Ferrari are looking to build on their progress last year by bringing in engineers from the two quickest teams on the Formula One grid, according to reports. The Italian team has poached staff from both Mercedes and Red Bull ahead of a potential title challenge in the coming season.
Things could only get better for Ferrari after one of their worst results in decades in 2020.
The Prancing Horse limped to sixth in the constructors’ championship, and those glory days of the early 2000s felt a long way away.
But the following year they got the improvement they sought as they competed at the front of the midfield once again.
If the first half of their 2021 was good, then the second half was incredible as they introduced an engine upgrade which made them comfortably faster than their midfield rivals.
It helped them to overtake McLaren in the constructors’ standings and claim third place by a healthy margin at the end of the year.
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In a bid to improve further, Ferrari will hope they can take advantage of the new technical rules coming into force for the new season and out-develop the rest of the grid.
To help them do that, La Gazzetta dello Sport reports, the team has brought in engineers from those teams who were well ahead of the rest last year.
They will apparently come in to work alongside the current staff at Maranello, with team principal Mattia Binotto keen to have some stability despite the new faces.
Ferrari have now adopted the same innovative approach that underpinned the design of the SF70H and its successor, according to the report.
Both cars challenged Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes for much of the season even though they ultimately fell short.
While design freedoms are limited, every team will be on the lookout for loopholes in the regulations from which they can gain an advantage.
Ferrari will hope their array of new faces can give them the fresh perspective they might need in order to have a few tricks up their sleeve for 2022.