F1 News
Change in Ferrari strategy: Who is Ravin Jain and what will Rueda do now?
- GPblog.com
Despite announcing his intention not to put his hand to Ferrari's internal structure, at least at this early stage, Frederic Vasseur has made the first major change within the Scuderia di Maranello. The highly criticised head of strategy Iñaki Rueda has in fact been moved to another job, based in the factory rather than the race wall. In his place the Anglo-Indian engineer Ravin Jain has been promoted.
In recent days, Vasseur explained his decision to the Spaniards of AS. "We have chosen to change the organisation a little bit, with fewer people present, and Iñaki will now be in the factory and Ravin at the race wall," said the French team principal, explaining that it is simply a reorganisation of personnel. Rueda's move should therefore not be interpreted as a demotion.
In this regard, Vasseur emphasised the importance of the decision-making process, rather the people who are responsible for making the final decision. "We created a more direct process, to allow the team to work better. When something didn't work, you have to understand the reasons why. But many times it is a question of information flow and not who presses the button and makes the decision," he told AS.
Who is Ravin Jain?
Head of strategy is, however, the most high-profile role in the whole structure, and in the 2023 season it will be held by Ravin Jain instead of Iñaki Rueda. The new strategist was born in the UK only 28 years ago and studied at the prestigious Oxford University. Already at a very young age, he entered the world of Formula 1 by carrying out some tasks as a trainee with Caterham and Williams.
In 2016 he was hired by Ferrari as strategy engineer and since 2021 he has been one of the men working on the pit wall. As of this season he will be further promoted to head of strategy and Ferrari is betting heavily on him, even though he is still very young and does not have all the experience that Rueda had when he took his place in the Scuderia.
His choice is said to have come primarily at the input of Laurent Mekies - as well as the relocation of Rueda - rather than as a result of Vasseur's reasoning alone. The Ferrari sporting director has in fact been with the team long enough to have seen Ferrari's strategic machine in action and to be able to carefully analyse what things were not working and how best to fix them.
And Rueda now?
Rueda was one of the most criticised members of Ferrari last season. As the man in charge of strategy, he was singled out as the culprit on many occasions for the mistakes made by the Prancing Horse team. Hence the decision to transfer him to another job, further away from the centre of attention.
The Spaniard will now be busy at the factory in Maranello, where he will work in the so-called remote garage, which - as the name suggests - operates at a distance rather than at the Grand Prix site. The new role therefore has a more sporting connotation, leading to a change of area for Rueda. It is not a demotion, but it seems to be a decidedly strong signal about his work as a strategist.