From lofty promises to the harsh reality on track: Ferrari closes the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship in a disappointing fourth place. The Qatar Grand Prix added only two points to their tally, perfectly summarizing a season that never lived up to expectations.
Ferrari is set to end the 2025 constructors’ championship in fourth position after the race in Qatar—an outcome that confirms a year to forget. It all began with optimistic declarations, which quickly collapsed once the racing started.
There is little point in recapping the entire season. Even a 1,000-word article would not be enough to list everything the team lacked to fight at the front. A handful of podiums—each of them achieved by Charles Leclerc—and a Sprint victory claimed by Lewis Hamilton are far from enough to paint the year in a positive light.
In Qatar, Ferrari was nowhere. Slow, distant, uncompetitive. Lewis Hamilton battled—actually, failed to battle—in the lower midfield, never managing to climb back toward the points and finishing the race in twelfth place. Leclerc found himself stuck in a DRS train led by Fernando Alonso, eventually crossing the line in eighth after capitalizing on a mistake by Isack Hadjar.
Both cars spent the race almost entirely off-camera, forced into complete anonymity. And understandably so: all attention was on the three drivers fighting for the world championship ahead of the decisive final round in Abu Dhabi.
What can be salvaged from this season? Ferrari confirmed itself as the fourth-strongest team in the constructors’ standings, and if we really want to look on the bright side, it is not even the worst result of recent years. In 2020, under Mattia Binotto’s leadership, the team from Maranello finished sixth.
So what went wrong this year? It started with the declarations made in March, before the season had even begun. Making predictions was a mistake, just as it was a mistake to convince themselves that there would be consistent improvements race after race.
The team radio from Qatar says everything. There was frustration, even despair. The drivers sound like they are on the brink of a breakdown—if they have not already reached it. Bryan Bozzi told Charles Leclerc: “You’re the fastest car in sector two,” and he answered: “I’m slow. Let’s stop with this.”
Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer tried to give him feedback on how to optimize certain corners, but the British driver replied: “It makes no difference.”
So let’s return to the initial question: what can be saved from this season? Only Abu Dhabi remains, and once that weekend is over, Ferrari can finally close the book on one of its worst years in Formula 1.
Fred Vasseur and his team will then face a crucial mission for 2026: convincing both drivers to stay on board. And that will not be easy.
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