At the Zandvoort circuit, one of the most technical and physically demanding venues on the Formula 1 calendar, Ferrari unfortunately experienced what Charles Leclerc described as the team’s single most difficult and disappointing Friday of the entire season so far. The Maranello team found itself with an SF-25 that struggled heavily in long, sweeping corners, particularly affecting the drivers on corner entry and throughout the mid-phase of the turns. This characteristic not only limited performance but also exposed a weakness that compromised confidence and stability. The situation significantly reduced competitiveness and made it clear how difficult Ferrari found it to adapt the SF-25 to the unique characteristics of the Dutch dunes.
The Zandvoort track is one of the shortest circuits of the year, second only to the tight and narrow streets of Monte Carlo in Monaco. Despite its compact layout, Zandvoort remains one of the most complex, selective, and technically challenging tracks in Formula 1. The circuit is defined by steeply banked corners, an alternation between very slow technical sections and flowing high-speed stretches, and constant changes in rhythm. All of this demands a car with absolute precision at the front end, high levels of aerodynamic load, and a finely balanced setup that allows drivers to carry speed through every turn with confidence, using every available centimeter of the racing line to their advantage.
On such a demanding layout, where the margin for error is virtually zero and every mistake carries a heavy price, the work carried out on track becomes more than simple preparation. It turns into both an art form and an essential technical exercise. Drivers and engineers alike must understand and decode the very specific challenges posed by Zandvoort. The track’s selective nature exposes any weakness immediately and makes it extremely difficult to push the car to the absolute limit, particularly when unpredictable gusts of wind destabilize cars that are already suffering from fragile aerodynamic balance.
Ferrari was confronted directly with this reality. Charles Leclerc admitted that this had been Ferrari’s worst Friday of the season, finishing more than eight tenths of a second away from the top of the timesheets and notably behind the group chasing McLaren. For the Monegasque driver, it was a harsh reality check after the summer break. Although the struggles were not entirely unexpected, they immediately placed Ferrari in a position where a strong and rapid reaction was required to avoid slipping further down the competitive order.
It had never been a secret that Zandvoort might not suit the characteristics of the SF-25 particularly well. The long corners, especially those at medium and low speed, have consistently exposed the limitations of Ferrari’s 2025 car. In those areas, it is crucial to have a sharp and reactive front end that allows the car to rotate effectively and maintain speed through the middle of the corner. On several occasions earlier in the year, the SF-25 had already revealed its struggles in exactly these types of conditions, and in the Netherlands the same issues reappeared with full force.
Charles Leclerc pointed out that Ferrari was losing approximately ninety percent of its lap time deficit in just two corners. He explained that there was something about the SF-25 that, at the moment, was simply incapable of performing properly in those particular sections of the circuit. He said that the engineers were trying to understand why this problem was concentrated in such a specific way, since normally performance deficits were spread out more evenly across a lap. He added that the team’s objective would be to work intensively to find a solution targeted specifically at those two corners.
While Charles Leclerc did not publicly name the exact turns, an analysis of telemetry data and radio communications indicated that the critical areas were Turn 1 and Turn 9. Both of these are long corners that demand an extremely precise response from the front end of the car in order to maintain balance and carry speed. Looking back at the season, the SF-25 has repeatedly shown its vulnerability in situations where a strong and reactive front end is needed, both to attack the corner on entry and to sustain high speeds through the middle phase of the turn.
The issue becomes even more evident in long and extended slow-speed corners, where the lack of sufficient front grip results in heavy understeer. This forces the drivers to struggle when trying to rotate the car and complete the turn cleanly. As a result, the SF-25 suffers a reduced mid-corner speed, which becomes clear when comparing telemetry traces with other teams. Against McLaren, which has excelled in this type of corner throughout 2025, Ferrari’s disadvantage was particularly obvious. Even against other leading teams, the SF-25 underperformed, although not always in such a pronounced way. Red Bull, for example, also struggled somewhat with car rotation at Turn 1, but the team managed to recover lost time elsewhere, especially in the quicker sections of the track.
For Charles Leclerc, the fundamental problem is that there is no instant fix. Although the majority of Ferrari’s time loss was concentrated in just a couple of corners, the risk of overcompensating to fix those issues was high. Any attempt to radically improve performance in those areas could come at the expense of balance and speed elsewhere on the track, turning potential solutions into a dangerous boomerang that would ultimately hurt overall competitiveness.
Another major concern was that the Ferrari SF-25 did not display any clear strengths on Friday. Even in sections where the car appeared to recover some ground on McLaren, such as the acceleration phase from Turn 3 onwards, the improvement seemed more related to McLaren’s potentially conservative engine maps than to Ferrari’s actual progress. Other rivals, including Mercedes, Red Bull, and Aston Martin, were also able to close part of their deficit in the very same places, suggesting that Ferrari’s gains were not genuine strengths but simply circumstantial.
What really distinguished the pursuing teams from one another was the amount of time lost in the sectors where McLaren set the benchmark. For instance, in the section stretching from Turn 8 to Turn 9, both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lost more than four tenths of a second compared to McLaren’s pace. Meanwhile, Red Bull and Mercedes managed to contain their losses to just about two tenths in that same stretch. This underlined how much Ferrari were suffering relative to Lando Norris’s McLaren.
In the areas of the track that required a car with a stable and effective front end, Ferrari was struggling more than its immediate competitors. Those were precisely the places where the Italian team needed to find the largest room for improvement. The problem was also visible, although to a slightly lesser extent, at Turn 10. On the other hand, in tighter low-speed corners such as the chicane, the gap to rivals was smaller because the weaknesses of the front end were less pronounced.
The fact that Ferrari’s difficulties were concentrated in specific corners that shared similar characteristics could, in theory, help the engineers. Identifying a narrower operating window in which to intervene might allow the team to make a targeted step forward. However, the fundamental issue remained that these were not entirely new problems. The SF-25 had already faced the same limitations at other circuits earlier in the season, and a genuine, lasting solution had not yet been found. This persistent weakness continued to limit Ferrari’s ability to develop its car and close the gap to the frontrunners.
The Zandvoort circuit is ultimately a place defined by compromises. From the perspective of both driving dynamics and car setup, every choice has consequences. Even something as small as a few millimeters of ride height, as observed during Free Practice 1, can have a dramatic impact on performance. Unfortunately for Ferrari, the concept of compromise is the word that most accurately describes the challenge with the SF-25 at this venue. The team must somehow find those critical tenths of a second in the corners that hurt it most, while at the same time avoiding sacrificing performance in other areas of the lap. Achieving this balance has proven to be extremely difficult and continues to underline the uphill task facing Ferrari as the 2025 Formula 1 season progresses.
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