Former Ferrari engineer reveals the one mistake the F1 team have been making for nearly 20 years

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Rob Smedley knows how it feels to win and lose with Ferrari in Formula 1.

After joining Ferrari at the beginning of the 2004 season, Rob Smedley was on hand to witness Michael Schumacher’s final drivers’ championship victory.

Smedley then became Felipe Massa’s race engineer and witnessed how heartbreaking F1 can be.

Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 title after overtaking Timo Glock, denying Massa what would have been his only title in front of hundreds of thousands of Brazilian fans at Interlagos.

Although Massa didn’t win the individual title that year, it was the last time Ferrari won the constructors’ championship.

Since then, various team principals have chased that feeling, and Fred Vasseur is the latest person in that position.

However, Vasseur is beginning to come under pressure despite recently signing a new contract, with Christian Horner recently linked to Ferrari after his Red Bull exit.

Smedley has now described how Ferrari have previously reacted when results haven’t been going their way and what they must avoid doing now, otherwise they’ll fall into the same traps again.

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Rob Smedley details how the pressure builds within Ferrari as F1 title wait goes on

Smedley was asked about Ferrari’s issues on the F1 Nation Podcast, having lived through them during his time with the team, and he said: “It’s not a great place to be in Maranello when things aren’t going well and there isn’t a clear way out.

“And I think this is where the team itself can put an inordinate amount of pressure on itself. And then you just get into this vicious circle where it’s just so difficult to get out because you start to think in the short term and not in the long term.

“Once you start thinking about the next race and that and have the whole operation concentrating on what’s happening tomorrow and how to find that three-tenths tomorrow, you’re dead in the water, right?

“What happens in Maranello, and I’ve seen it myself, when the pressure of not winning and being on the back foot arises, there’s a tendency that the team can start to think in the very short term.

“It will never work, right? I’ve been there, it was exactly the same as when Red Bull started dominating or Red Bull started beating us, when we brought in the 2009 KERS cars, 2009, 2010, 2011, those years when we were always there, always there or thereabouts, we just needed one, two, three tenths, and we probably would have been able to be back in front.

“But we were always looking at how to get three tenths tomorrow?

“When McLaren suddenly started to become very competitive in 2023, it was because of a two-year plan beforehand. And I think this is where Ferrari are at now, the pressure will be immense.

“Once the infighting and the instability within the team start to arise, and you start to think Has this guy got my back? Has that guy got my back? You’re dead in the water.

“So, let’s hope they can get through it.”

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Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton still looking to improve after maiden 2025 campaign

Hamilton is currently sitting 48 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc with six race weekends to go.

It’s taken him a long time to get used to his new surroundings after spending more than a decade at Mercedes, but the margins are so fine that the seven-time world champion can’t afford not to be at 100%.

Vasseur has told Ferrari where they and Hamilton need to improve, and the upcoming winter break should give the 40-year-old more time to adapt.

However, if the processes behind the scenes aren’t correct, then no matter what Hamilton does, he won’t be a championship contender.

It’s now up to Vasseur to take Smedley’s advice, look beyond a disappointing 2025 campaign and fully concentrate on next year and beyond.