The 2025 Qatar Grand Prix was a nightmare for Ferrari. The SF-25 showed no adaptability to the Lusail track, and even setup adjustments failed to produce positive results. Both cars struggled throughout the race, with Charles Leclerc crossing the finish line in eighth and Lewis Hamilton only twelfth.
Ferrari opts for soft tires with Hamilton
As the grid formed, Ferrari took two different approaches: Hamilton started on soft tires to try and gain positions immediately, while Charles Leclerc used medium tires. The Monegasque made a decent start, briefly gaining a position but losing it due to a slide in the first sector. The Briton, taking advantage of the extra grip from the soft tires, passed three rivals in just a few corners. Leclerc remained aggressive, pressuring Gasly and Hülkenberg for eighth, while Lewis Hamilton had to carefully manage his tires to avoid excessive wear.
Race engineer Riccardo Adami advised Hamilton over the radio to preserve tires through corners 9 and 12. Charles Leclerc also received adjustments to his braking system to optimize corner entry. By lap seven, the situation remained largely unchanged.
Double pit stop strategy
Early laps revealed Ferrari’s main issue: the front end struggled to bite the asphalt, and the car tended to slide easily. The team frequently instructed both drivers to adjust wheel controls to manage the car’s rotation. When Hülkenberg’s incident brought out the safety car, Ferrari immediately called both drivers for a pit stop. The Briton switched to medium tires, while Charles Leclerc received a fresh set of softs. Minor adjustments to the car’s downforce were also made to stabilize handling. After the restart, Charles Leclerc was in ninth, close to George Russell’s Mercedes, while Lewis Hamilton fell back to fourteenth due to his stop.
Trapped in traffic
After the safety car, both Ferraris were stuck in traffic with insufficient pace to attack, hindered further by DRS trains. Leclerc attempted to adjust settings on his wheel as instructed by engineer Bryan Bozzi, but the pre-configured brake and differential maps offered no benefit. Bryan Bozzi later advised abandoning the strategy in sector two, as the simulations didn’t translate effectively to track performance. In short, it was a typical frustrating Ferrari race.
No target, just survival
After ten laps, little had changed. Lewis Hamilton couldn’t match Alex Albon’s pace, and Charles Leclerc, though closer to Russell, couldn’t mount an attack. Both cars experienced mid-corner slides requiring careful management of minor lock-ups. Ferrari communicated to the drivers that they had roughly six laps before mandatory stops, as Pirelli required no single set of tires to exceed 25 laps. The team debated whether to pit both cars simultaneously or stagger the stops. Ultimately, Lewis Hamilton retained a set of medium tires, while Charles Leclerc switched to hards, completing Ferrari’s final tire allocation for the race.
Struggling to the finish
The final phase of the race saw no major changes. Constant radio communications suggested alternative strategies, but none yielded significant improvements. The SF-25 demonstrated its clear limitations, consistent throughout the weekend. Charles Leclerc tried to reduce the gap to Russell but failed, while Lewis Hamilton couldn’t match Alex Albon’s pace. The weekend ended predictably, confirming that Ferrari had been unable to find effective solutions. Attention now turns to Abu Dhabi, where the team will bid farewell to the troubled SF-25.
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