Ferrari's two staff hires from Mercedes to start work in October

Ferrari has hired two new senior staff members from Mercedes ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at the team next year.

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Jerome D’Ambrosio, who raced in Formula 1 before turning to a management career, and Loic Serra will join Ferrari in October.

Serra’s planned move from Mercedes was already known. He joined Mercedes after stints at tyre manufacurter Michelin and BMW Sauber.

His time at Mercedes coincided with the peak of the team’s success, when Hamilton scored a string of championship victories. Serra worked as the team’s chief vehicle dynamicist before taking over as performance director in 2018 following the departure of Mark Ellis.

At Ferrari, Serra will serve as head of chassis performance engineering and report to technical director Enrico Cardile. Serra’s responsibility will include track engineering and vehicle performance as well as running its aerodynamic operations and managing its aerodynamic development.

D’Ambrosio raced in F1 with Virgin in 2011. After losing his full-time drive he joined Lotus and returned for a one-off race at Monza in 2012, substituting for Romain Grosjean when he was banned for one race.

After his F1 career D’Ambrosio competed in Formula E. He finished fourth in the inaugural 2014-15 season, winning in Berlin. He spent five more years in the category, winning twice more, but never finished as high in the standings again. He later joined Mercedes in a driver development role.

D’Ambrosio began his move into management at the Venturi Formula E team when it was run by Susie Wolff, the wife of Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. He was appointed as her deputy and stepped up into the team principal role when she became CEO.

At Ferrari D’Ambrosio will again serve as deputy team principal, this time reporting to current team principal Frederic Vasseur, who is currently in his second season in charge at the Scuderia.

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7 comments on “Ferrari’s two staff hires from Mercedes to start work in October”

T
13th May 2024, 15:33

oh my goodness, fred got D’Ambrosio to be his right hand man?
damn fred, maybe next year really is our year!
Mayrton
14th May 2024, 7:04

His time at Mercedes coincided with the peak of the team’s success

This is also applies to Lewis. And he is also going to Ferrari. Some have a gift(/talent/insight) of riding the right waves. It can amount to much success. If Newey joins them it becomes even more likely.
Dex
14th May 2024, 10:58

This is Ferrari, and Hamilton is not Schumacher (can’t help developing a car, plus today drivers don’t really do that anyway). I remain skeptical until proven wrong. It’s a safe choice, since they get it right 1/10 seasons at best, and quite often get it unbelievably wrong.
They do seem like a more serious team now though, but we’ll see for how long the owner can steer away from getting himself involved and ruining all the good work.
1. Josh
  14th May 2024, 11:38
  
  “Can’t help developing the car”
  
  It baffles me that some people will take the time to comment on something they’re clearly ignorant about. Hamilton has repeatedly been credited with pushing Merc the right direction, with dev as well as setup.
  
  I’m sure you’re not, but this sounds like something someone with 2 seasons of DtS under their belt would say…
  1. Todfod (@todfod)
    15th May 2024, 17:29
    
    People forget how Ferrari had a car running 247 and 365 days a year at fiorano to help it ‘develop’. The amount of track time Scumacher got in his machine helped fine tune it in to a beast. We all saw how great Schumachers development efforts were when he joined Mercedes in 2010
2. AlanD
  14th May 2024, 14:11
  
  This is Ferrari, and Hamilton is not Schumacher.
  
  Of course I agree that Hamilton isn’t Schumacher, but they are the only two drivers in the past 40 years to have won the WDC with different teams.
  
  I remain skeptical until proven wrong.
  
  Out of interest, what would it take to prove you wrong? If Hamilton won the WDC next year, would that be enough for you to say he is a great driver, or would you move the goalposts again and claim he lucked out with the engine specs and it is all down to the designer, or he still hasn’t proved himself by winning the WDC in a Williams, or he still hasn’t proved himself by racing against Max in the same machinery?
3. spoutnik (@spoutnik)
  14th May 2024, 23:19
  
  Your comment does not mention the unlimited testing on private circuits and the deepest pockets ever to help Michael and the many others to develop that Ferrari car.