F1 News: Ferrari Confirms Huge Milestone

In a significant development for Ferrari, the prestigious Italian team has confirmed the green light for their 2025 car project. Fred Vasseur, Ferrari's team principal, shared insightful details about their proactive strides into future seasons, reflecting on the limitations and challenges posed by the sport's current regulatory and financial parameters.

Vasseur explained the evolving competitive landscape of Formula 1, where even top teams like Red Bull find it increasingly difficult to eke out performance gains under static rules.

"With the cost cap and the current regulation, you have to manage both sides," Vasseur said, quoted by Autosport, underscoring the delicate balance teams must maintain in their development strategies. "The development rate is much lower than it was two years ago. It means that each time that someone is bringing an upgrade, the gain is smaller than it was two years ago, and this is normal."

This season, Ferrari has already demonstrated its potential with two Grand Prix victories and a notable performance boost at the Monaco Grand Prix, thanks to significant upgrades tailored for their lead driver, Charles Leclerc. With plans to introduce further developments at upcoming races such as the British Grand Prix and specific aerodynamic configurations for the Canada and Spain Grand Prix, Ferrari's aggressive development trajectory shows no signs of slowing.

However, it's not just the immediate future that Ferrari is preparing for. Vasseur revealed that alongside the current season's upgrades, a portion of the Ferrari team is already pivoting towards the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

"Part of the team is working on the next updates that we will see during this season, and another is already focused on next year's. We have already given the go-ahead to the 2025 car," he stated. Furthermore, Vasseur added: "Work has already started some time ago on the 2026 power unit. With regards to the chassis and aerodynamics, we can hypothesize a few concepts, but nothing more given that there are no [agreed] regulations yet.”

Speculation about major technical overhauls within Ferrari's design philosophy adds another layer of intrigue to their future plans. Notably, there's an ongoing discussion about possibly adopting a pull-rod front suspension system — akin to those utilized by Red Bull and McLaren — touted for its ability to keep the front of the car level under braking to maintain aerodynamic balance. Enrico Cardile, a key figure within Ferrari's technical team, touched on their current suspension setup's efficiency:

“We recorded good aero results moving towards this direction. When moving from pull-rod to push-rod we didn't measure a big advantage to justify some compromise in terms of weight or compliance so from there we evolved our suspension, keeping the same layout.”

Moreover, rumors of aerodynamics expert Adrian Newey's potential move from Red Bull to Ferrari could herald transformative changes at Maranello. Newey's renowned expertise may be just the catalyst Ferrari needs to spearhead these radical design transitions, particularly as they focus on the challenges and opportunities that 2026's uncertain regulatory environment will bring.