2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[SoulPancake13]

So you are saying that Lewis is not accurate?

The car is oversteery and Charles can deal with it well is an accurate paraphrase of the statement then.

Charles has been driving the SF25 for as long as Lewis has. Charles has been driving Ferrari cars much longer than Lewis has. I think it is an important distinction, this car is pretty much completely brand new compared to SF24 (this is what I think Xyz22 is meaning to say).

The stuff about oversteer and driving style is fine.

Yes, but I am not the person saying that stuff about the Ferrari car, Lewis is. I agree that the Ferrari has new concepts this year and is not similar to the previous few years.

Yeah, I understood that, not saying you said that at all! I just think that statement from Lewis is accepted without real thought by a lot of people.

[Hammerfist]

This is not true. While probably some things are similar, i.e. brakes and overall tools (steering wheel, etc.), the car is completely different from the SF 24 and previous cars.

So you are saying that Lewis is not accurate?

The car is oversteery and Charles can deal with it well is an accurate paraphrase of the statement then.

Charles has been driving the SF25 for as long as Lewis has. Charles has been driving Ferrari cars much longer than Lewis has. I think it is an important distinction, this car is pretty much completely brand new compared to SF24 (this is what I think Xyz22 is meaning to say).

The stuff about oversteer and driving style is fine.

I think what lewis is referring to are the characteristics and controls of the ferrari car. While the sf25 may be different from prior ferrari cars it still has Ferrari DNA which makes it easier for Charles to adapt to since he has been there longer. I always am puzzled when i hear lewis doesn’t like an oversteery car. He made a name for himself at mclaren driving cars such as the mp4-27 which was very oversteery and which Jenson Button called his worst mclaren. So has lewis lost his feel for oversteery cars? I dont believe that. You never lose that once you have it. His lack of pace is probably due more to him not yet knowing how to use all the tools that extract the most out of the car. Im sure he will improve. We shall see though.

[ringo]

https://www.racefans.net/2025/04/17/ham ... raris-car/

“Charles has obviously driven this car for a long time and the driving style he has worked perfectly with the car,” said Hamilton. “He loves sliding the rears. He likes a really oversteery car, which is really impressive to see.

As I said in a previous comment, the issue is the rear. Hamilton likes it stable. I always thought he would trounce Vettel in the same car but now I'm thinking that it would have been closer. Their preference in a car is a lot more similar than I thought.

I will look forward to the day when Leclerc and Verstappen are in the same car/team.

I hate when two drivers have two different driving styles, Vasseur is already saying they will adapt the car to suit Lewis “We will work on the car to adapt the car to Lewis" https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/04/ ... 20to%20him.

Either way, one of them will be inconvenienced.

I do not think Vasseur means the dynamics. He means maybe what can be controlled by the driver. It is however not bad to adapt dynamics because what Hamilton wants is really what will make the car more drivable and have less tyre deg.

[ringo]

Shame we won’t see LEC’s talent in full swing in a championship winning car that suits him. We got a short glimpse in 2022 and that might be it.


I can’t be the only one who thinks that he would gap the field nicely in the current McLaren?

I mean... yeah. Only guy on the grid right now I would be worried about Charles not beating in equal cars is Max. George has done a great job so far but the race pace in 2023, in fact even last year at times, was concerning when compared to pretty much the same Hamilton as we have now.

You have Hamilton in a new team that is still coming to grips with. He is not the same. We can sew the tentativeness on the onboards.
The season is long, but if you look on the current pace gap, Hamilton is closer to Charles than any other pairing on the grid.
Hamilton has not woken up yet. He's a slow learner. He will be flying soon once he trusts the car. The question should be when will he trust the car? That's when he would be closer to what he was in the past.

[ringo]

So you are saying that Lewis is not accurate?

The car is oversteery and Charles can deal with it well is an accurate paraphrase of the statement then.

Charles has been driving the SF25 for as long as Lewis has. Charles has been driving Ferrari cars much longer than Lewis has. I think it is an important distinction, this car is pretty much completely brand new compared to SF24 (this is what I think Xyz22 is meaning to say).

The stuff about oversteer and driving style is fine.

I think what lewis is referring to are the characteristics and controls of the ferrari car. While the sf25 may be different from prior ferrari cars it still has Ferrari DNA which makes it easier for Charles to adapt to since he has been there longer. I always am puzzled when i hear lewis doesn’t like an oversteery car. He made a name for himself at mclaren driving cars such as the mp4-27 which was very oversteery and which Jenson Button called his worst mclaren. So has lewis lost his feel for oversteery cars? I dont believe that. You never lose that once you have it. His lack of pace is probably due more to him not yet knowing how to use all the tools that extract the most out of the car. Im sure he will improve. We shall see though.

A lot of new F1 fans think driving style is black and white. Oversteer or understeer and the cool and fast drivers like oversteer and the back swinging all the time. There's a lot more to the driving style and how the car needs to be driven for the best race result.
Hamilton's bias is for the best race car on Sunday. He's not going to want the oversteery car for qualifying and then have a sliding car to drive for 50 laps. I dont think he has a problem driving the car like that, but it's not sustainable. This explains why Russell's pace seemed weaker. Just too much bias towards a quick lap. The same will play out with Chares as Lewis gets to grips. Theyre race pace is like 0.15% difference which is too close for a driver in a new team who is still learning.
It may make sense that Lewis asks for more rear stability based on his experience with winning cars.

[JPower]

This is not true. While probably some things are similar, i.e. brakes and overall tools (steering wheel, etc.), the car is completely different from the SF 24 and previous cars.

He didn't mean "this car" in a literal sense. Its clear he meant driving a Ferrari and what that entails in terms of aero, PU, brakes, etc.

