2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[bananapeel23]

hamilton should have joined ferrari in 2018, in his peak im sure he could have won right? with that car?

I don't know. The 2018 Ferrari was pretty good, but went backwards during the season. If it isn't Hamilton in the W09, it's probably Vettel or Verstappen. I think either would clinch the title in the 2018 Mercedes, the Ferrari simply wasn't good enough.

Perhaps 2024 Verstappen would win the title in the SF71H.

[ringo]

I watched both their laps. Lewis still tentative going into the corners, he's feeling more for the front grip with the steering. Exiting, he is afraid of the throttle, but when he gets on it, its too aggressive. Charles on the other hand is more acclimatized to the car and is just doing everything quicker with less corrections.
What I notice with Charles is a very weird technique when the car is just about to oversteer, he counters very early and turns it into understeer and the car maintains momentum.
What killed Lewis lap is his lack of confidence, but mainly tyre prep. His prep lap is too delicate. Maybe next time he can push hard on the outlap like Charles and try to get more temperatures in the tyres to prevent the rears from skipping because theyre too cold.

[Xyz22]

Expected more from RB but i was 100% sure that Mercedes was going to be a problem with cooler temps.

[ScuderiaLeo]

The thing that really sucks for Hamilton is that he had an extra free practice session over Charles and he still finishes 6 tenths behind. Not looking good at all at the moment.
Charles has always been a stud at quali. He always saves his best for Q3 too, which is what you want. I am so impressed with the Mercedes though. They are not that much slower than the Mclaren, the clear second best car imo.

Leclerc is the master of giving people heart attacks... always puts in a mediocre first lap and then an insane second one

I don't think FP1 helped much for anyone. The conditions were so different. Unfortunately it seems like Hamilton didn't learn enough from FP2.

Great lap from Leclerc still of course.

[f1316]

Lewis isn’t able to find a balance he likes with the car at the moment and is looking a fair chunk off Charles who has found a setup where at least he can push, even if the car still isn’t where it needs to be. But let’s not be too silly: a couple of races ago Lewis put it in pole for the sprint and won that sprint by 7 seconds. He may not be able to drive around the car the same way Charles can but if the car’s performing he can still do the job.

Charles said that this race isn’t the best to show the benefit of the updates and that next week will be better, so that’s a little bit more encouragement. If there’s any good news about points in the meantime, it’s that one driver isn’t taking them all - three different GP winners (and a fourth if you count the sprint) and the top two in the championship messed up qualifying. Norris will almost certainly come through tomorrow but not so sure about Max. I think Charles’ fight will be with George tomorrow and maybe he can find a way to beat him and snag a podium, behind at least one McLaren but probably both.

[j_ste]

In the end, we’re still nearly four tenths off pole. Not much has changed, in that regard

[ringo]

Lewis needs to change driving style. I suspect his throttle manipulation needs higher resolution. Could be age and nothing can be done. Seems to struggle coming out of slow and medium turns.
Charles showing what the upgrades can do. He can podium. Good run by him. The qualy specialists really pushing the limits at the front.
Lewis needs a legendary drive to podium. He needs to copy Max's strategy tomorrow.

I gotta have some of that optimism man...Lewis will finish 10th honestly. Maybe 8th at a push. Has been.

It just takes a good opening lap to jump a few places, then he can fight for a podium. Who knows?

Q3 times

1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:29.841
2 George Russell Mercedes +0.168
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.334
4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.372
5 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.375
6 Lando Norris McLaren +0.426
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.582
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.839
9 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.931
10 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing +1.462

[Hammerfist]

Lewis's race pace hasn't been great all year. I would expect him to beat Gasly , Sainz and Tsunoda, the other guys are faster imho. So P7 most likely.

[SB15]

Lewis's race pace hasn't been great all year. I would expect him to beat Gasly , Sainz and Tsunoda, the other guys are faster imho. So P7 most likely.

The fact Sainz even qualified near, let alone out qualify Lewis, was just the icing on the cake.

Wait, hold up, timeout, I just realized something; Doesn't Lewis have the upgrades?

[Space-heat]

Lewis is under performing but it is R4 with a new team. Can we at least back our drivers. Carlos vs Leclerc last year was exhausting on here. We can praise Charles without murdering Lewis. Maybe I’m wrong and we should be holding Lewis to a crazy high standard, but it would be great to not pile on the poor man with an underperformance.

[ScuderiaLeo]

Leclerc:

I gave it everything, there was nothing more to extract. I’m satisfied because for a few weekends now I’ve been pushing in this direction I’ve often talked about, and it seems to be paying off more and more. I feel like I’m getting more and more out of the car because I’m comfortable, it suits my driving style more and more, so I’m happy about that. I have to keep going this way—I’m sure it will pay off.

