Ferrari’s 2025 Formula 1 season will be remembered as one of the most complicated of the recent era, and inevitably Frederic Vasseur’s management has come under close scrutiny. The French team principal found himself leading the Scuderia in a deeply unfavorable technical context. The SF-25 was never a front-running car, a reality that was confirmed from the very first races. The ambitions expressed at the start of the year quickly collided with the harsh truth delivered by the track.
Ferrari: updating the SF-24 would have been enough
The single-seater designed in Maranello proved incapable of fighting for the top positions. The seven podiums achieved over the season represent a meager return compared to expectations, and all of them came thanks to the talent and consistency of Charles Leclerc. The only victory, in a Sprint Race, carries the signature of Lewis Hamilton. These episodes appear to be more the result of circumstances than of genuine technical superiority.
This is precisely the core of the debate surrounding Fred Vasseur’s management. Positive results arrived more because of the drivers’ value than the strength of the project itself. The SF-25 never showed a clear development path. The very few updates introduced, such as the Spa suspension package that reportedly cost around three million euros, produced no tangible effect, and the fix ended up being almost worse than the problem it was meant to solve. The growing certainty, more than a mere feeling, is that the team often operated without a clear long-term direction. This picture stands in stark contrast to what was seen in 2024.
The decision to completely overhaul the SF-24 remains one of the most difficult points to explain. Last year’s car fought for the Constructors’ Championship until the final race of the season. Starting from scratch in the final year of the ground-effect regulations appeared to be a risky choice. Updating and refining an already competitive base could have ensured greater continuity. This line of reasoning became evident already in the early months of 2025. With hindsight, the gamble did not pay off.
It is legitimate to ask why so many resources were invested in a completely new project at the end of a regulatory cycle. The SF-24, in practical terms, had less than two years of technical life: it began to take shape in Barcelona in 2023 after the final failure of the Mattia Binotto era with the SF-23. That car could have offered further development potential. Of course, this remains a hypothetical scenario, but on-track feedback made the comparison inevitable, and the comparison did not favor the SF-25.
Giancarlo Minardi: “Fred needs to learn Italian”
From a communication standpoint, Vasseur struggled to manage such a complex season effectively. In front of the microphones, he often insisted on execution and free practice performance. These arguments were valid, but only for a limited portion of the championship. At the same time, the drivers openly expressed their frustration. The public “rebukes” from Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton highlighted internal tensions, and the long-distance exchanges with the Maranello technical staff did not go unnoticed.
The human and communicative management of the team has therefore become a central issue. Fred did not expect a car of this level, and the narrative changed over the course of the months. Initially there was the idea of an SF-25 under constant development, followed by the revelation of an early stop in order to focus everything on 2026. This message fueled doubts and uncertainty, both inside and outside the team.
Within this context comes the analysis of Giancarlo Minardi, who pointed to empathy and communication consistency: “If I were him, I would try to finally learn Italian. In a competitive working group, empathy often counts as much as, if not more than, a pay raise.”
“If I were in his place, I would be more cautious with public statements: for months he assured everyone that work was ongoing on the SF-25 to improve it, then in the autumn he explained that as early as April it had been decided to stop development and focus entirely on 2026. That is a rather inconsistent version of events.” A blunt assessment that sums up many of the critical issues that emerged during Ferrari’s troubled 2025 season.
Fred Vasseur therefore faces growing pressure to address the technical and communicative inconsistencies that plagued Ferrari’s 2025 season. By balancing the need for better internal empathy with a more transparent development roadmap, the Maranello team hopes to turn the page and find the stability required to challenge for the title in 2026.
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