Vasseur pushes for innovations: “Before we were too defensive. I’m changing this mentality”

Vasseur working on the Ferrari mentality In the first part of the 2026 World Championship, Ferrari stood out not so much for its results but for its ability to introduce innovative technical solutions, such as the “Macarena” wing and the one on the exhaust which set a precedent but which the FIA ​​would even like to ban from the next championship. These are elements that are not game-changers, as team principal Frederic Vasseur likes to say, but 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 desire to experiment has emerged less than in other contexts, perhaps for fear of failure: an approach that, also with the help of Loïc Serra, the team principal wanted to overturn, as demonstrated by the fourth year of his management. Vasseur’s words “It’s not that there was a culture of fear or of ‘pointing the finger’ at anyone, but perhaps we were a bit 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 sure you added a kilo of weight, or half a liter of petrol, you opened the sidepod more, or whatever. And when you put everything on the table, it was two tenths.” “You always have to have a safety margin, you can’t stay at zero. But between zero and two tenths there is a 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 a tenth on the season”, he added. “I’m trying with all my might to convince everyone that this mentality is fundamental to the success of the project. And it’s Loïc’s mentality too. We have to push as hard as we can in terms of innovation, without being afraid. If an engineer has something to propose, let him say it. We never blame anyone if someone has a proposal and it doesn’t work. Now we’ve seen some examples on the SF-26, and more will come.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-05-14 03:00:17