F1, Ferrari: Charles Leclerc acknowledges SF-25’s issues with turbulent air. Charles Leclerc explained his struggles with the SF-25’s balance during the race.

Ferrari is working to get back to the top. There are several issues currently holding back the Maranello team, which is still at least three tenths off the impressive McLaren team. Even Red Bull, when it finds the correct working point of the car, is superior, and Mercedes, at least with George Russell, has often been ahead. Starting from the back does not help the Italian team, which struggles to maximize the performance of the SF-25 in qualifying, as we have pointed out in the previous article. But let’s go in order.

Turbulent wakes don’t suit the SF-25 and it is no secret that this generation of cars has completely failed in terms of overtaking. It is all due to the current regulations, which fail to account for this important and decisive factor. A car following another opponent automatically suffers a disadvantage due to the dirty air from the car ahead. This is due to the very complex aerodynamics of the wing cars.

The Formula 1 cars that hit the track under the current regulatory body are very delicate and sensitive to the airflow they encounter. We have seen how McLaren itself suffers in these conditions, which are highly difficult to simulate during the design phase. With the tools used in factories, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations, the effects of two cars chasing each other can be simulated.

However, as explained by various technicians, it is difficult to precisely predict the wake created by a McLaren versus a Red Bull. The same goes for the other teams. This is why, over the distance of 300 kilometers, it becomes so difficult to overcome this kind of disadvantage when starting from behind. This is a situation that the historic Italian team is experiencing in a major way.

In the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah circuit, we recall how Charles Leclerc highlighted this aspect: the SF-25 single-seater struggles to follow other cars and often has to take a step back. The Italian side’s 2025 F1 car suffers from chronic lack of rotation and Lewis Hamilton complains about this, wanting a strong front end for turn-in, but even the Monegasque driver isn’t immune, as the understeer is too pronounced under certain conditions.

After the race, Charles Leclerc made it clear how difficult it was to stay behind George Russell. Charles Leclerc admitted that, to be honest, he had been struggling significantly with the balance while behind George Russell and had been suffering from a lack of rotation. He explained that as soon as the Mercedes W16 car pitted, the front tires came back to life, and the car immediately improved. The Ferrari driver also mentioned that he was able to manage the front axle better, and the performance improved in clean air.

These comments leave little room for interpretation. The understeer of the SF-25 was too great in dirty air. The amount of fluid mass hitting the front wing decreases by a percentage, automatically reducing the load on certain areas. Conditions that further hinder the front end of the Ferrari car, constituting the main limit in the first part of the stint in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

It is no coincidence that Jeddah is a front-limited circuit. A condition to which everyone was subjected in dirty air, but the Italian side suffered the most. One of the causes is the flexibility of the front wing. The turbulence causes oscillations that interfere with this component, subject to less consistent loading. This unexpected fluctuation, in certain areas, such as the fast corners, takes away the driver’s feel.

In clean air, these problems do not exist, as Charles Leclerc asserts, who had a better “chemistry” with the car and more load to exploit on the front end. We are not talking about a problem related to tire temperature, which can increase when following another car. The issue is purely aerodynamic, where a car that is inherently understeering is more affected by these factors.

In order to avoid this scenario, improvement in terms of qualifying performance is necessary. We discussed this earlier, and in this case, tire temperatures are definitely a factor. The Italian team struggles to manage the two different temperature types, where the surface temperature and internal temperature are essentially at odds. This is a problem that the Ferrari engineers and technicians are working to address with the aerodynamic update package which is scheduled to be introduced in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend at the Imola circuit in Italy.

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