The world of Formula 1 has wrapped up an atypical three-day test session on the Sakhir track, marked by rain, wind, and unusual temperatures. 25 hours of testing saw a McLaren obviously in good shape, strengthened by its 2024 success with the constructors’ title, but still showing areas that need improvement. Ferrari, for its part, worked a lot during the tests, but the unexpressed performance limited the smiles despite the praised potential of the SF-25.
Ferrari’s work with the SF-25 in the early days of the 2025 season was intense, due to the need for a thorough understanding of the new chassis. This was boosted by a dual pull-rod suspension, with the front one marking a radical change for the Maranello team. The introduction of the pull-rod suspension at the front entails a very long learning process and an extremely lengthy setup adjustment to fully understand.
The new front suspension, strongly desired by Diego Tondi, head of aerodynamics, allowed the team to unlock new areas of work. However, such a radical change requires a long learning process and different working methods compared to the push-rod suspension. The old geometry, now tested and saturated in performance, had shown its limits, prompting Ferrari to follow Red Bull and McLaren.
Despite training sessions at the factory to understand how to set up the new geometry, the runs were limited due to the application of the new setup.
The perfect setup, which Ferrari never aimed for, was due to the desire to explore the range of adjustments offered by the new suspension pair. Over the three days, the SF-25 showed contrasting behaviors, from excessive oversteering to understeering, with some neutral handling in between. Despite this, the SF-25 completed many kilometers without any major structural reliability issues, allowing Hamilton and Leclerc to become more familiar with the new car.
Wednesday on the Rise, Friday in Almost Controlled Collapse
Starting from Wednesday, Ferrari began the work of mapping the car, exploring all the available setups, as mentioned before. The knowledge of the SF-25 began to show its results on Thursday, when Hamilton and Leclerc simulated qualifying and the race. While the SF-25 showed progress in the single-lap pace, the race pace brought disappointment among all the fans.
The new red car, in amaranth red, proved to be more effective with Leclerc and more temperamental with Hamilton. A rather predictable behavior, given that the Monegasque has a broader understanding of how the Ferrari package works in general.
In the race pace simulation by the Monegasque, carried out in the morning of Day 3, the pace was steady, not impressive, but good. However, what left a slight perplexity was the difference with Norris on Thursday, when there was an average gap of two and a half tenths. The gap can be explained through various hypotheses, from the most likely to the less expected.
The first, of course, is the power unit mapping, which was quite conservative over the three days. The hybrid delivery was also extremely restrained, with an intrusive clipping just above 300 km/h. Both with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, the top speed was noticeably lower than those recorded by the Mercedes-powered cars.
Another factor that could explain Ferrari’s struggle is ballast. This element allows teams to do heavy sandbagging, which can be applied both in single-lap pace and over distance. Supporting this hypothesis is the car’s behavior, which, despite good balance, seemed heavier and slower in corner entry.
A combination of factors that concealed the true Ferrari, or in the worst case, pointed to a disappointing SF-25. However, the words of Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Frederic Vasseur expressed a stitched-together satisfaction with the work done, with the data from the track reflecting those seen in Maranello. These words could be used to calm the fans. However, according to information obtained by the Italian website F1inGenerale, the potential of the Ferrari SF-25 single-seater is vast, and the track didn’t reveal any surprises.
Now, Ferrari will return to Maranello to analyze the latest data collected on track, leading to a long and intense period of simulator work.
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