Ferrari chose the superstar driver and missed the superstar designer. A year on, Riccardo Patrese thinks Maranello’s problem isn’t about names on the door — it’s about who’s actually leading the tech room.
The hall-of-famer was asked whether Ferrari made the right splash in 2024 by luring Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes while failing to land Adrian Newey. His answer dodged the binary and went straight to the heart of Ferrari’s long-running headache.
“For Newey, only he and Ferrari’s top management know how those talks really went,” Patrese told Italian journalist Leo Turrini. “But I insist, Ferrari needs a point of reference in terms of technology.”
That’s the line that echoes around the paddock. Ferrari got the headline with Hamilton — a seismic move any way you slice it, and one that reshaped the grid for 2025 — but they didn’t snag the architect many in red believed could unlock the next era. Newey left Red Bull in May after nearly two decades and one last title with Max Verstappen, then signed with Aston Martin as Managing Technical Partner. He’s since been named team principal for 2026. The ripple effect from that decision will define the early phase of the new power-unit regulations.
Ferrari’s 2025, meanwhile, never really lit up. Hamilton’s first campaign in scarlet turned into a grind, the seven-time champion wrestling a capricious SF-25 and, remarkably, ending the year without a single podium. That stat will sting at Maranello; it will also embolden those who argued Newey would’ve been the smarter foundation stone.
Patrese, though, isn’t pinning the season on Hamilton. “But for heaven’s sake!” he snapped when asked if it’s over for the Briton. Told Hamilton looked “really slow,” he shot back: “Yes, but what car did you have available?”
This is where Ferrari’s choice of star power gets tested. A driver of Hamilton’s calibre buys you a top-tier reference, an unflinching development compass, and—in theory—the cultural shock Ferrari sometimes needs. But it only works if there’s a technical figure with enough gravitas to point the factory in one direction and keep it there.
“It also needs an important technical leader,” Patrese said, name-checking the archetype: someone like Ross Brawn, who brought structure and steel to Ferrari’s golden age, or Andrea Stella, who’s moulded McLaren into a coherent, upwardly mobile operation. “Exactly, such a character. Andrea Stella became one with McLaren and for McLaren.”
That’s the subtext here. Ferrari’s reshuffles have been frequent; the clarity of their technical chain of command hasn’t always been. Fred Vasseur, in the job since January 2023, has chipped away at hiring and process, but Patrese’s read is that the urgency hasn’t quite matched the challenge.
“I would prefer to avoid customisations,” he said when asked if the blame belongs with the team boss. Then came the nudge. “For sure the Frenchman is now playing everything, he has been there since January 2023, he has had time to build. In general, Fred has so far seemed to me not very reactive in the face of difficulties. In Formula One, as in any top company, it is essential to create a close-knit working group. This is the task that a team principal must perform. After that, there’s more.”
The “more” starts in 2026. New engines, new aero, new playbook. And if Patrese sounds uneasy about Ferrari’s readiness, he is. “Honestly, I struggle to be optimistic for the Prancing Horse’s 2026,” he admitted. “Ferrari is coming off a disappointing season. I don’t want to be rude, of course. But we come from a championship in which there were obvious gaps in the management of the Scuderia.”
That’s not doom; it’s diagnosis. Ferrari can flip a story fast when the structure’s right — history proves it. But with Hamilton embedded and the world’s most coveted designer now plotting Aston Martin’s future, the Scuderia’s margin for dithering is gone. They don’t need a saviour. They need an anchor: a technical leader who unifies concept, development, and race-weekend execution, with the authority to tell even Lewis Hamilton no when it matters.
Hamilton remains a bet worth making. He’s still one of the sharpest race-trim operators in the sport, and when the car gives him a window, he’ll take it. The question isn’t whether Ferrari should’ve picked Newey over Hamilton. It’s why, after choosing Hamilton, they haven’t completed the picture around him.
If 2025 was a sobering reality check, 2026 is the early verdict on the project. Ferrari teased its ’26 launch date; the rest of us will be watching who’s actually steering the technical vision when the covers come off — and whether the Scuderia has finally settled on that all-important point of reference Patrese keeps talking about.
Because that’s the thing about big-name signings: they’re the start of a plan, not the plan itself.
