Ferrari’s 2025 Formula 1 design direction is said to be influenced by Lewis Hamilton’s driving style, according to a report in Italian media.
Hamilton is set to end his career-long association with Mercedes at the end of this year with a blockbuster move to Ferrari, committing to a multi-year contract with the Scuderia that will go beyond his racing days.
The move will partner Hamilton with Charles Leclerc and reunite him with ex-Mercedes Head of Vehicle Performance Loic Serra, who will begin work as Ferrari’s Head of Chassis Performance Engineering in October.
Serra is also mooted to be taking the position of Technical Director at Maranello amid a restructuring of the technical team akin to the one operated by McLaren.
According to Formu1aUno, Serra and the Ferrari technical team could be set for a major change in the make-up of the team’s 2025 car, opting to incorporate pull-rod front suspension next year.
The move is said to be in line with Hamilton and Leclerc holding similar driving style, enjoying a car on the nose with an active rear end.
A change of this magnitude, reconfiguring the front suspension, will require a redesign of the current chassis on the SF-24 and goes against Ferrari’s usual development strategy.
During the current ground effect regulation cycle, Ferrari has chosen to stubbornly continue with a pull-rod rear suspension configuration, with every other team apart from technical partner Haas and Williams (using Mercedes’ 2023 setup), adopting a push-rod rear suspension configuration.
Mercedes and Aston Martin (by way of its technical partnership with the German marque) adopted the preferred push-rod layout in 2024.
The decision to continue using a pull-rod rear suspension layout was made by the recently departed Ferrari Technical Director Enrico Cardile, who is set to join Aston Martin in 2025.
Still, Ferrari’s decision to revise its front suspension layout for next term, amid Hamilton’s arrival and the seven-time World Champion enjoying similar car preferences to Leclerc, should in theory, focus the team’s technical direction.
Outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has a contrasting driving style to Leclerc and Hamilton, instead preferring a car prone to understeer, with a stable rear end.
As such, the Ferrari pendulum has regularly swung between Leclerc and Sainz depending on where the development of its car is at, an issue that should be easier to manage from 2025 onwards.
Leclerc has said his impending team-up with Hamilton will enable him “to learn from one of the best drivers in the entire history of F1, and it is very motivating because I am intrigued by the comparison with Lewis with the same car.”
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