2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[CHT]

LH struggle with setup in Merc for the last 2 years and now in Ferrari.
Perhaps it's not the team or the car, but the driver himself.

I think Charles can be happy with the podium finish. As for LH, 2025 could be another very long and tough season for him. His first race in Italy is going to be very difficult if he continues to struggle.

[r85]

LH struggle with setup in Merc for the last 2 years and now in Ferrari.
Perhaps it's not the team or the car, but the driver himself.

I think Charles can be happy with the podium finish. As for LH, 2025 could be another very long and tough season for him. His first race in Italy is going to be very difficult if he continues to struggle.

The ground effect cars + his age have been the perfect recipe for disaster. These cars are tricky to drive but younger drivers can work their way around it unlike Lewis who can only win nowadays if the car is perfect. That being said, I can imagine him winning in Silverstone and Budapest if the car is sorted out by then.

[DGP123]

LH struggle with setup in Merc for the last 2 years and now in Ferrari.
Perhaps it's not the team or the car, but the driver himself.

I think Charles can be happy with the podium finish. As for LH, 2025 could be another very long and tough season for him. His first race in Italy is going to be very difficult if he continues to struggle.

The ground effect cars + his age have been the perfect recipe for disaster. These cars are tricky to drive but younger drivers can work their way around it unlike Lewis who can only win nowadays if the car is perfect. That being said, I can imagine him winning in Silverstone and Budapest if the car is sorted out by then.

Yep, pretty much spot on. The sprint result bought him time, but at the minute, it’s hard to defend his performances. Worrying times.

Again, limited time to setup the car at Miami, given the sprint, so he either lucks in early to a setup or makes a hash of it. Toss of a coin stuff, which just doesn’t bode well from week to week, and can’t be good for confidence and belief.

If he’s still having a mare at Silverstone, then I’m not sure what can be done. A big decision might be made, but let’s hope for his and Ferrari’s sake, that he can turn it around.

[Mansell89]

This downbeat, doom mongering “poor old me” Lewis will not be tolerated for long at Ferrari.

I could see this team invigorating him if they delivered a great car but my fear was that if they didn’t, Lewis is not a very good mouthpiece for a team that loses its way but I did not think we’d see it already.

The way he’s talking lately, it’s as if he doesn’t think he has quali pace anymore and then yesterday he’s writing off the season in his post race comments.

This could blow up if he’s not careful- the best thing he can do is head down, positive mindset and interviews, and just keep learning about this car.

If he positions himself like an outsider in a team like Ferrari, he’s gonna really struggle.

He might luck into a championship fighting car and engine next season- he needs to be building relationships.

Vettel and even Alonso just largely got on with it -especially early in their stints with Ferrari- despite knowing the car was second to Merc/Red Bulls of the era respectively, and I’d suggest Lewis would be better off following their lead.

[mstar]

I see a couple of issues lewis is fighting here:
1) The car DNA is not natural way how lewis drives, Charles can adapt as he is used to how to drive a SF for years. Sainz was nowhere in 2022 complaining about the same.
2) Engine braking is causing lewis BIG issues he is not used to this and his major strength is brake modulation/throttle (probably the best at it) is bleeding him laptime
3) the Car is just too loose in the rear for lewis to extract any laptime with his aggressive driving style.
4) The inhertant understeer is compromising to much set-up as we saw in pre-season testing the car has understeer which seems a trait they cannot get rid of completely like the Mcl, Merc, RB.

I am afraid with cost cap, not sure how much be addressed by the team. Anyone know how 2026 regs from a car perspective will work? i think i heard LESS Ground effect and more closer to the cars before ground effect?

[Space-heat]

The Imola upgrades will be crucial to keep morale high, but I think the gap in the championship is quite insurmountable barring a huge leap from us.

Somewhat on that topic - 2026 needs to be catered towards Leclerc as much as possible. This is an all time special talent we have.

