Loic Serra explains why most influential improvements are these not seen

February 22, 2025

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Frederic Vasseur made it clear that the SF-25 will not be a revolution of its predecessor however slightly an evolution, primarily as a result of the small margins in final 12 months’s championship confirmed that it was pointless to fully change the automobile, however slightly to deal with key areas.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply that Maranello’s newest creation doesn’t characterize a transparent break from the earlier season’s automobile, as some modifications are extra vital than they could seem.

Though the SF-24 ended the 12 months on an upward trajectory and fought for the Constructors’ Championship title till the ultimate race, it had reached its peak evolution. As usually occurs, extra substantial adjustments had been wanted to unlock additional potential. Such interventions are usually postponed to the event of the next 12 months’s automobile, particularly in the event that they contain the chassis or vital modifications to the suspension system.

This was additionally the case for the SF-25 undertaking, whose growth, a minimum of in its embryonic part, started final March, nicely upfront of the tip of final season. Nevertheless, it advanced in parallel with the 2024 single-seater to grasp which areas required probably the most radical interventions to unlock further efficiency in 2025.

The improvements open new growth paths
Talking on the sidelines of the filming day of the brand new automobile, throughout which the SF-25 accomplished its first kilometers, technical director Loic Serra emphasised this facet and the way sure adjustments, even seemingly minor ones, had been made particularly to transcend the bounds of its predecessor.

“The work on the SF-25 started in March of final 12 months, so when it comes to growth, it’s a development of the SF-24. It’s because I solely arrived at Ferrari in October when all the selections had already been made. However we should always not assume that every little thing was finalized as early as September as a result of this can be a steady course of that lasts all through your entire season,” Loic Serra defined in a current interview for the Italian media after the official reveal of the brand new Ferrari Method 1 automobile for the 2025 championship.

“Normally, the strategy is to seek out room for enchancment in growth. All of this had develop into inconceivable with the SF-24. We basically needed to make sense of it by optimizing what we already had.”

“For the reason that technical rules have reached their closing 12 months, with these vehicles, every little thing is predicated on particulars. We centered on the entrance suspension, however that’s solely probably the most seen a part of the tip of the iceberg. Many of the automobile is new, and it isn’t essentially one thing that may be seen with the bare eye from the skin, however these are exactly the elements which have the best affect,” added Loic Serra.

There are additionally many much less eye-catching however essential features, such because the redesign of the gearbox and the modification of the wheelbase—adjustments that go hand in hand with quite a few interventions geared toward unlocking potential even within the medium-to-long time period. The swap to the pull-rod format on the entrance is probably the most simply noticeable innovation, however modifying the suspension format and repositioning the parts additionally means rethinking airflow administration alongside the bodywork, opening up new growth paths that had reached their restrict with the SF-24.

The event of the SF-25 was designed on two fronts
Ferrari’s engineers have subsequently labored on two fronts. Some interventions had been aimed extra at delivering instant efficiency, in order that, a minimum of within the engineers’ hopes, the 2025 undertaking could be aggressive proper from the beginning of the 12 months with out having to chase rivals.

Different adjustments, then again, function a type of groundwork for the medium time period, anticipating the updates that can arrive within the early a part of the championship. “The primary goal with the SF-25 was to create room to push aerodynamic growth, but additionally, extra usually, for the updates that can come all through the season. The SF-24 ended the season very nicely, however it had develop into inconceivable to seek out additional margin for efficiency enhancements.”

It’s not uncommon for sure winter modifications to be aimed extra at unlocking efficiency within the medium time period slightly than instantly, and it’s no coincidence that Frederic Vasseur has defined how this 12 months’s growth program will likely be versatile.

There will likely be a much less steep studying curve
Twelve months in the past, Ferrari was in a totally completely different state of affairs from the present one. In 2023, it determined to desert the idea that debuted with the F1-75, shifting in direction of options utilized by its rivals, with a definitive transition to a distinct philosophy that materialized with the SF-24.

This clearly required a interval of understanding the undertaking to raised grasp its functioning, in addition to its strengths and limitations. Quite the opposite, though there are vital adjustments this 12 months, such because the swap to the pull-rod suspension, the idea of the SF-25 has remained similar to that of its predecessor.

This can make the educational curve much less steep than prior to now: “Despite the fact that the automobile has modified lots, it’s a continuation of its predecessor. Now we have modified many inner parts, however the philosophy stays the identical. We hope that the event margin will give us that further increase in comparison with final 12 months.”

Particulars could make the distinction, beginning with the tires
Clearly, the Frenchman solely joined Ferrari as technical director final October, so many key undertaking selections had been really made by different engineers. Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply that Serra can’t contribute as early as 2025 and never only for 2026.

In his earlier experiences, Serra was thought-about a tire specialist, and this is without doubt one of the areas the place Ferrari, like different groups, can nonetheless extract potential, notably in qualifying, the place final 12 months it struggled to get the tires into the appropriate working window.

In current weeks, we’ve got mentioned how some modifications adopted with the SF-25, notably within the suspension space, had been designed to handle a few of the weaknesses of its predecessor. This isn’t simply in regards to the entrance pull-rod suspension, which was chosen primarily for aerodynamic causes, however extra importantly in regards to the inner parts that make it up, such because the torsion bars and dampers, in an effort to maximise the efficiency of the Pirelli tires.

The SF-24 was a automobile that was mild on its tires within the race, able to making them final a very long time, however to develop into an all-around aggressive automobile, it wanted to make progress in single-lap efficiency by bettering tire administration. Attaining this stability is actually not easy, however it was one of many key strengths of the McLaren MCL38. A few of the adjustments on the SF-25 are aimed exactly on this route.

Loic Serra himself is satisfied that, as an knowledgeable in automobile dynamics, there may be nonetheless lots to extract from the tires, particularly contemplating that with such a tightly packed grid, as is anticipated for many groups, each fraction of a second may make a major distinction in positioning and race prospects.

“If we take into consideration final 12 months’s grid, the automobile forward of us was about 30 milliseconds quicker. Based mostly on that, each single millisecond we are able to discover aerodynamically, within the suspension system, or, most significantly, in tire administration, actually makes an enormous distinction. In qualifying, the tires may give extra.”