2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[Chuckjr]

Not really.
Since when has Hamilton ever been good at making a slow car fast? He is good at making fast cars faster but not slow cars faster. If Ferrari deliver a car that isn't fast, he's not your man. Plus with CS, he would have taken seat #2 to put more force into Charles. Lewis will never do that until it's far too late in points.

I dont even know what you mean here.

Do you mean Lewis doesn't perform well in a worse car? Because that's obviously easily refutable as he's notoriously been a driver who can maximize whatever machinery he has in a given situation. Granted, he hasn't driven many terrible cars, but somebody who is known as a top wet weather driver obviously is good at dealing with adverse car characteristics, no?

Or are you talking about this whole laughable notion of drivers being key development drivers of a car's competitiveness? At which point I could point to 2009 where Lewis drove the worst car of his entire career, but later on in the season the car improved dramatically and he had four pole positions and two wins. "Oh that's cuz the car improved a ton!" Well if you're the sort who believes drivers are responsible for development, then surely Lewis deserves credit for that dramatic turnaround no? You cant have it both ways.

Holy smokes.
This forum is incredibly reactive. I’m not speaking in signals or dooming the team. All I was saying is that Lewis does well in a fast car but not a slow car. I wasn’t saying he was the problem in testing or reading into everything in testing. Golly. I was simply saying IF the car is no good, he’s not your man. He gets depressed easily, and we have observed over his career if the car is slow, this triggers his depression pretty quickly. That’s it.

Imo CS is a better choice if the car is bad because he isn’t so thin skinned, and more importantly, Ferrari could put 100% behind Charles from race 1 like Red Bull or even Merc this year. I fail to see how any of that is conspiracy, or out of bounds, or crazy. In fact, how would it not be in Ferrari’s best interest and give them the best chance to win the drivers title, to back Charles 100% from race 1? Why is that a nutty idea? Isn’t the goal to win both titles? Red Bull seem to understand this aspect of a team better, and it just may win them the drivers title again — especially in a year like this one.

Anyway, the Ferrari may be fast. If it is, great, that opens a different can. If it’s not, well I just commented on that.

[Tvetovnato]

Ferrari never backed Leclerc at the expense of Sainz in any of the years before, so why they would all of a sudden start doing that now makes no sense lol. It’s just another slightly concealed swipe at Hamilton, which some posters have an obsession with for some reason.

[yooogurt]

First of all, no surprises: the McLaren starts in Australia as the favorite, but there are many questions. Ferrari didn't unleash the full potential of the SF-25 in three days, but also used more weight and less engine power in the race simulations. Also, the Bahrain circuit might have been a better fit for the MCL39 (even 38th after the Miami package), but Albert Park is a different matter. Mercedes looked solid, but technically underwent the least changes. Red Bull leaves a lot of questions from the test results. A (new) floor that didn't work, a car that often proved to have certain limitations of the RB20. The work the teams do next week to extract even more potential from their packages will be crucial. Predictions are very difficult, if not impossible to make .

[Dee]

Ferrari never backed Leclerc at the expense of Sainz in any of the years before, so why they would all of a sudden start doing that now makes no sense lol. It’s just another slightly concealed swipe at Hamilton, which some posters have an obsession with for some reason.

You can constructively analyse a driver, somehow when this is done with Hamilton, people perceive it as an attack...

He is great at testing setups, trying out new things and finding ways of improving the car. He is sensitive to the cars performance, he doesn't adapt around it and therefore, teams can see where things are going wrong and where things are going right. He is not a driver that can mask the problems of a car with his ability which can lead a team down the wrong development route.

Historically, Lewis starts a season at a lower performance peak than the end of the season. He has worked with the team to improve the car and therefore his performance improves.

I agree with Chuckjr. If the Ferrari is not a great car, then Lewis's performance won't be there, if it then improves he will will be there but Lewis won't take a "bad/worse" car and make it a winner just by talent alone.

[atanatizante]

There were various test done throughout these 3 days and one of the main one was how the new pull-road suspension will affect the balance of the SF25, which seems to have mid-corner underserved and exit corner oversteer that needed steering micro-corrections from both driver, particularly for HAM. This micro-corrections led to increase the tyre deg especially in hot track temperature in the third day of testing, culminating with a stoppage in HAM's afternoon race simulation after the first stint, further rumors saying that there were further issue with the new gearbox realigning causing some hidraulic pressure losing...

Here are some reasons behind those issues:

"The adoption of a pull-rod front suspension, a design previously used by top teams like Red Bull and McLaren. This approach was reintroduced in Formula 1 by Gabriele Tredozi, a former engineer with Minardi and Toro Rosso, on the 2001 Minardi PS01. Reflecting on Ferrari's decision, Tredozi explained that when he first implemented the pull-rod in the early 2000s, it was primarily for its weight-saving benefits. The low nose design it enabled contributed to a lower center of gravity, although the slim lever required a stronger upper arm for added support.

Ferrari’s engineers, however, sought to achieve aerodynamic improvements rather than mechanical advantages. Tredozi pointed out that a push-rod system interfered with airflow, disrupting the flow towards the floor. In contrast, the pull-rod setup, with its lever positioned from the wheel hub to the chassis floor, provided a cleaner, more efficient airflow. This improvement enhanced the control over the wake created by the front wheels, leading to better aerodynamic performance.

