Ferrari attracted 25 new employees and is not done yet, according to Vasseur
General
One of Frederic Vasseur's spearheads when he took over as Ferrari team boss was to bring in people from outside. The Frenchman, who came over from Alfa Romeo Racing, argued that more knowledge and insight was needed from personnel currently working at competitors. Ferrari has since hired 25 new employees, Vasseur revealed.
In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Vasseur says he hopes it does not stop at those 25. " We are looking for more," he states. The engineers recruited, by the way, are all not yet working at the Maranello factory. This is because they are currently sitting out their gardening leave and may not start working for Ferrari until early 2024.
New arrival Ferrari
Vasseur also confirmed the arrival of Loic Serra, Performance Director of Mercedes. He only starts on 1 January 2025 according to the current schedule. "But we are trying to bring that forward. How can I convince Toto Wolff to release him earlier? I will try when we are on the boat together.... But, as happened with [Laurent] Mekies, sometimes you also have people leaving Ferrari, situations cross and you can negotiate about it."
Mekies will have to sit on the sidelines for less than a year and can start working as AlphaTauri's team boss straight away from the beginning of January. In return, Ferrari can make use of a Red Bull engineer making the switch to Ferrari earlier than planned.
As team boss, Vasseur spent a lot of time recruiting new staff. The 55-year-old top man held countless interviews with candidates. "Let's say this quickly became the most important part of my job at Ferrari. You have to build good relationships and convince people to move. The first ones you persuade are the hardest, then the others [naturally] follow."