Another Formula 1 embarrassment has been served: Ferrari makes a fool of itself in Miami and the crisis deepens. A stubborn car dragging the the Maranello team’s drivers around, offering only minimal and meaningless satisfaction in the final phase. Far too little for the Prancing Horse. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are furious, angry about the SF-25’s performance and the terrible race management: this is the snapshot of the team after the race weekend at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida.
Looking back at the Miami Grand Prix, we can see that everyone at the front chose to start on Medium tyres due to the possible rain. Before the race, several showers were expected based on the weather forecast. According to the teams, at the start there was a 50% chance of rain in the first half hour, which could last 15-20 minutes. However, there was also a chance the rain would barely graze the circuit and that is exactly what happened in Miami.
Because of this, the goal was to try and stretch the stint as much as possible, stopping only when the rain arrived. Otherwise, they risked an extra pit stop, wasting time in the pits for nothing. Meanwhile, tyre management was crucial. Charles Leclerc complained a lot, as he was only fast in the sector from Turns 4 to 7, and slow everywhere else on the lap.
Moreover, the Monegasque suffered from heavy vibrations under braking, preventing him from optimizing his braking phases. From the pit wall, trying to preserve the tyres, the Maranello team advised him to avoid sliding in Turn 4. Overall, Ferrari struggled badly with overheating. His race engineer Bryan Bozzi suggested lift and coast, hoping it would slightly cool the front axle compounds.
Lewis Hamilton, starting from 12th place, opted for the Hard compound in order to be able to extend his first stint and benefit from a clean-air period to run his pace. Up front, Oscar Piastri had slightly better pace than Max Verstappen. The dry-race plan was to follow Strategy A, a one-stop race. After several attempts, the Australian managed to pass the Dutchman on track.
From the McLaren pit wall, Lando Norris was told Max Verstappen had braking issues and that to overtake him, he had to force an error. Apparently, the Red Bull driver was struggling in the first half of the corner. The team advised a different Brake Balance setting to help during the “late entry” phase, where more rearward balance was needed. The move didn’t work.
The first rain shower passed just north of the circuit, but another, greater risk was expected in the next 20 minutes. Teams tried to stretch the stints again for the same reason. Then, gradually, the rain probability decreased, leaving only a small chance of a weak thunderstorm. Strategically, the teams then removed rain from the equation. All opened their pit stop windows in case of a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car. Max Verstappen was the first of the frontrunners to stop, switching to the Hard tyres. Among the top drivers, he was the only one not to pit under the VSC, which was declared the next lap. Everyone else took advantage of the double yellow flags for their stop.
The Hard compound performed very well. According to Lewis Hamilton, who used it in the first stint, the hardest tyre had about half the degradation of the Yellow compound and maintained good pace. Theoretically, it had a lower thermal peak than the Mediums, making it easier to manage. Ferrari had to manage both drivers on track: Lewis Hamilton on Mediums, Charles Leclerc on Hards.
Naturally, the British driver saw clean air ahead once both he and his Ferrari teammate passed Carlos Sainz, and wanted to impose his own pace. The quality of airflow hitting the car makes a huge difference on these cars—especially for the SF-25 and the MCL39. Bryan Bozzi evaluated how close the Monegasque driver was to car 44, with Charles Leclerc showing good pace.
Once the Monegasque let him through, the Brit was not much faster in the first few laps. After some laps with identical times, the Briton pulled away slightly, but then the gap shrank again, with his teammate coming back into his slipstream. In general, both SF-25 cars lacked grip, but as the laps went on, car 16 seemed quicker, leading to a position swap once again.
Oscar Piastri largely managed his pace, trying to cool his tyres and save fuel, as they seemed close to the limit in the Miami Grand Prix. Max Verstappen, on the other hand, suffered various issues that the team tried to fix from the pit wall. They asked him what the main limitation was in terms of balance, but the Dutchman replied it was perfect—just that the car was slow. There were also some gearbox troubles. Max Verstappen later reported excessive understeer, especially between Turns 7 and 8. In the end, after a mediocre weekend, Frederic Vasseur confirmed what had been analyzed in the past few days: once again, the compromise was not achieved. On a track where balancing aerodynamics and mechanics was crucial.
The Italian team was in no way able to put a car on track that could reveal the much-discussed potential talked about so often in Maranello. With neither tyre compound were they remotely competitive—and in Florida, the on-track battle was with the Williams cars. A truly alarming sign, because the Italian side cannot afford performances like this.
— see video above —
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