More than a third of the 2025 Formula 1 season is now behind us, and the current championship is entering a crucial phase—important not only for this year’s results but also for what lies ahead. A clear example is Ferrari, a team facing key decisions in the coming weeks: whether to continue believing in the SF-25 and its potential or to begin focusing on 2026. The upcoming races, such as Austria and Britain, will be decisive in shaping the Italian team’s direction. Among the challenges of 2025, which the engineers at GeS are trying to address with a new rear suspension expected to debut in early summer, reliability issues linked to the power unit seem to have triggered additional concern alongside the lack of speed. This suspension is aimed at resolving part of the car’s weaknesses by unlocking the package’s potential, which currently can’t emerge due to mechanical limitations caused by the existing suspension layout.
More problems?
As previously reported exclusively during the Jeddah weekend, Ferrari’s engine department had replaced the power units of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton as a precaution after seeing troubling data, anticipating a change originally scheduled for Miami. In Florida, Ferrari customers like Haas and Stake experienced structural failures in the power unit—similar to what happened to Esteban Ocon at Imola. And it was at Imola where a team member informally confirmed those concerns when asked whether there was confidence in engine durability. The individual did not respond calmly or reassuringly, instead choosing to avoid the question and place hope in future improvements.
Additionally, as we also reported exclusively, Ferrari appears to have decided to reduce the mileage of its power units to preserve reliability, while working—if possible—on a fix. This move, though it doesn’t affect engine performance, could result in grid penalties for Ferrari and its customer teams before the end of the season, as they may be unable to finish the year within the four units allowed by the FIA.
Between hope and (some) admission…
A new headache, then, for the Italian side, which also seems to have faced trouble in Spain, where until the arrival of the Safety Car, the SF-25s had been running smoothly. After the restart, however—despite Charles Leclerc’s attack on Max Verstappen and a theoretically better pace thanks to fresher tyres—the Monegasque never managed to pull away from the cars behind and crossed the line in a tight pack after his pace collapsed in the final laps. A similar situation affected Lewis Hamilton, who, despite being faster than his teammate in the second stint, faded after the Safety Car and was even overtaken by Nico Hulkenberg’s Stake. In short, a complete blackout for Ferrari, which likely has its roots in technical—or more precisely, engine-related—issues on both cars.
This scenario seems probable not only due to gathered information but also because of hints dropped by team principal Fred Vasseur, who confirmed issues with the cars during the post-race press conference.
“We had a problem on the car in the final stint. We had issues on both cars, but they weren’t oil-related (Toto Wolff had said he saw a leak from Charles Leclerc’s car). I don’t know where it was coming from, maybe from the car behind. But that’s not the issue we had.” – the French manager pointed out at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix.
