Ferrari identify new technical director with big free agent signing ruled out

Loic Serra is poised to become Ferrari’s new technical director following his arrival from Mercedes later in the F1 2024 season, it has been claimed.

And Ferrari has ruled out a move for former Mercedes tech boss Mike Elliott, with team principal Fred Vasseur showing ‘no interest’ in the engineer behind the troubled zero-pod car concept of 2022/23.

Loic Serra to become new Ferrari F1 technical director?

Ferrari has been on the lookout for a new technical director since it was announced last month that Enrico Cardile will join Aston Martin for the F1 2025 season.

Vasseur himself has been holding the role on an interim basis since Cardile’s departure was confirmed, with the Frenchman balancing the role with his duties as team principal.

Ferrari announced a double signing from Mercedes in May, with Serra and Jerome D’Ambrosio, the former Marussia and Lotus-Renault F1 driver, set to start in October as head of chassis performance engineering and deputy team principal respectively.

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Serra was originally intended to report directly to Cardile, covering areas spanning track engineering, aero development, aero operations and vehicle performance.

With Cardile moving on since his appointment was announced, however, Italian publication Formu1a.uno reports that Serra is expected to combine the roles of head of chassis and technical director, directly replacing the soon-to-be Aston Martin man.

Serra will work alongside Diego Tondi, who has been serving as head of aerodynamics this year after reportedly refusing to follow Cardile to Aston Martin.

The report claims that Vasseur’s technical structure at Ferrari is likely to mirror that deployed by McLaren, with up to three different technical directors – Serra, Tondi and chief project engineer Fabio Montecchi – taking responsibility for different areas of the car.

Although Elliott remains out of work since leaving with Mercedes last year, it is said that the former Silver Arrows engineer is ‘not on Ferrari’s radar.’

The reports of Serra’s appointment to the role of technical director role is likely to come as good news to Lewis Hamilton’s marquee signing for the F1 2025 season.

Reports last year claimed that Serra had shared Hamilton’s reservations over the zero-pod concept pursued by Elliott’s technical team at Mercedes in the early years of the ground-effect era, with the seven-time World Champion suffering two consecutive winless seasons in 2022 and 2023.

Elliott swapped roles with James Allison following a poor start to last season before parting company with Mercedes in October.

Serra’s move to Ferrari came after the Scuderia failed in multiple approaches for Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache, with Vasseur and his predecessor Mattia Binotto – Ferrari team boss between 2019 and 2022 – both attempting to sign the Frenchman at various points.

It is claimed that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner “did everything to keep” Wache, repeatedly rewarding him with new contracts “at the drop of a hat” to resist Ferrari’s attempts to sign him.

Serra is known to be a close associate of Wache, with the pair working together at both Michelin and BMW-Sauber before rising to prominence at Mercedes and Red Bull respectively.

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