Having spent his entire F1 career at Ferrari, Enrico Cardile explains the difference between the Maranello outfit and his new team, Aston Martin.

Joining Ferrari in 2005, having gained his degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Pisa, Cardile was initially involved in the Italian company's GT programme, overseeing aerodynamics, before being promoted to the F1 team as Head of Aero Development in 2016.

Promoted to the role of Vehicle Project Manager in 2017, in July 2024 it was announced that the Italian would be joining Aston Martin as Chief Technical Officer. Initially due to start with the Silverstone-based outfit at the beginning of 2025, due to the usual wrangles, which meant endless months tending his garden, Cardile didn't actually start his new job until mid-July.

Talking to the team's website, the Italian admits to a difference in culture between the two teams.

"There is a difference," he says. "The targets are the same: everyone is focused on winning, but the F1 team at Ferrari has a very long and stable history, with established processes and tools. Here, we're still building up these things.

"We have the new CoreWeave Wind Tunnel, the new simulator, and we need to work to exploit the potential of these things," he explains. "We also need to develop the processes within the company for the way we work, building a lean organisation that avoids waste.

"It's one of the first messages I gave to my team when I started," he continues, "we need to find our identity and use our vision to shape the organisation so that it works the way we want it to work. It's fine to take inspiration from other places, but copying the way it has been done elsewhere is not the thing to do.

"We need to build something that is based on our strengths and allows us to work on our weaknesses. We want to be the reference, not a clone of the existing reference. You can't simply copy what someone else is doing, however successfully they're doing it, because that means being a follower, rather than a leader, and that's not the route to success.

"It's a work in progress that is moving forward step by step. I have a clear vision and a clear plan, agreed with Andy Cowell, with Adrian Newey, with Lawrence, for what we need to do to improve the organisation."

Of course, Newey comes from Red Bull and Cowell from Mercedes, so presumably, Cardile also brings a fresh perspective.

"I don't know if it is fresh, but inevitably it will be different. Every time a new person joins the organisation, at whatever level, they bring a different way of doing things, based on whatever positive experiences they've had elsewhere. It's down to the organisation to understand those and pull out the ones that can improve the way we're working. It's a dynamic process, but the team is always enriched by it."

Asked whether he reports to Cowell or Newey, and how the structure works, he admits: "I report to both. One or the other, according to the different elements of the work, but both are my bosses. Again, I'm a lucky man. It's an amazing team, and I'm surrounded by special people."

Cowell has talked of making the team a 'creative, chaotic innovation machine'.

"It comes back to being the reference," says Cardile. "We need to do stuff differently from other teams, and to do that, we need to be innovative and not mind that this process will come with a bit of chaos. We have to manage the chaos because it will bring positives and greater innovation than if we were an extremely structured, rigid organisation. That wouldn't bring a lot to the car.

"This way is more stimulating. We're never going to be satisfied, never going to be happy, because once something works, we'll already be looking for what comes next. We'll push people - in a positive manner - and set ambitious targets. We'll back our people and stay close to them, work hard to understand why they're hitting difficulties, and discover what the organisation can do to solve those problems.

"The idea is that no one will be left without help, and that the difficult challenges aren't a problem for the person to solve by themselves, but for the organisation to figure out. We've got to be a big family to get results. It's in this continuous and positive push that I can contribute to stimulating innovation, chaos, and creativity."

With so many 'star names', and consequently the possibility of toes being trodden on and egos being bruised, one is minded of the early days at Mercedes.

"We have no problems in this respect," insists Cardile, "the issue, if anything, is the opposite: we're trying to find the best way of collaborating, and blending our efforts, rather than working in silos. This is key for us, and for any F1 team: sharing information, creating something that's richer than the sum of the parts. It's certainly not a problem having all of these good engineers in the same building, working together.

"Everyone has a clear remit, and people aren't trying to do one another's jobs. The key to making it work is the flow of information through the organisation. This has to be good. We need to get the integration right to avoid the misunderstandings that lead to rework, time wasted, performance lost.

"It is a very stimulating place to work. There's a huge amount of engineering talent in the team. The principle for me is that, whenever I'm in a meeting, I shouldn't be the expert voice. If I am, something is going wrong. The people I'm talking to, the specialists, should be the best in their field. Rather than me providing them with solutions on request, I should be exploiting their skillset, their knowledge, their experience."

Asked about his role at these meetings he replies: "Vision! I bring the vision of the organisation, I bring clarity, I bring decision-making. If I'm doing my job correctly, the role is to be asking the right question at the right moment, hopefully understanding the answer and making a decision accordingly."

Asked if he is one of those who needs to have all the information before making a decision, or whether he sometimes goes with his gut, he admits: "I think I'm well-balanced in that respect. I'm not scared of making decisions, and I don't need to have 100 per cent of the information available.

"Sometimes, in an F1 team, you need to make a decision with the information you have... and then keep working on the problem. If we find out one or two weeks later, thanks to more information, more analysis, that the decision was wrong, I have no problem changing direction.

"Ultimately, what matters is winning. It's not about who got it wrong or right, and it's not a culture of blame. That applies to everyone: there's nothing wrong with changing our minds and changing direction. We have to keep the end goal in mind: it's not about being right or wrong at the start, it's about winning at the end."

Looking ahead, 2026 sees a big re-set, not just in terms of the regulations overhaul but a new engine supplier.

"It's going to be a big departure from what we have now," he admits. "A lot is changing. The aerodynamic concept is changing completely; the reduced minimum weight will be an enormous challenge for everyone. There is a new power unit, there is new fuel. It's a lot of variables up in the air - and that makes it very difficult to forecast where everyone is going to land.

"We have clear targets in mind for what we want to achieve, and we're pushing very hard to explore our options. It's an interesting task. Some of it is about understanding where to gamble: there are development directions that might not yield positive results straight away, but may help us reach ambitious final targets. We're making some bets.

"It's worth noting that this isn't a project that finishes when the car launches. Of course, we want to have a quick car at the start of 2026, and right now we're trying to use the remaining time we have to exploit what we've learned to the best of our abilities but, on the other hand, we have a long-term project: we're working on the organisation, improving our tools, improving our processes, changing the way people are working together. In a word, we're working on the culture of the team."

Asked his thoughts on the new era ahead, he says: "Excitement. Definitely. Not just for our car. I'm looking forward to seeing the other ten cars, to see everyone's performance, to know if we're in a good position and have to keep pushing to keep the advantage or if we need to keep pushing to catch teams that are quicker than us. It will be exciting.

"But it's also exciting now," he continues. "Because we don't know where we'll be, nothing we do now can be enough. We can't be satisfied with good results from a wind tunnel session or a successful weight reduction exercise because we don't have a reference. That's true at any time, but especially true at the start of a new cycle. For the last few seasons, everyone has been able to see the gaps and know what they need to achieve to put themselves in a better position. For next year, everything is up in the air.

"We're going to get it right next year. I just don't know if we're going to get it right for the first race, the second, the seventh, or whatever. What we have is commitment, focus, and the confidence that it will be right.

"We have all we need to do a great job," he concludes. "Failure is not an option."