Ferrari wrapped up a disastrous weekend in Qatar, round 23 of the 2025 season, struggling to respond technically to the challenges of the SF-25. Yesterday, in front of the media, team principal Fred Vasseur admitted the team’s shortcomings, revealing that they had chased a phantom objective throughout the weekend. According to the French manager, tyre pressures further intensified the team’s difficulties.
SF-25: nothing different could be expected from this car
Did the two SF-25s simply limp to the finish flag? Could more have been done? It was impossible for a car that was fundamentally off its pace, slow, and unable to manage tyres properly. The problems were apparent from the very first Friday practice session: lacking downforce through high-speed corners and with a rear that fails to follow the front in direction changes.
The front-end struggles with an overly understeering car. Rotation through corner entry is only slightly improved, but in other phases, it remains inconsistent, completely upsetting the car’s balance. This clearly hindered tyre management—tyres that Ferrari has often struggled to optimize in certain competitive contexts.
Undoubtedly, Lusail was not one of those contexts, both on a single lap due to complex activation across both axles, and over a 300-kilometre race distance. All of these long-standing shortcomings, with the car receiving few updates for many months, effectively crushed any hope of a strong result. But, according to Fred Vasseur, one parameter in particular exacerbated the crisis: tyre pressures.
Vasseur: tyre pressures deepen Ferrari’s crisis
The Frenchman spoke candidly. He did not shy away from the facts, stressing that the team had failed to find the right setup path to perform well. Additionally, he discussed tyres and their pressures, which negatively impacted performance far more than expected, and to a greater degree than their rivals, according to Fred Vasseur.
“We can take nothing positive from this weekend. We performed worse than in previous weeks and couldn’t find the right setup, struggling to bring the car into the optimal window. With higher tyre pressures, difficulties increased further. Two races ago we were on the podium; today we fought for tenth place—it was complicated,” the French manager explained.
He added further thoughts on tyres, which partly explain the major struggles of the Italian cars: “I believe tyre pressure management has been crucial here, for us as for everyone. We ran with over 6 psi more than in previous races. In Abu Dhabi, we will return to more standard conditions and can aim for a better weekend.”
Fred looks ahead and calls for maximum effort
Finally, Fred Vasseur offered a message of motivation to keep the team focused, aware of the drivers’ frustration—particularly Lewis Hamilton, who has repeatedly expressed his eagerness to move past the current SF-25 and focus entirely on the next Maranello creation, a car that must reverse a competitive situation that has long been subpar.
Fred urged the team to give their all before the winter break and commented on the seven-time world champion’s frustration: “We must stay calm and work together. I understand the frustration of drivers, mechanics, and engineers, but from tomorrow morning we will focus on being prepared for Abu Dhabi.”
“99% of our work is already focused on next year, so we need to continue developing the 2026 car’s potential. Lewis? Over the last two weekends, we struggled as a team, which has put both cars further back, making everything more difficult. When you are out in Q1, frustration is inevitable. For the winter, the key aspect is remembering that over a thousand people work in the factory: everyone needs to push in the same direction.” – the Ferrari team boss concluded ahead of the final round of the 2025 Formula 1 season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which is set to take place next weekend.
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