In qualifying we didn’t expect to be so close to McLaren, though we did expect Mercedes to be close. We’re surprised to see everyone so close overall. I’m really happy.

McLaren will be in a league of their own tomorrow, I think. When we saw the times in FP3, I think everyone in the paddock looked at each other and asked how that was even possible.

Thanks to the team for the big effort to bring everything here. This isn’t the best track to take advantage of these upgrades.

Hamilton:

It made no difference—I was simply too slow. Right now, I don’t feel confident about the race. I’m really sorry for the whole team and the fans, I apologize.

I hope to finish in the top five. I’ll try and see if I can bring it up there.

I’m just not doing a good enough job, so I need to keep improving. Clearly the car is pretty good—just look at Leclerc’s performance. I honestly don’t know. I don’t have many answers for you. I just wasn’t fast today.

Vasseur:

The podium is always possible, and starting from third, we have to aim high. The issue for everyone is that we haven’t done many long stints, so we haven’t tested the conditions the drivers will face tomorrow, when it’ll be cooler for everyone. So far we’ve always looked good on long runs, we just need to do a great job. We’ve got an extra set of Mediums and we hope that could be an advantage in a two-stop race.

In particular, he (Hamilton) struggled on the final lap of Q3, because before that he was right there. In fact, in his first Q3 attempt, he was ahead of Charles—though the lap got deleted for track limits. On the second lap, he made a small mistake that cost him, but overall I think the pace was there all weekend. It’s a shame he didn’t put it all together in that final lap. It’s also about keeping the tyres in the right window for the whole lap—but that’s true for everyone. All three sessions today were pretty chaotic—for Lewis, for us, for everyone. Even Russell struggled in Q2 and then ended up on the front row in Q3. From one stint to the next, there can be huge gaps because the car is very sensitive to wind—and that applies to everyone.

The result comes down to the floor, the updates. There are lots of medium-speed corners here, but not many high-speed ones—just the Turn 5-6 sequence. We’ll definitely get a different picture next week in Jeddah.

I'm not sure what Vasseur means about Hamilton being ahead of Leclerc... I can't remember any points where he was ahead other than when he took out new tires in Q1. But anyways, very different reactions from each person here. Praying for some Leclerc magic and for Hamilton to do a good recovery drive. I feel good about the race pace, but I'm not sure how it'll compare to the Mercs.

[ringo]

I think the expectation is to watch Lewis keenly for any slight slip up to bash him. Par for the course since 2007.
He did a poor job but it was not alarmingly poor. The mistakes were clear. His exits are too sloppy, and too tentative on entry. Almost like he is afraid to lean on the car going into the turns, then he overcompensates to try make it back up on the exit.
He needs to get himself sorted out. He's rich enough to buy a good similar and play some sim racing like the youngs guys to build up his bravery. But for sure, he is going nowhere near any kind of podium muchless a championship with these types of qualifyings.
He is giving himselt too much work to do in the race.

[ScuderiaLeo]

Leclerc will start P2 after a penalty to Russell!!!!

[dialtone]

LEC qualified 3rd on merit and will start 2nd. Not bad for a car that should have been shipped back to Maranello.

The inconsistency from MCL drivers is what will keep the WXCs open until mid season at least, PIA is saving MCLs butts right now.

When are the clown faces memes from Mercs pit wall due at this point?

[Sevach]

Lewis had great qualy speed and seemingly a car that he liked for China(very good in the slow corners if i remember correctly) in qualy trim but despite winning the Sprint he wasn't great in the race.
I wonder if what they did there was abandoned because of the bad sunday performance? Only guy to need a second stop... plus the car was disqualified for running too low.
Right now i have no clue which Hamilton will show up each weekend, until now the underwhelming version has shown up more often.
Hamilton will have to find his way out on his own, Ferrari will try to address issues the car might have, but won't change it to be a "Hamilton car", maybe he can achieve that with inventive setups but that's it.

I watched both their laps. Lewis still tentative going into the corners, he's feeling more for the front grip with the steering. Exiting, he is afraid of the throttle, but when he gets on it, its too aggressive. Charles on the other hand is more acclimatized to the car and is just doing everything quicker with less corrections.
What I notice with Charles is a very weird technique when the car is just about to oversteer, he counters very early and turns it into understeer and the car maintains momentum.
What killed Lewis lap is his lack of confidence, but mainly tyre prep. His prep lap is too delicate. Maybe next time he can push hard on the outlap like Charles and try to get more temperatures in the tyres to prevent the rears from skipping because theyre too cold.

Charles has always been a guy who can manhandle an unruly car into submission, like he anticipates the car stepping out and corrects before they do.
I haven't seen his onboard yet but what you describe sounds like it's this, he throws the car in and just deals with it.

Hamilton hasn't driven like this in a loooong time, he might like rotation but he wants to "nurse" the nose in, not fight it.