From what LEC was saying in the interviews it seems like they are betting on the new technical directive helping them close the gap, which is basically what Horner has been saying for months. McLaren don't seem very worried about the new front wings so I feel like they have that covered, but we shall see.

Mclaren were adamant the updated RW flexing restrictions would not impact them but (as far as I know) they have lost a step in their straight line speed (https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/4432 ... er-mclaren). Piastri is the only one telling the truth at McL and I think that is just good mental pressure he is applying to Lando. I think all teams will say it doesn't impact them, the only truth will be the lap time.

The strange thing is, that Merc seem to be as big of culprits for the noodle wings but George was talking at some point in the last two weekend (looked through F1 and sky interviews but can't find it) about how the Spain TD will change the order, as if it will help Merc, so who really knows what to expect.

One would imagine, TD018 will impact front end DF, so I wonder will Ferrari have to bring a new floor to rebalance the car. It makes me less optimistic that the Imola package will be anything large. If the ride height issue is a thing, and they can fix that at Imola through some rear suspension or other non floor update it might make sense, but with the potential shift in Spain, you'd think Ferrari would just hold until then to also include the TD018 impact.

Anyway, Miami is probably going to be similar to Bahrain. Charles has already been clear that he has the cars sweet spot so we aren't getting any more performance through that. So most likely battling for P3-P5 with Max and George.

[Emag]

The Imola upgrades will be crucial to keep morale high, but I think the gap in the championship is quite insurmountable barring a huge leap from us.

Somewhat on that topic - 2026 needs to be catered towards Leclerc as much as possible. This is an all time special talent we have.

From what LEC was saying in the interviews it seems like they are betting on the new technical directive helping them close the gap, which is basically what Horner has been saying for months. McLaren don't seem very worried about the new front wings so I feel like they have that covered, but we shall see.

Mclaren were adamant the updated RW flexing restrictions would not impact them but (as far as I know) they have lost a step in their straight line speed (https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/4432 ... er-mclaren). Piastri is the only one telling the truth at McL and I think that is just good mental pressure he is applying to Lando. I think all teams will say it doesn't impact them, the only truth will be the lap time.

The strange thing is, that Merc seem to be as big of culprits for the noodle wings but George was talking at some point in the last two weekend (looked through F1 and sky interviews but can't find it) about how the Spain TD will change the order, as if it will help Merc, so who really knows what to expect.

One would imagine, TD018 will impact front end DF, so I wonder will Ferrari have to bring a new floor to rebalance the car. It makes me less optimistic that the Imola package will be anything large. If the ride height issue is a thing, and they can fix that at Imola through some rear suspension or other non floor update it might make sense, but with the potential shift in Spain, you'd think Ferrari would just hold until then to also include the TD018 impact.

Anyway, Miami is probably going to be similar to Bahrain. Charles has already been clear that he has the cars sweet spot so we aren't getting any more performance through that. So most likely battling for P3-P5 with Max and George.

McLaren hasn't lost anything in straight line speed, they've always been bad in that area compared to the others ever since 2023 actually. The TD changed nothing about it.

Everyone is banking in on that Spain TD changing the pecking order, but it will all depend on how the teams respond. Everyone will be affected. People are assuming it will hurt McLaren the most, but that is not a guarantee. Nobody apart from the teams themselves know how impactful it will be for their respectful cars. Now, everyone from McLaren, including Andrea, have been quite nonchalant about it. Whether they actually think it won't do much to their performance or are just playing "the cool game", we will just have to wait and see.

[Aesop]

You’d expect that a driver of Lewis stature would inspire and lift the team to help them take that final step to be WC contenders. It’s sad to see it is quite the opposite.
I can’t see any upsides now in Lewis driving the Ferrari anymore. Clearly he and Charles have very different preferences which could further complicate development for next years regs. Perhaps Ferrari should consider bringin in Max next year. That would be a cracking line up with Charles and both tend to like oversteer with a loose end which would help to determine which way to go with development.

[Sevach]

Ferrari also denied the 2022 floor changes would affect them in any way.
The car went from a Red Bull match(in pure speed) to behind Mercedes at times, Max didn't see a challenge for 2.5 years.

