Ferrari team boss Frédéric Vasseur has made it clear that he is not ready to give up on the 2025 Formula 1 season. As the championship reaches its halfway point with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Ferrari is preparing a crucial upgrade aimed at reviving their title hopes and closing the widening gap to the front of the grid.
The Scuderia currently holds second place in the Constructors’ Championship, mirroring their final standing from the 2024 season. However, the context this year is very different. At the end of last season, Ferrari trailed McLaren by a narrow 14-point margin. In stark contrast, heading into Spa this year, that deficit has ballooned to 238 points. Neither Charles Leclerc nor Lewis Hamilton has secured a Grand Prix victory in 2025 so far—excluding Sprint races—and that drought is beginning to raise questions about the team’s competitiveness.
In an effort to reverse their fortunes, Ferrari is set to introduce a new rear suspension system at Spa. This component will complement the recently upgraded floor and diffuser, which were installed across the last two race weekends. According to internal simulations, the suspension upgrade should enhance performance, but there is concern within the team that it may not address the most fundamental issue plaguing the SF-25 this season.
An in-depth analysis conducted by Analisi Tecnica F1 has uncovered troubling insights into the performance of Ferrari’s 2025 challenger, especially in its first year with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton paired as teammates. One of the most pressing revelations is that the SF-25 consistently performs better during free practice than it does during actual race conditions. This discrepancy has been observed in eight out of the first 12 Grands Prix. Races such as Bahrain, Imola, and Silverstone stood out as the most concerning examples, though factors like unpredictable weather and Charles Leclerc’s controversial race strategy at the British Grand Prix have also contributed to the anomalies.
Throughout the season, both drivers have shown strong pace during practice sessions. Lewis Hamilton, for example, topped the FP1 time sheet at his home race at Silverstone. However, that level of performance rarely translates into race day results. One of the emerging explanations is that Ferrari’s car runs significantly better in clean air, which it rarely experiences during competitive race conditions.
According to the findings, the SF-25 appears to be disproportionately affected by “dirty air”—the turbulent airflow created when following other cars. This aerodynamic weakness becomes even more problematic given Ferrari’s ongoing challenges in qualifying, where they continue to lag behind McLaren, Mercedes, and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. The result is that Leclerc and Hamilton frequently find themselves starting from mid-grid positions, where they are immediately exposed to disturbed airflow. With the field more closely matched than ever in 2025, overtaking has become increasingly difficult, and Ferrari’s struggle to operate effectively in traffic often halts their progress through the field on Sundays.
Ferrari engineers are also facing inconsistencies when it comes to tyre performance, especially in qualifying sessions. The team is reportedly seeing a recurring “discrepancy” between the tyre behavior predicted in simulations and the actual on-track performance. This mismatch is complicating their efforts to extract maximum grip during key qualifying laps. Pirelli’s decision to bring softer compound tyres in a bid to spice up strategy options has inadvertently made it even harder for teams like Ferrari to find the optimal tyre operating window, particularly during qualifying.
There is cautious optimism that the new rear suspension will give the SF-25 a better chance of qualifying ahead of slower cars, thereby reducing its exposure to turbulent air and improving race consistency. However, Ferrari remains uncertain whether this upgrade will also help to expand the car’s tyre operating window—an issue that has proven to be a recurring challenge this year. The SF-25 is known to be sensitive to setup changes, making it difficult for the engineers to consistently unlock performance across various circuits and conditions.
Adding to the complexity of the upcoming weekend is the Sprint Race format at Spa. With only one hour of free practice available before the first qualifying session, Ferrari’s margin for error is extremely limited. This format leaves little time to evaluate new components or optimize car setup.
To mitigate this, Ferrari has scheduled a private test at the Mugello Circuit on Wednesday, ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. The goal is to use the additional track time to better understand the behavior of the new suspension and simulate the race conditions they expect at Spa. This test represents a critical opportunity for Ferrari to assess whether their final major update of the 2025 season will provide a meaningful step forward in performance—or if fundamental limitations in the SF-25’s design will continue to hamper their progress in the second half of the championship.
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