2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[deadhead]

Thoughts on TD018 helping HAM get closer to LEC? Or rather, LEC loosing speed because of the potential weaker front end

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.

True.

To me the 2022 TD sounds more impactful than TD018 but I guess we will find out.

[ringo]

It wont help Lewis. Corner entry and mid corner is his issue. Just slug slow apex speeds cs Leclerc. High speed switch over or "S" curves also his weakness vs Charles. Lewis cannot manage the body roll i think with getting scared. Lol.

[bluechris]

It's early days. The real objective is 2026.

I don't agree with this. The point of revamping the SF-24 and bringing on Hamilton was to target the WCC(and possibly WDC) this year, especially after being so close in 2024.

That's your view, most people we didn't expect Hamilton to be fine from the get go in a so much different car that he used to drive, add also his age and that he don't like to melt in simulator, you get this result.

[Seanspeed]

The truth is a car that Lewis finds balanced usually storms to a win, even its not dominant.

The car is balanced enough. That's not the problem. It's not a particularly tough car to drive or anything. It's simply lacking performance to Mclaren.

And Lewis was always good even when the car wasn't great. 2009 Mclaren was awful for the first two thirds of the season and he was still consistently impressive in it, for instance. One of the marks of all top drivers is that they are adaptable and dont let a car having issues get in the way of themselves performing admirably.

Dont know why people struggle with accepting that Lewis just isn't who he used to be. And he's left a team he was super comfortable with for a decade, and obviously at age 40, is hardly going to be anywhere close to as adaptable as he was when younger.

[Seanspeed]

most people we didn't expect Hamilton to be fine from the get go in a so much different car that he used to drive

Plenty of people were telling us he left Mercedes because he wasn't happy with the cars there, and that moving to Ferrari would mean an upgrade for him, not just in terms of competitiveness, but also a car that'd be easier and more predictable to drive.

This idea that Lewis was always gonna struggle like this seems like some light revisionism. I think most people would have said that at the baseline, bringing Lewis on was gonna be a sidegrade, not that he'd be straight up performing noticeably worse than Sainz.

[JPower]

It's early days. The real objective is 2026.

I don't agree with this. The point of revamping the SF-24 and bringing on Hamilton was to target the WCC(and possibly WDC) this year, especially after being so close in 2024.

That's your view, most people we didn't expect Hamilton to be fine from the get go in a so much different car that he used to drive, add also his age and that he don't like to melt in simulator, you get this result.

I don't agree with this either. Many people here were expecting a pretty instant upgrade over Sainz. In fact, the threadstarter went on an entire tirade one time about how Sainz wasn't good enough for Ferrari. And others implied the same or that Hamilton would be better. I'm sure I can find the quotes if I had the time.

[bluechris]

My mistake personally was that i thought that Leclerc and Hamilton had same driving preferences and that will help Hamilton and overall Ferrari. As we all witness this is not the case. I am still waiting Hamilton to put his head down and melt in the simulator and even simracing, if he does not do that then there is no future for him.

[GrizzleBoy]

Only silver lining I see for Lewis is that in 2022 we were having these same conversations, then in 2023 somehow things completely flipped and he was the anchor of Mercedes while George pooped the bed, then flipped back after he announced his exit.

With no possibility to win a WDC and this generation of car going out the window, it would probably be much better to just focus on honing his style to 2026 cars which go back to the flat floor which probably won't require the super stiff stability these venturi floors require and might allow the return of late braking and pitch changes under braking which is what I believe either Shovlin or Allison said is basically what Lewis' style of driving relies on.

[ScuderiaLeo]

It always surprises me how low some people rate Leclerc, and they refuse to believe maybe the reason why he's beaten all his teammates is simply because he's a good driver...

[ringo]

I don't agree with this. The point of revamping the SF-24 and bringing on Hamilton was to target the WCC(and possibly WDC) this year, especially after being so close in 2024.

That's your view, most people we didn't expect Hamilton to be fine from the get go in a so much different car that he used to drive, add also his age and that he don't like to melt in simulator, you get this result.

I don't agree with this either. Many people here were expecting a pretty instant upgrade over Sainz. In fact, the threadstarter went on an entire tirade one time about how Sainz wasn't good enough for Ferrari. And others implied the same or that Hamilton would be better. I'm sure I can find the quotes if I had the time.

Hamilton is already proven better for Ferrari. He's a better team player. Sainz was already holding up Albon who was faster in Jedha. He's always going to be for himself. If he stayed he would have been a stumbling block for the team.

