Ferrari seems to be heading into another difficult weekend, as the underlying situation around the performance of the SF-25 has not really changed. The United States Grand Prix, which marks the 19th round of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship, is expected once again to highlight the same weaknesses that have consistently limited the Italian team’s potential this season. Chief among them is the car’s persistent difficulty in managing ride heights, followed closely by the challenge of tyre wear and degradation. These issues have accompanied the SF-25 since the beginning of the season and continue to affect its competitiveness on circuits that demand flexibility and precision.
The Austin track, officially known as the Circuit of the Americas, features a highly varied and technically complex layout. It mixes fast, flowing corners with long straights and slow technical sections, creating an environment where teams must find a delicate balance between aerodynamic efficiency and mechanical grip. For Ferrari, this means that the engineers and drivers will need to carry out an extremely meticulous setup process, aiming to minimize the car’s inherent limitations while maximizing its performance potential over a race distance.
The difficulties in finding the right compromise with the SF-25
To understand the current situation, it is useful to look back at what happened one year ago. In 2024, Ferrari achieved an impressive victory at the Austin circuit despite starting from the second row of the grid. At the start, everything went according to plan for the Maranello team: Charles Leclerc managed to seize the lead at the very first corner and held onto it all the way to the chequered flag. During that race, Ferrari’s cars demonstrated not only strong race pace but also excellent top speed, particularly through the high-speed corners of the second sector, an area of the track that rewards aerodynamic efficiency and engine power. That combination allowed Ferrari to keep its rivals behind for the entire race distance.
However, the picture is quite different in 2025. The SF-25, in its current form, is undoubtedly a weaker car compared to the competition from McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes. It has shown a number of shortcomings, both in outright pace and in the ability to consistently extract performance across different circuits and track conditions. The car’s overall behaviour and characteristics have evolved differently as the season has progressed, exposing its limitations in several key areas.
Moreover, Ferrari’s situation is complicated by the fact that the team is going through a rather turbulent period off the track. There have been a number of rumours circulating within the Formula 1 paddock, including talk of potential contacts with Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner to explore possible future agreements or collaborations. Whether or not these discussions are genuine, they have certainly added an element of distraction during a phase of the season when the focus should be entirely on improving on-track results.
The SF-25 has a notably smaller and more delicate operating window than its rivals. While cars such as the McLaren MCL39, the Red Bull RB21, and the Mercedes W16 can adapt more easily to a variety of conditions, Ferrari’s single-seater often struggles to find the ideal setup range where the car performs at its best. To make matters more complicated, the SF-25 will no longer receive any major updates for the remainder of the season, meaning that the team must work within the limitations of its current package.
The Circuit of the Americas, located in Texas, is a track that demands several key compromises, both from an aerodynamic standpoint and from a mechanical one. The first sector is composed of a sequence of fast, sweeping corners that challenge both downforce levels and steering precision. The middle sector is dominated by the long back straight between Turns 11 and 12, where top speed and drag efficiency are crucial. Finally, the last part of the circuit is filled with medium- and high-speed corners that vary in radius and demand excellent balance, traction, and tyre management.
How Ferrari will build the setup
This type of circuit layout is not particularly favourable to Ferrari’s SF-25. Over the course of the current Formula 1 season, the Italian team has repeatedly struggled on tracks that require a wide range of setup adaptability. The car simply performs better on circuits where the range of corner speeds is narrower and the balance demands are less extreme. This is mainly because the SF-25 tends to suffer when engineers are forced to find delicate compromises between aerodynamic efficiency and mechanical stability — compromises that often turn out to be ineffective.
In 2024, the Austin circuit underwent a number of surface changes, with several of its bumps being flattened to improve drivability. This allowed teams to run their cars with lower ride heights, which in turn helped improve aerodynamic efficiency. However, the Ferrari SF-25 continues to have trouble operating at very low ride heights compared to its rivals. The car’s aerodynamic platform becomes unstable when it gets too close to the track surface, making it difficult for the team to fully exploit its potential. This limitation could once again be a major disadvantage for the Maranello-based team during this year’s event.
Last season, Ferrari approached the Austin weekend by beginning its setup process from the first sector of the circuit, with the main goal of stabilizing the rear end of the car through the faster corners. Once that was achieved, the engineers worked on fine-tuning the mechanical balance for the third sector, which includes slower, more technical turns. A similar strategy might be used again this year, as the fast corners of the Circuit of the Americas continue to represent a significant handicap for Ferrari compared to Red Bull and McLaren. Both of those teams benefit from cars that generate more vertical load — in other words, greater aerodynamic downforce — in medium- and high-speed sections.
It is very likely that Ferrari will opt to use the medium-to-high downforce rear wing that was first introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and later reused in Singapore two weeks ago. This aerodynamic configuration provides a good compromise between downforce and straight-line speed, something that will be crucial on a circuit as diverse as Austin.
SF-25: searching for the right thermal balance
Another major topic for Ferrari heading into this weekend is tyre management, one of the most crucial aspects of modern Formula 1 performance. The balance of workload between the front and rear axles on the SF-25 is relatively even, which places significant lateral stress on the tyres during cornering. As a result, keeping tyre temperatures within the optimal operating range is an ongoing challenge for the team.
Back in 2024, Ferrari already struggled to manage tyre temperatures during qualifying sessions at the Austin circuit, especially when using the softest compound — the red-marked tyres. The so-called “thermal window” of the circuit is known to be quite narrow, meaning the tyres can easily fall outside their ideal temperature range. Starting a qualifying lap with tyres that are slightly too cold tends to hurt performance in the first sector, where quick changes of direction demand grip and responsiveness. However, those same tyres would then perform better in the final sector, as they would not overheat too soon. On the other hand, starting the lap with tyres that are slightly too hot helps achieve better grip and lap time in the first sector but leads to thermal degradation and performance loss in the final part of the lap.
Finding the perfect thermal balance is therefore essential. Over the course of a full Grand Prix distance, the problem becomes slightly less critical, since the tyres tend to stabilize after a few laps. In particular, managing rear tyre temperatures — the area most at risk of overheating — should be somewhat easier in race conditions, thanks to the longer stints and more controlled pace compared to qualifying.
That said, it is not guaranteed that the SF-25 will exhibit the same positive traits that helped last year’s Ferrari achieve victory at this track. The current car behaves quite differently and may not be able to exploit the same strengths that worked so well in 2024.
In race conditions, Ferrari might find it easier to manage the situation, as strategy, tyre conservation, and consistent pace often play a more important role than outright speed. However, starting positions will once again be crucial. When Ferrari begins from behind the first two rows of the grid, any potential advantage tends to disappear, leaving the team with limited strategic options.
In qualifying, the expectation is that the gaps between the four leading teams — Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari — will be extremely small. This means that even the tiniest detail, such as tyre warm-up procedure, braking stability, or aerodynamic drag levels, could make a massive difference in determining grid position. For Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who will once again carry Ferrari’s hopes in Austin, extracting the maximum from the car in every session will be absolutely essential if the team wants to fight near the front.
At this point in the season, Ferrari’s goal is not only to secure the best possible result in the Constructors’ Championship but also to continue gathering valuable data that will help in the development of next year’s car. The Austin Grand Prix will therefore serve as both a challenge and a learning opportunity for the team — a chance to better understand the SF-25’s weaknesses and prepare for a stronger campaign in 2026.
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