Ferrari didn’t understand much at all at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida last weekend. The problem is that this situation did not just arise in Florida. The SF-25 single-seater has a lot of issues, and it is hoped that in the coming weeks, the aerodynamic updates that the Maranello team’s engineers and technicians will bring can improve the performance of the Italian car. In the meantime, it is worth revisiting some of the comments from the key players that make you think.
On one side, there is Lewis Hamilton. The Briton is not in top form. Or maybe it would be better to say that, after six races of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship, he still has not managed to find the right setup with his car. There is a statement Lewis Hamilton made in front of the microphones. A thought that aligns with what Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has been saying in the last few weeks. The Frenchman continues to emphasize how the car has untapped potential.
The former Mercedes driver also believes that the Ferrari SF-25 has good potential that it is unable to express. There is something holding back the performance. Undoubtedly, one of the problems is the ride height, something we have discussed many times since the start of the 2025 Formula 1 campaign. Regarding the latest test, it was indeed the lack of downforce that made the difference. In the first stint of the Miami Grand Prix, with a lot of fuel onboard, the Red cars were quite fast in top speed.
The Italian team opted for an overly low-downforce setup to favor overtaking. A choice that, in practice, did not allow the drivers to manage the tires well, especially since the center of pressure wasn’t well-balanced. The car showed a continuous tendency to slide, particularly in the more technical sections, which caused the rear tire temperatures to rise.
For this reason, the handling setup was different, trying to sacrifice more on entry to then optimize the exit phase. In the second part of the Miami race, despite the fact that the top speeds remained very good, the slower corners were better handled by the Maranello car, even though the imperfect vertical load meant the SF-25 was very weak in the first sector of the Miami International Autodrome
According to the information we have, the Ferrari engineers and technicians will introduce a new front wing in the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, which is set to take place at the 4.657-kilometre Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday, June 1. We are sure of this, as the technical directives will become much stricter, and the specifications for the front end will no longer allow for the flexing they currently continue to experience. We have discussed how the aeroelasticity of the wing is activated, based on the information collected in the past week.
This is because, statically, all the cars pass the flex test, but in dynamic phases, it is a fact that the wings continue to flex noticeably. For this reason, we have gone deeper into the topic, discussing the structural thermal activation through heat exchange, a possible hypothesis, but there are still many questions regarding the materials used in the construction of the parts.
At Montmelo, the Maranello team will introduce a wing with a different structure compared to the current specification, which should also differ aerodynamically. This is because the current element is designed to work with a certain flex, and consequently, the efficiency level it expresses in the static configuration is insufficient without flexibility that reduces its incidence on the straights.
Therefore, the Ferrari engineers had to revise this design to offer a lower resistance to forward motion. The reason is simple: the same configuration must be able to maintain the same level of drag throughout the entire lap. This, thinking that excluding flex entirely does not seem like a good idea. A new rear wing should also be in the works, although we are waiting for the necessary confirmations.
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