[Jdn1327]

Is there anyway that ferrari can replace lewis hamilton now? His post race morale isn't great and it put a damper on Charles great podium drive. He is such a diva...ferrari made a massive error in getting rid of sainz...he was an excellent driver for ferrari. Lewis...the failure of decade...

[diffuser]

It's gonna take half a year for him to fully dial into the car.

[DGP123]

You’d expect that a driver of Lewis stature would inspire and lift the team to help them take that final step to be WC contenders. It’s sad to see it is quite the opposite.
I can’t see any upsides now in Lewis driving the Ferrari anymore. Clearly he and Charles have very different preferences which could further complicate development for next years regs. Perhaps Ferrari should consider bringin in Max next year. That would be a cracking line up with Charles and both tend to like oversteer with a loose end which would help to determine which way to go with development.

You’ve obviously not watched F1 for very long. It’s not easy to just rock up, whoever you are, and instantly make a team become champions. Alonso tried and failed, and so did, Vettel. You then talk about clicking your fingers and signing Max, even though you’ve just committed hundreds of millions to Lewis. Good luck terminating that with a good outcome and then throwing hundreds of more millions at Max. That’s if, he even wanted to join a team that hasn’t won anything for nearly twenty years, and is currently not even remotely near the front end of the grid. Mind boggling. Further to this, Max would want a snail as a teammate, and not someone like, Charles.

Just a non starter, but I guess we’re in that phase now of everyone just wanting rid of Lewis, even though he’s the only one who’s won anything this season for Ferrari.

[f1316]

The interesting thing about Miami might be the sprint: are they able to run the car lower for the sprint (even if they then have to reverse that for the GP) because plank wear is less of an issue? If we see a Ferrari that is more competitive in the sprint than the race - like we did in China - it could tell us the scope for improvement they have in “just” (easier said than done) fixing that.

[GrizzleBoy]

To be honest I couldn't even be mad at anyone who might think about driver swaps already.

However this comes from people just assuming that anyone else would walk into the Ferrari and also be on Charles' pace.

Different teams and cars are just different.

Lawson had Sauber level one lap pace at Red Bull, but not so at Racing Bulls.

Lewis had excellent race pace at Merc, but it's disappeared for now.at Ferrari.

Max has spent a decade driving Red Bull owned cars. He is not going to walk into Ferrari and be immediatepy on Charles pace either, but you could definitely make the argument that he'd do better at being able to drive these ground effect cars as they need to be driven.

Also, wondering about that race pace at merc vs Ferrari thing with Lewis.

At Merc Lewis had meh one lap pace in these cars, but could make the car competitive in the race with legendary drives even just last year.

At Ferrari, Lewis has meh one lap pace and also race pace.

Is it possible that there's something in the Ferrari setup wise that means he has less ability/tools to tailor the car to his preference for either one lap or the race?

Maybe the Ferrari has one way to drive it, whether it's quali or the race, and you either can do it properly or you can't.

[Aesop]

You’d expect that a driver of Lewis stature would inspire and lift the team to help them take that final step to be WC contenders. It’s sad to see it is quite the opposite.
I can’t see any upsides now in Lewis driving the Ferrari anymore. Clearly he and Charles have very different preferences which could further complicate development for next years regs. Perhaps Ferrari should consider bringin in Max next year. That would be a cracking line up with Charles and both tend to like oversteer with a loose end which would help to determine which way to go with development.

You’ve obviously not watched F1 for very long. It’s not easy to just rock up, whoever you are, and instantly make a team become champions.

I'd made the case that you cán and should instantly inspire the team. Noone expected Lewis to be on par with Charles and fight for the Championship immediately. But he is so far of the pace, he is so vocal about his shortcomings and lack of understanding the car and doesnt seem to believe he can turn it around. Thats not what Ferrari needs. Lewis needs to up his game, but, even more so, his spirit. I seriously doubt he can.