mercedes has “patched” with ground effect single-seaters so it has the opportunity to relaunch itself with the new 2026 regulation which will pose very complicated challenges, not easy to solve.
Modern F1 is the result of teamwork, but it is incredible how a person who is demotivated in one environment can flourish again in another, making an important contribution to the result. Resta will join Brackley at the beginning of 2025, just like Serra in Maranello: we will find out which of the two senior engineers will contribute to a staff that focuses heavily on stability. Nice challenge…
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