The new technical director responsible for the chassis has Italian origins and supported Platini: “I immediately liked Ferrari. A great challenge”. D’Ambrosio, deputy team principal: “Incredible welcome at the Scuderia”
There are two new faces among the ranks of the Prancing Horse protagonists wanted by Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur at the annual meeting in Maranello with journalists for the closing of the Formula 1 season. They are Loic Serra, the new technical director of the red team, and Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Vasseur’s right-hand man and deputy team principal, both active in the Italian company since October to work on the 2025 project, which will come to life on February 19th, the day of the presentation of the new single-seater, the first driven by the driver duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
the past with hamilton
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Both new Ferrari signings have already had the opportunity to work with Lewis Hamilton in the past thanks to their respective positions at Mercedes. Loic Serra contributed to the successful years of Toto Wolff’s team, following the English champion in all the seasons of his world victories with the team, taking on the role of performance director from 2019, as responsible for performance. A position that allowed him to know Hamilton thoroughly and to be able to bet on his future in red: “Lewis’ difficulties seen on the track recently? They don’t scare me. He’s an extraordinary driver who is always thirsty for new challenges and who, I’m sure, will be as fast in Ferrari as in his best years at the helm of F1.” Even d’Ambrosio, albeit for a shorter time, had the opportunity to get to know Hamilton in the working context, during his 2023 in Berkeley in the role of manager of the Mercedes Junior Team: “Lewis is an extraordinary professional – explained the former Belgian driver in the context of the Prancing Horse’s Christmas lunch with journalists from the international press – he knows how to manage a working group and it won’t take him long to adapt to Italy and Maranello”.
Ferrari Italian passion
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A change of life, that of Hamilton in 2025, which brings him together with the two new faces of the Vasseur team, both of whom recently moved to Italy. “The welcome here is incredible” admitted d’Ambrosio, who with his wife and two children has found a home in Bologna, describing how all the Italians he met in recent months have shown great support and interest in the news of his role within of the Scuderia del Cavallino. Like D’Ambrosio, Serra also recently moved to Italy, to Modena in his case, with his family, to be close to the factory and work needs: “Moving to another country is always an important change but doing it to come to Maranello is special, it is a place where you can breathe passion.” For both, however, the commitment required, they said, will not only be in the factory but also on the track during the long Formula 1 season which will officially open in March with the Australian GP.
Ferraris on the track
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D’Ambrosio, who said in Maranello that he has an office opposite that of the French team principal to be able to communicate with him continuously, will follow almost all the race weekends of the season in 2025, stopping at around 18-20 races in total out of the 24 scheduled in the championship. “We will decide with the progress of the season which ones to skip – explained the former driver – but it will be significant to study the calendar carefully in order to be able to provide support to the company in the decisive moments of the season also in view of the 2026 project”. A role between factory and track that will also divide Loic Serra over the next year, committed on the one hand to carrying forward a season of great expectations and ambitions, and on the other the important developments on the single-seater that we will see at the center of the new Formula cycle 1 starting from 2026. Professional challenges for both new faces of the Cavallino, great protagonists of the day at Fiorano, between ambitions and convictions, like the one that has guided the work of the teams of which Jérôme was part for years D’Ambrosio: “For me it is essential not to treat drivers as ex-drivers but to look at them with a different eye, as a professional, and for this reason since I stopped racing I have chosen not to get into the car anymore.” A soul that remains though racing like that of his colleague Serra, who Vasseur himself described using this term and explaining that he wanted him with him because today in F1 he is “one of the best engineers around”. Challenges, great and ambitious, those that can be read in the words of the two new faces of Ferrari, professionals who during the day joined the already well-known Enrico Gualtieri, Matteo Togninalli and Diego Ioverno. A team, that of Vasseur, that knows in which direction it wants to go. And she is ready to do it without fear.
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