I think we should let the season play out before any judgement. It's just too early to be throwing in the towel.

Hamilton will find the pace. He's just a difficult learner. Let's just wait. We may well be finding quotes of today in 5 month's time when there was doubt. There's a reason he didn't do well in school.

[JPower]

Hamilton is already proven better for Ferrari. He's a better team player. Sainz was already holding up Albon who was faster in Jedha. He's always going to be for himself. If he stayed he would have been a stumbling block for the team.

I think we should let the season play out before any judgement. It's just too early to be throwing in the towel.

Hamilton will find the pace. He's just a difficult learner. Let's just wait. We may well be finding quotes of today in 5 month's time when there was doubt. There's a reason he didn't do well in school.

Completely false. Sainz was asked to back into range for Albon to create a DRS train to cover Hadjar. Sainz last lap was quicker than everyone else on hards outside of PIA/VER/ANT. He had tons of pace left.

You're the one that suggested Ferrari throw in the towel and pivot to working on 2026.

As for the potshot at Hamilton being a slow learner, that's weak and uncalled for. Not even funny as a joke.

[CHT]

That's your view, most people we didn't expect Hamilton to be fine from the get go in a so much different car that he used to drive, add also his age and that he don't like to melt in simulator, you get this result.

I don't agree with this either. Many people here were expecting a pretty instant upgrade over Sainz. In fact, the threadstarter went on an entire tirade one time about how Sainz wasn't good enough for Ferrari. And others implied the same or that Hamilton would be better. I'm sure I can find the quotes if I had the time.

Hamilton is already proven better for Ferrari. He's a better team player. Sainz was already holding up Albon who was faster in Jedha. He's always going to be for himself. If he stayed he would have been a stumbling block for the team.

I think we should let the season play out before any judgement. It's just too early to be throwing in the towel.

Hamilton will find the pace. He's just a difficult learner. Let's just wait. We may well be finding quotes of today in 5 month's time when there was doubt. There's a reason he didn't do well in school.

Better or not is subjective because LH didn't sign with Ferrari to become Charles sidekick or to win the best teammate award. Instead of predicting the future, how about looking back at quotes from 5 months ago, e.g all the optimism and high hopes that Lewis will outperform Charles in the same car.

[LM10]

It's early days. The real objective is 2026.

I don't agree with this. The point of revamping the SF-24 and bringing on Hamilton was to target the WCC(and possibly WDC) this year, especially after being so close in 2024.

How realistic does it sound to you that Ferrari brought Hamilton only thinking of WCC in 2025? And how realistic does it sound to you that Lewis didn't think of playing the long game, but instead bet everything on beating his top-class team mate to the title in 2025?

[diffuser]

Lewis was fast in his first F1 race in 2007, with grande Alonso, so dont believe in time adaptation, you are fast or you are not, Lewis is not fast enough last few years.

Yes maybe he can improve something, but he will be always slower then Lecler. Expected is for 8th world champion to be faster than teammate, so any result where his slower than teammate is bad result for him and for F1 comunity.

How much testing was he allowed to do in 2007.....Hamilton completed about 1011 laps at various tracks in the McLaren MP4-22 during pre-season testing. That's easily between 10 - 20 races.

Plus how would you, it was Alonso's first year there too. All we really know is the car was fast compared to the rest of F1 in 2007.

Sainz is struggling this year. Alonso struggled at Alpine.

Alonso struggled at alpine but he was recovering from a very big bike crash, take that into consideration

Gees, I should never have mentioned Alonso.....


Hamilton is @ Ferrari for a good while, you have time enough to pass judgement. The first half of his first year will not be the deciding factor on how Hamilton's stay at Ferrari was at.

[JPower]

It's early days. The real objective is 2026.

I don't agree with this. The point of revamping the SF-24 and bringing on Hamilton was to target the WCC(and possibly WDC) this year, especially after being so close in 2024.

How realistic does it sound to you that Ferrari brought Hamilton only thinking of WCC in 2025? And how realistic does it sound to you that Lewis didn't think of playing the long game, but instead bet everything on beating his top-class team mate to the title in 2025?

Who said "only"? I think it was one of Ferrari's goals for this year and his signing, absolutely.

What is long game to Lewis at this point? 2 years? 3 years max? Do you realistically think he came to Ferrari not believing he'd be trying for an 8th starting this year?