Can Ferrari SF-25 upgrades rescue their disappointing 2025 F1 campaign?. Ferrari plan to bring upgrades to the SF-25 during the Austria–Silverstone double header.

Ferrari Hope New Upgrades Can Revive F1 Season Ahead of Austria–Silverstone Double Header

Ferrari are preparing to introduce updates to their underperforming SF-25 during the upcoming Formula 1 double-header at the Austrian and British Grands Prix, in a bid to salvage a season that has so far fallen short of expectations.

With Mercedes securing victory two weeks ago at the 4.361-kilometre Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, Ferrari remain the only team among F1’s current top four—alongside Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes—yet to take a full race win in 2025. The Scuderia have struggled with consistency across race weekends, particularly in terms of extracting performance throughout qualifying and race sessions. In Montreal, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton crossed the line in fifth and sixth places respectively. After the race, Hamilton acknowledged that his team, too, urgently required an upgrade if they were to close the performance gap to the front-runners.

Although Ferrari have not officially specified whether their upcoming changes will debut at the Red Bull Ring in Austria or the following weekend at Silverstone, team principal Frédéric Vasseur confirmed that new components were on the way. However, he emphasized that the team’s immediate focus should lie more in operational execution rather than expecting the upgrades alone to resolve their issues.

Fred Vasseur indicated that an upgrade would be introduced before the British Grand Prix, and potentially another one after that. He noted that while performance improvements were always welcome, the biggest gains at this stage of the regulations came down to fine margins. According to him, the development window had narrowed so significantly that teams were now dealing with hundredths of a second rather than tenths. As such, failure to maximise a car’s setup and tyre performance could result in losing valuable tenths, which Ferrari had experienced on more than one occasion.

He also pointed out that when Ferrari had implemented updates earlier in the season, it had taken one or two races to fully understand and adapt the setup to the new specification. For that reason, Fred Vasseur believed the spotlight should shift more toward the team’s execution and race management, rather than hoping for drastic improvements from new components alone. Nonetheless, he confirmed that updates were on the way.

Lewis Hamilton, speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the Montreal Grand Prix, echoed similar concerns for the Italian side, revealing that an update was expected the following week in Austria. However, he expressed uncertainty about the scale of the changes, admitting he didn’t believe it would be significant and remarking that it felt like “one of those years” where competitiveness remained elusive.

Addressing Ferrari’s broader performance issues, Fred Vasseur acknowledged that the Maranello team had fallen short in Canada, describing their failure to execute the weekend properly as a major setback. The French manager identified tyre usage as one of the most critical elements determining success or failure this season. In his view, understanding tyre behaviour and optimising tyre performance had become more important than the car’s raw pace when it came to delivering consistent results.

Looking ahead to the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, a medium-speed circuit, Fred Vasseur reflected on Ferrari’s recent performance. The French manager believed the team had demonstrated solid pace in Barcelona, particularly in the first sector, and also performed well in Monaco. However, he stressed that assembling all the right elements before and during a race weekend was crucial. In his opinion, the difference between teams was now often decided more by tyre strategy and management than by outright car performance.

Fred Vasseur used examples from recent races—including Canada, Monaco, and Imola—to illustrate how effective tyre handling could make the difference. The Ferrari team boss accepted that the challenge would persist until the end of the season and concluded that all teams faced the same circumstances. For Ferrari to turn their Formula 1 season around, he admitted, they simply had to execute better, starting with this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.