As Sainz said, these cars share traits developed through the years, regardless of the TP's saying the car is x% new. They've developed the car since 2022 to behave in certain ways based on driver feedback. Leclerc has been with Ferrari for 6+ years now. He should know how to setup and drive a Ferrari F1 car better than anyone on the planet.

[catent]

Shame we won’t see LEC’s talent in full swing in a championship winning car that suits him. We got a short glimpse in 2022 and that might be it.


I can’t be the only one who thinks that he would gap the field nicely in the current McLaren?

I mean... yeah. Only guy on the grid right now I would be worried about Charles not beating in equal cars is Max. George has done a great job so far but the race pace in 2023, in fact even last year at times, was concerning when compared to pretty much the same Hamilton as we have now.

The season is long, but if you look on the current pace gap, Hamilton is closer to Charles than any other pairing on the grid.

This is not true.

Albon-Sainz
Norris-Piastri
Hadjar-Lawson
Alonso-Stroll
Ocon-Bearman

Five driver pairings that are arguably seeing closer pace by the respective drivers than Leclerc-Hamilton.

And that’s taking nothing from Hamilton. I like him a lot and hope/expect he will continue to get more comfortable and round into form.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

https://www.racefans.net/2025/04/17/ham ... raris-car/

“Charles has obviously driven this car for a long time and the driving style he has worked perfectly with the car,” said Hamilton. “He loves sliding the rears. He likes a really oversteery car, which is really impressive to see.

As I said in a previous comment, the issue is the rear. Hamilton likes it stable. I always thought he would trounce Vettel in the same car but now I'm thinking that it would have been closer. Their preference in a car is a lot more similar than I thought.

I will look forward to the day when Leclerc and Verstappen are in the same car/team.

I hate when two drivers have two different driving styles, Vasseur is already saying they will adapt the car to suit Lewis “We will work on the car to adapt the car to Lewis" https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/04/ ... 20to%20him.

Either way, one of them will be inconvenienced.

This is not true. While probably some things are similar, i.e. brakes and overall tools (steering wheel, etc.), the car is completely different from the SF 24 and previous cars.

So you are saying that Lewis is not accurate?

The car is oversteery and Charles can deal with it well is an accurate paraphrase of the statement then.

The funny thing is that when Pérez was struggling with extreme oversteer in his car, Hamilton said that Verstappen wouldn't have so much fun if he were in Pérez's seat. Now, even Ferrari is too oversteery for Hamilton.

[Fakepivot]

@dee, you continently left out the part which vasseur said " he also need to do a step". and lewis has also said "he will have to change his driving style"

[Dee]

@dee, you continently left out the part which vasseur said " he also need to do a step". and lewis has also said "he will have to change his driving style"

Lewis absolutely needs to make a step - correct

Lewis having to change his driving style however, may not be needed if Ferrari adapt the car towards him. "Adapt" means to modify, alter, adjust or make something suitable for that person.

At the moment, Lewis is having to change his driving style to suit the car.

Now if Vasseur said, Lewis will have to adapt to the car, that would be completely different. He didn't say that. He is on record as saying they are going to change the car to suit Lewis, hence "We will work on the car to adapt the car to Lewis"

[Fakepivot]

but lewis keep compaining about understeer a lot during race etc... i don't understand if charles is happy with oversteer and lewis is complaining about understeer...

[Xyz22]

but lewis keep compaining about understeer a lot during race etc... i don't understand if charles is happy with oversteer and lewis is complaining about understeer...

I don’t think Leclerc is “happy”. More like he knows he can make the difference when the car is behaving in a specific way. I’m sure he would like having more downforce and a more predictable car.
Anyway it could be possible that Lewis, in order to have more confidence, has to setup the car in a way that increases understeer.

[Farnborough]

While we aren't in possession of everything (not all in public domain) they have been more candid in discussion of what they're doing for the two drivers.

Notable is softer spring, anti roll and different rocker geometry for CL to use. I've always been impressed with just how fast CL chucks the car in with apparently some uncertainty in rear end stability. Not so much "copes" with that, but positively evolved in that manner to make use of instability characteristics in turning the chassis. He seems very comfortable.

LH on other hand seems to crave understanding of exactly what its going to do, predictability in other words. Through which he derives speed. We've seen him, throughout his career, drive a car at many angles, but ultimately the speed coming from predetermined response from chassis in allowing him to really lean on it. One that also facilitates such strong wet and mixed track performance, rarely (very rarely) dropping it in those conditions.

They appear more different than general comments on here have previously speculated.

LH I feel is being quite open about his learning in this period, clearly there's much to take in for that final 0.5 seconds of real pace. That's where all the action is.

[GrizzleBoy]

Let's just give it a couple more races.

This isn't a driver academy team swap. It's basically an "old man" in F1 terms trying to learn new tricks in a team, environment and car that probably feels like an Alien world after being in a Mercedes backed world since before he had pubes.

So far he's actually only had two full race weekends to properly practice with the car.

China was a sprint weekend and already showed he could be fast if the car is setup the correct way.

Japan might aswell have been a sprint weekend with all the practice session red flags due to fire crashes and grass fires.

The car has faults to be worked out and worked around so his baseline for what is normal is going to be off too, since the only testing he did in a Ferrari is a version of one that can't race legally in 2025 without further experimentation, which we have seen with alternate setups.

I'll admit his race pace has been the most disappointing part of his Ferrari tenure so far imo, but at least it comes from a position where improvement is not impossible.

If he was maximising everything from a car with a solid baseline and was still unable to go fast, I'd call it a wrap already.

[Farnborough]

General comment seem to judge on them needing different bias in same car, that to negative effect.

I feel it's inconceivable that they wouldn't have decisive difference in such a small margin of time performance.

Thats in no way unusual.