The 2025 season for Ferrari came to an end with very little to celebrate, while all remaining hopes are now firmly focused on 2026. After failing to match the pace of their main rivals throughout the year, the Scuderia leaves behind a campaign full of frustration and unanswered questions. Nevertheless, former Ferrari engineer Luigi Mazzola has identified three specific elements that can still be considered positives and which could provide a foundation for the future.
In 2025, the Maranello-based team was unable to keep up with the competition. The closing phase of the previous season had suggested a Ferrari capable of playing a leading role, but those expectations were never fulfilled. Race after race, the promised step forward failed to materialise, and attention has now inevitably shifted towards the major regulation changes scheduled for 2026.
Despite the overall disappointment, Mazzola believes that not everything from this season should be thrown away. According to him, there are still some aspects worth preserving as Ferrari looks to rebuild its competitiveness in the coming years.
Ferrari’s 2025 campaign was marked by very few high points and a long list of frustrations. The SF-25 proved to be a difficult car to understand, hard to develop and only rarely capable of matching the performance of its direct rivals. When the season came to a close, the numbers told a clear story: zero victories, seven podium finishes – all achieved by Charles Leclerc – and a fourth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship.
During the latest episode of the A Ruota Libera podcast, Massimo Zecchinelli and Luigi Mazzola took a detailed look at Ferrari’s season. Their analysis clearly separated the critical issues from the areas with potential for improvement, without shying away from the responsibilities of the team, the drivers and the technical staff.
“Thankfully 2025 is over because Ferrari, we can say it, was bad, bad, bad again this year. Three or four years ago the car was immediately competitive: beautiful, agile, responsive, winning and fast. Then, little by little, we ended up fading into the background,” Massimo Zecchinelli said at the start of the discussion.
The three positive aspects of a negative 2025
Massimo Zecchinelli then put a direct question to Luigi Mazzola: “Is there anything at all to save from this season?” The former Ferrari engineer responded by identifying what he considers to be the only non-critical elements of Ferrari’s 2025 campaign.
“I save Ferrari’s reliability: it was practically total,” Luigi Mazzola said.
“I certainly save Charles Leclerc, and also the mechanics, who were always consistent in the pit stops. The strategies can be improved, sometimes they were not optimal, but not everything depended on the pit wall. The rest of the season? There is little to save, but from here you can start again.”
“It’s not only Hamilton’s fault”
The conversation then moved on to Lewis Hamilton’s disappointing performances, although Mazzola was keen to spread the responsibility more evenly. “I don’t put all the blame on him, the team also has its responsibilities,” he admitted.
“You cannot go through 24 races without understanding how a driver drives or without giving him a car that is consistently satisfactory. The cultural change, the language, the procedures all matter, but the driver on track needs a car that he can actually drive.”
Luigi Mazzola also defended those working alongside the seven-time world champion. “I don’t blame the race engineer either because I don’t know how much freedom he has to act on the car. The engineer’s personality and the relationship with the driver matter, but there are limits that are very difficult to overcome.”
John Elkann’s unfortunate comments
Finally, Luigi Mazzola once again addressed the controversial comments made by John Elkann towards the drivers. “They were out of place,” the former Ferrari man stated.
“At a time when the team needed to celebrate the WEC victory, criticising the drivers like that does not help. It is not good for the team’s morale, especially for those who work in the factory or at the track. This is not about attacking anyone, but about recognising the complexity of the situation and the limits of those who make certain decisions,” he concluded.
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