Adrian Newey to Ferrari? Is it possible?

Not true. MB also had great aero. So great, the powers that be decided to take a hacksaw to it in 2021, after they saw a pink car suddenly jump up the grid in 2020, having copied the MB aero wholesale - IIRC.

As Horner said: "everyone should build a faster car"

Technically they started to target merc in 2019, introducing the party mode ban for the 2020 season - which was always going to hurt Merc the most, as they seemed to be able to push their PU harder in quali with no significant loss of reliability in the race. So in a sense that was an example of them benefitting by having the best PU, and then having that benefit nullified to an extent.

But also the cleverness didn't stop with just a great PU. Their aero was fantastic, as was their trick rear suspension. And, hilariously, despite being expected to suffer in 2020 due to losing their 'party mode', they came up with DAS and helped themselves to an entirely new advantage.

There are/were some very creative thinkers in the team. I guess there is still plenty of brains in the team since they also came up with the zero sidepod concept which they just couldn't get to work out of the box and also couldn't fix in the cost cap era - but obviously it was fundamentally a great idea, Newey thought so when he nabbed it and managed to get a similar design working with amazing results.

Who knows how much talent has quietly left Merc in the last year or so, I'm sure some have been enticed away - but apparently it's a great team to work at so I hope a lot has remained and are working hard on thinking of an approach for their 2026 car.. It would be great to see them up there with Ferrari in the near future.

It would indeed be fairytale stuff. I think honestly it's a long shot though. Even if Newey does go to Ferrari, no miracles will happen straight away, and Lewis does not have time on his side.

Better yet will be Leclerc becoming world champion.

And my post has gone weellll under the radar… lol.

Not sure about that. Elkann has very little knowledge about racing and other than appearing at a few GPs, I don't think he closely follow the drivers. I listened to some of his interviews throughout the years and he rarely touches the subject of racing, limiting himself about metioning the historical importance of the Scuderia. Frédéric Vasseur, on the other hand, is a race guy thru and thru. Engineer, founder of one of the most successful GP2/F3 teams (ART GP), founder of the company that produces the F-E cars, Hamilton's chief during GP2, etc.

To me it seems Elkann is just following and accepting Vasseur's directions.

Some flat earthers still believe he has 8

Yeesh I had no idea people were still hanging onto it that tightly!

I think it's more a "funny 'cause it's true" joke than a refusal to accept reality.