Ferrari: Antonio Giovinazzi tests SF-25 aerodynamic update package for Sakhir in Maranello simulator. Antonio Giovinazzi plays a key role in testing Ferrari's updates for Bahrain.

Ferrari is pushing. The Italian side does not accept the role of third or fourth force in this start of the 2025 Formula 1 championship and Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi is currently at Maranello to carry out a specific task. The Italian team is not satisfied with the performance shown last weekend at the 5.807-kilometre Suzuka Circuit in Japan, where despite giving everything, Ferrari was only able to achieve a fourth and seventh place once crossing the finish line. Too little. That is why the Ferrari technicians and engineers are working on updates ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Fred Vasseur’s indecision about updates
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur had tried to deflect inquiries about development. The French manager had suggested a possible temporary stop because, in his view, it was essential to first carry out a massive data collection, process all the stored information, and then decide on the first aerodynamic package. Doing so without certainty of success would increase the margin of error.

We talked about this 10 days ago: Ferrari cannot afford to make mistakes, as even the slightest flaw in the aerodynamic update plan could be fatal at this stage. It is very important to follow the development path correctly to make the car effective and avoid fatal slowdowns that would effectively close any hopes for the Italian side. The Frenchman knows this and has discussed it with his fellow countryman Loic Serra, Ferrari’s technical director.

However, considering that although the 2025 Formula 1 championship is long, the points gap to the leaders is already significant, the Maranello team has decided to stick with the original plan. Therefore, despite Charles Leclerc hinting that his feelings upon arriving at the Bahrain International Circuit would differ from the pre-season testing session, the Italian team wants to push as hard as possible to leave nothing to chance.

Giovinazzi’s role in Ferrari’s preparation for Bahrain
During the recent weekend that hosted the Bahrain Grand Prix, Antonio Giovinazzi was present as Ferrari’s third driver. As we know, the historic Italian team has been working on an aerodynamic update package for the car for some time, in an attempt to fix the various problems the two SF-25 cars faced on track, where, in the first three rounds of the world championship, almost nothing went as expected.

The former Alfa Romeo driver took a direct flight to Bologna. The goal is clear: reach the Italian side’s headquarters and carry out specific work on the simulator of the most successful team in the highest category of motorsport. The Ferrari engineers have already updated the simulator with the real data collected at the Suzuka circuit in order to test the car with the new features that should be present in Sakhir in a few days.

This is a full two-day session, a true immersion, aimed at validating, at least in a theoretical sense, the new features that will be presented in Bahrain. The same goes for the need to finalize an effective baseline setup, necessary to hit the track ready, without spending too much time finding the right settings for the car.

Ferrari’s goal with the Bahrain updates
Ferrari needs to make an important step forward this weekend. The SF-25 single-seater has serious balance issues, with the understeering behavior strongly limiting the car. A headache that Ferrari’s engineers have quantified as a performance loss of about two tenths per lap. Too much for a team aiming to win at least one of the two Formula 1 world championships, as stated before the start of the 2025 season.

Moreover, there is a desire to use a more aggressive ground clearance range because, although the current settings are within the project’s scope, there is still performance to extract that could provide more competitiveness for the Maranello-based car. Stabilizing the downforce and making it more uniform is key, in order to avoid the clear instability that has slowed the two cars in various driving conditions.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will once again be crucial in testing the updates and the setup established in the factory. McLaren has the fastest car in the field, while Red Bull‘s great ability to optimize the weekend, combined with Max Verstappen’s extraordinary talent, makes these two teams very tough opponents to beat. In just two days, we will be back on track to comment on Ferrari’s expected progress.

— see video above —