Ferrari has been a bit of a trailblazer this season when it comes to clever design tricks on its Formula 1 car.

We have had the ‘Macarena’ rear wing and the exhaust wing. And it was also the first to run winglets on its halo.

On each of those counts, Ferrari has pushed the boundaries of the regulations to unlock pockets of performance that have left rivals both inquisitive and ready to jump on board with their own imitations.

While none of the ideas are magic bullet solutions that alone will push the team to the front of the grid, they do shine a light on a change of mindset at Maranello under the watch of team boss Fred Vasseur.

Gone is a conservatism where staff often played it safe to not put their head above the parapet for fear of a failure that would expose them.

In came an approach of seeking marginal gains in every area, which has further thrived since the arrival of technical director Loic Serra in October 2024.

In an exclusive interview with The Race, Vasseur says this shift of approach is something that stands out for him – as he had indeed discovered on his arrival that there was too much playing it safe before.

“It's not that there was a culture of fear or blame or whatever - but maybe it was a bit on the back foot,” he said.

“The first thing that shocked me when I joined was the gap that we had on every single topic, just because we didn't want to be exposed.

“Add a kilo more weight [to be safe with the limit], half or litre or more [of fuel], open the sidepod more, one step more. At the end of the day, when you put everything on the table, it was two tenths.

“You can't be at zero [margin]. But between zero and two tenths there is one tenth. And if you consider the average between us and the guy in front of us last year was three hundredths of a second, you can imagine the impact of one tenth on the season.

“This mindset, I'm pushing like hell to convince everybody that they are all a performance contributor. It’s the mindset of Loic, too.”

Vasseur says his push to get everyone to take things closer to the limit includes being open to more extreme ideas that deliver performance in areas that others have not thought of.

“In terms of innovation, it's a message that we have to push everything, all day, to say ‘don't be shy,’” he said.

“If you have something to propose, be open. We never blame someone if you have something to propose and it's not working.

“You’ve seen some examples in the car - and some others will come. They have this mindset that we are pushing them to innovate, and it's of great help.”

Bigger-picture thinking

Vasseur is also a pragmatist, though, and is clear that the success of the mindset at the team is not based on how much innovation is on his car compared to others. What matters is laptime.

“Don't overestimate what I said,” he smiles. “Sometimes you have innovation that you can see, sometimes you have innovation that you will never see because you can see only the aero side.

“Also, the target is not to innovate. The target is to win. Innovation makes sense only if it works. I don't want the wings doing the things [Vasseur flaps hands to imitate the Macarena wing movement] if it’s not paying off.

“I'm quite happy with the job done on this and the mindset, too, because I have the feeling that they feel more free.”

The change of mindset counts also for judging the success of the various departments. It’s no longer simply a case of the engine department coming up with the most horsepower, and the chassis department delivering the most downforce points, and bringing those two elements together.

“As a race team, you could imagine that it's obvious - but it's never obvious. The only KPI [key performance indicator] of the team has to be laptime.

“Too often in a racing team, KPI is [downforce] load for the guys of aero, it's horsepower for the guys of the engine, and they don't care about the weight or the cooling.

“I'm trying to push the message that, collectively, the only KPI is laptime. Innovation is the same.”

Gauging Serra’s impact

Ferrari’s ability to be at the forefront of design tricks in F1 has been helped by Serra joining.

His October 2024 arrival was too late for him to have much of a role in sorting out the fundamentals of the SF-25 – with its direction having been set by predecessor Enrico Cardile, who had left for Aston Martin (via some gardening leave) months before.

Vasseur concedes that Ferrari was “put in the corner” at the start of last year by the ride height problems that triggered its disqualification in China. That prompted conservatism in set-up approaches thereafter and the call to abandon development early and focus everything on 2026.

Serra’s impact was therefore limited in terms of the here and now for 2025.

Vasseur concedes it was not an easy situation for Serra to find himself in, especially with last year’s car having some critical issues.

“When you join an F1 team you need a couple of months,” he said. “It went quite quickly, but it’s difficult also to take care of a project when you are not at the beginning, when decisions have been made and you have to jump on something when you have other projects coming down the pipeline.

“Honestly, the situation was not easy, but he was able to put some focus on operations. And I think it was important for us.

“Sometimes we did a very good job last year at the end of the season, in terms of operation. And it was the best preparation for this year."

The quality that Vasseur says has stood out the most is Serra’s competitiveness – in never accepting anything less than pushing everything to the limit.

“Loic is a competitor with huge experience from racing, from the track, from operation also, with the past at Michelin [Serra was a Michelin engineer until its F1 exit in 2006].

“I think this is a step forward for us. I don’t want to make bad comparisons or whatever. But he's a proper racer, chasing the last fractions of seconds everywhere. It was a good push for the team.”

The development war ahead

Ferrari’s step forward this season has seen it in the fight for podiums, but not yet in a position to win races. But Vasseur is aware the development race will be very aggressive.

“We need to have the mindset this season that we have room [to improve] everywhere,” he said.

“Honestly, I don't know about the others, but we will bring upgrades that, when last year they brought us hundredths of seconds, now it will be by tenths of seconds this year. For me the ratio is one to 10.

“So more than the picture [on track], it will be the capacity of the team to develop, the capacity of the team to understand where we can improve, where the others are doing a better job, why they are doing a better job. It is to be very open-minded on this and to have the capacity to develop.”

And there is one element that rings true about Ferrari being able to capitalise and make the necessary steps: it’s having the right mindset, and the willingness to embrace leftfield ideas that can contribute to progress.

Vasseur adds: “If each time that you are bringing two or three tenths, you are able to anticipate [get ahead] by one race over the season, [it's very beneficial].

"To have the capacity to develop, you need to have the ideas, you need to have the capacity of production. The time to market will be key.”

Ideas is something Ferrari is no longer lacking.