Tredozi acknowledged that both suspension layouts could be effective, depending on regulatory constraints. He noted thatthe pull-rod setup made it harder to achieve the necessary ground-level stiffness, which is essential for grip.While the aerodynamic benefits were evident, ensuring that the mechanical performance matched the push-rod system's capabilities remained a challenge. Nevertheless, Tredozi expressed confidence in Ferrari's ability to succeed, praising the team's strong technical heritage. He highlighted that Ferrari's design philosophy aligned with the approach of Aldo Costa, prioritizing the overall car layout rather than focusing solely on aerodynamics—though acknowledging its critical role in performance."

[venkyhere]

a well written mature summary of Bahrain testing : https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-testin ... servations

[bluechris]

Give us your take Vanja!

The car is clearly the worst on the grid, what do I know

Ah you are just one of us then!

Do you know why they never caught the balance issues in the simulator? I don’t know how they work but I thought something like that would show up.

Curious because now they are taking about “feeding” the info back into the sim to get a better read etc.

That's a huge point here, they cannot recalibrate the simulator in one day if something is off. They need to analyze the data and then they will correct it. This is what the testing is for, to test different things, to confirm the correlation between the car and the simulator, to have the drivers used to the new car and it's quirks etc.
In no stage Ferrari went all beans in the test, neither the others off course and in my eyes the test is a positive one.
If you expected in the test to have Ferrari in front in all the sessions then you are right guys, we can give up from now and focus to 26 but this is not the case imo.
Give to the guys a little air to breathe, this is not good for them.

At least they are honest, Fred and the drivers openly admitted that they are in a good position and they have work to do especially in balance. They will find their way for sure pretty soon.
The team is changed to the positive side some years now and continuously progressing.

[venkyhere]

What many of the knee-jerk reactions are forgetting, is that the purpose of Bahrain test was not to 'setup the car for Bahrain GP'.

[atanatizante]

The car is clearly the worst on the grid, what do I know

Ah you are just one of us then!

Do you know why they never caught the balance issues in the simulator? I don’t know how they work but I thought something like that would show up.

Curious because now they are taking about “feeding” the info back into the sim to get a better read etc.

That's a huge point here, they cannot recalibrate the simulator in one day if something is off. They need to analyze the data and then they will correct it. This is what the testing is for, to test different things, to confirm the correlation between the car and the simulator, to have the drivers used to the new car and it's quirks etc.
In no stage Ferrari went all beans in the test, neither the others off course and in my eyes the test is a positive one.
If you expected in the test to have Ferrari in front in all the sessions then you are right guys, we can give up from now and focus to 26 but this is not the case imo.
Give to the guys a little air to breathe, this is not good for them.

At least they are honest, Fred and the drivers openly admitted that they are in a good position and they have work to do especially in balance. They will find their way for sure pretty soon.
The team is changed to the positive side some years now and continuously progressing.

This is not so simple and a quick task to do, unfortunately. Bear in mind that in WT they can't simulate the car's loads under yaw conditions just on the straights only, as Rosberg was saying. Thus imply their simulation data are limited and need to be confirmed in real race conditions. After each session the compare both data then make some alterations to their CFD and WT models and feed the simulator in order to get new setup data ... It's always a tweaking process between the real data models and the virtual ones. And when someone says their simulation data correlate with the real track data means both models are given the same values...

Regarding the car' balance issues there are some other aspects that are needed to be discussed. As we could see lately the grid position at the top plays a more and more important role, at least since last year's very close qualy lap times. Thus the top teams got focused more than usual on the car's qualy trim, something that could bite them latter in the race with poor tyre behavior. With SF25 switching to the pull-road configuration needed more setup exploratory routes in various race conditions, sometimes extreme ones as per HAM's case, hence the unbalanced car behavior in some corners at the Bahrain track which is a front limited one. What was clear to see was that once nailing the qualy trim setup that we saw in HAM's second day testing, then in LEC race simulation in the afternoon we saw some mid-corner underserved and some rear instability meaning the rear is lose and thus increased the rear tyres deg. They did some setup changes in the 3rd day but each time they just altered the front wing levels with no effect as we could figure out afterwards. They could modify the rear wing level, but it seems they were not willing to do that bearing in mind the top speed that is needed here ai Shakir circuit but also the further simulation data and time that needed to be done. Another reason is that the rear wing alteration could lower the efficiency of the car, something that each team is thriving to get nowadays with their race car ...

In conclusion, it seems that they need both some data gathering and simulation models correlations with the real track data as for my point of view the new front pull-road configuration solved the SF25 load speed underserved issue but induced some rear instability. Maybe this pull-road suspension in conjunction with the new gearbox configuration end up in a lower DF levels that their simulations values have suggested. And knowing that they are not willing to add some rear wing then it seems they need to change the floor at the back of the car in the next car upgrade, hopping that is not to late for this year ....

[mkay]

Ferrari never backed Leclerc at the expense of Sainz in any of the years before, so why they would all of a sudden start doing that now makes no sense lol. It’s just another slightly concealed swipe at Hamilton, which some posters have an obsession with for some reason.

He is great at testing setups, trying out new things and finding ways of improving the car. He is sensitive to the cars performance, he doesn't adapt around it and therefore, teams can see where things are going wrong and where things are going right. He is not a driver that can mask the problems of a car with his ability which can lead a team down the wrong development route.

This is literally the opposite of what people close to him (e.g., team principals, engineers) have been saying his entire career. The only season for which this is true has been 2024 where he just didn't gel at all with the car over 1 flying lap.