2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[Chuckjr]

No actually, the opposite. Take advantage of their advantage while they have it. Nobody will be sandbagging at the beginning of the season imo.

[Waz]

Just a heads up, May is NOT the middle of the season. May is about Round 6 and 7 of 24.

So it's roughly the normal time period for introducing a TD, if you were to take it from Race 1 as the official notice period.

[deadhead]

I was excited for this season but not so much anymore. This thing will likely have major impact on the relative performance of the cars and their set up.

[f1316]

Just a heads up, May is NOT the middle of the season. May is about Round 6 and 7 of 24.

So it's roughly the normal time period for introducing a TD, if you were to take it from Race 1 as the official notice period.

I’m pretty sure the Spanish GP (when this comes in) is round 9. Still not quite the middle of a 24 round calendar, granted, but it’s almost 40% through and that’s a big chunk. Becomes a two part season in many respects.

[ScuderiaLeo]

I was excited for this season but not so much anymore. This thing will likely have major impact on the relative performance of the cars and their set up.

I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet. We really have no idea how it'll end up. I 100% thought 2024 would be a boring season, but I was thankfully wrong.

That being said...... it is a silly decision and I'm still annoyed by it.

Last season, a significant factor in why Red Bull comfortably won the WDC is because of the lead they built up in the first few races. (The other factor was, of course, Verstappen himself.) I can only pray that if the TD hits Ferrari hard, the SF-25 is able to be extremely competitive before it comes into effect.

[DGP123]

They are forcing the wing change like this to ensure if there is a dominant team, the directive could, and likely would, end their dominance. It's to create drama, storylines, more competition, and the like. It's forced spectical takes away from F1's integrity.

It turned into an entertainment show a long time ago, and lost any integrity it had. No surprise with this latest development.

[Waz]

I was excited for this season but not so much anymore. This thing will likely have major impact on the relative performance of the cars and their set up.

I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet. We really have no idea how it'll end up. I 100% thought 2024 would be a boring season, but I was thankfully wrong.

That being said...... it is a silly decision and I'm still annoyed by it.

Last season, a significant factor in why Red Bull comfortably won the WDC is because of the lead they built up in the first few races. (The other factor was, of course, Verstappen himself.) I can only pray that if the TD hits Ferrari hard, the SF-25 is able to be extremely competitive before it comes into effect.

If the season started in Miami, Verstappen would still have won. The margin would have been into single digits, but it shows that consistency is key.

Unfortunately that consistency also requires the car to do it. We already saw data about Charles being the most consistent driver last year once you remove the outliers when Ferrari developed themselves into a blind alley.

Positively, under Vasseur, the team seems to learn and recover quickly from mistakes, and we generally don't see them repeated endlessly as before.

[Farnborough]

They are forcing the wing change like this to ensure if there is a dominant team, the directive could, and likely would, end their dominance. It's to create drama, storylines, more competition, and the like. It's forced spectical takes away from F1's integrity.

That's assuming dominance was sourced within that wing performance, which we don't know to be true. Further, that the steps would control the "correct" team

As we saw in 2022, MB complained bitterly, with much theatrical "output" FIA reacted by issue of TD and shot Ferrari in both feet handing even more advantage to RB.

Properly binning the nicely brewing contest between Ferrari and RB that we all wanted to watch.

[ScuderiaLeo]

If the season started in Miami, Verstappen would still have won. The margin would have been into single digits, but it shows that consistency is key.

Unfortunately that consistency also requires the car to do it. We already saw data about Charles being the most consistent driver last year once you remove the outliers when Ferrari developed themselves into a blind alley.

Positively, under Vasseur, the team seems to learn and recover quickly from mistakes, and we generally don't see them repeated endlessly as before.

I didn't say it's the reason Red Bull won, I said it's why they comfortably won.

But yes I agree, generally.

I certainly think Ferrari has the drivers to pull off something similar. I have full trust in Leclerc and am hopeful for Hamilton. That's why a last year regulation change is so frustrating. This season has the foundation to be amazing already just due to the storylines continuing from 2024. Why mess with it?

Like you said, Vasseur has brought a lot of positive change and this will just be another test for his leadership.

[Nullbrawl]

I was excited for this season but not so much anymore. This thing will likely have major impact on the relative performance of the cars and their set up.

I can understand frustration. When some major car affects performance and setup, it can actually remove expectations for the season. Hopefully, the teams will quickly accommodate and bring back the enthusiasm. It is always difficult to change the balance, but it can also give rise to some unexpected challenges and surprises!

[atanatizante]

It will be interesting to see which of the top 5 teams will test the TD18-compliant front wings in Bahrain.
Given the advance of knowledge gained so far with this aeroelasticity effect, I suspect that Macca and Merc will be collecting data using large Pitot tube systems on the first day of testing. Yet realistically speaking, I think that all teams that have their 2025 flexi-wings on their cars will be able to build at least one reinforced wing that will pass the static tests according to TD18 in these 3 weeks until the first day of testing ...

But the most interesting thing for the 2025 season is that there will be at least 2 effects starting with the Barcelona race:

1. Teams that have designed their car less around the effects of these flexi-wings will be advantaged, or teams that have not invested in front-wing aeroelasticity, but instead did in increasing the setup working window of the car. Eventually, it would be possible that teams that have a mix of these 2 strategies will have the upper hand...

2. Teams that have invested money and time in CFD & WT will have to be compensated in some way by the FIA to balance against teams that have not. That's why I think that these teams will lobby to FIA in order to increase their annual budget and the time allocated to car development for this year. It would be fair and normal to do this ...

[f1316]

I have a strong suspicion this is going to favour Red Bull and re establish the status quo where only they can optimise the balance of the cars without the flexi wings. Ferrari are probably second place here but not close enough.

I have a 2022 and 2013 feeling about this- seasons that were interesting to start with but where a mid season rule change locked in a Red Bull advantage and made the second half super boring,

[DJ Downforce]

Uhhh why the panic? Surely McLaren will be screwed with this rule and Ferrari only introduced a flexi wing later on. Red bull are likely the beneficiaries here.

I can understand the anger rather than panic though, the FIA constantly makes stupid decisions and rash changes. Nikolas T is awful, the 2026 cars will be terrible!

[Henri]

https://x.com/sim3744/status/1886846918094954914 testing times from the test today

[scuderiabrandon]

Uhhh why the panic? Surely McLaren will be screwed with this rule and Ferrari only introduced a flexi wing later on. Red bull are likely the beneficiaries here.

I can understand the anger rather than panic though, the FIA constantly makes stupid decisions and rash changes. Nikolas T is awful, the 2026 cars will be terrible!

Because you are not considering how it affects the teams who spent their resources during this winter break to catch up to McLaren/Mercedes in that regard. Just to be told the same month of testing, they would need to change it again in 5 months time.

That is a very big head start for those who were essentially the reason this all started, those who didn't need to go through all that effort 6 months before the rule change. It does impact them performance wise too, but like I said, they're already working on their revised wings, teams who spent money to catch up still need to wait for track evaluation before deciding how to approach. By then you can probably assume those who had more time, and had to spend less on it, will be ahead.

Financially, it impacts the hunters more here as well. Designing and developing a "flexi-wing" costs a ton of money, and undoing all that work will cost a ton of money, all that comes out of the 2025 budget. That means other developments need to be shelved. McLaren/Mercedes costs are essentially halved because they spent a half portion of it last with 2024's budget.