Ferrari: setup choices to reduce the SF-25’s gap amid handling and overheating issues | F1 Dutch GP. Ferrari struggled at the Dutch GP as the SF-25 faced handling and overheating issues.

A disappointing result for Ferrari at the Dutch Grand Prix came after a weekend that started on the wrong foot, as we explained yesterday in our detailed analyses. Arriving in Zandvoort and having to completely overhaul the car setup after Free Practice 1 was far from ideal. According to Frédéric Vasseur, Friday’s session was by far the most challenging of his career with the Scuderia.

Yesterday, the Italian team focused heavily on stiffness adjustments to try to achieve a balanced setup. However, the team never managed to find a satisfactory compromise, swinging from understeer to oversteer between FP1 and FP2. For today, they tweaked the setup again, and overall, despite the difficulties, they improved the handling slightly, although not enough to be fully competitive. This is evident in the significant understeer still present.

The car’s lack of rotation frequently turned into oversteer when exiting corners such as 1, 9, and 10. The target for qualifying was to reach the second row. Red Bull had strengths and weaknesses similar to the SF-25, but less pronounced, yet both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton put together a final Q3 attempt that was far from clean.

Ferrari’s tricky warm-up strategy

Part of the gap can also be attributed to tire management. The Scuderia struggled with overheating in the central sector of the track. According to our sources, to counteract this overheating, the team adopted a strategy aimed at starting the lap with the front tires below the target temperature, which unfortunately hurt performance in T1, where the SF-25 lost three tenths across three corners.

A small positive emerged in T2. In the section between corners 9 and 10, Ferrari managed to reduce the gap compared to FP2. Overnight, the engineers had specifically worked on these two critical corners to recover time, although they lost more in other sections where they had previously maintained a more consistent gap. It was a classic case of a short blanket. Even in the final chicane, two tenths were lost.

Overall, Q3 was not managed perfectly by the drivers, but there was little more to extract due to the overheating. Despite changing several setup parameters, the overheating persisted, leaving the team to choose where to suffer most. Tire management was lacking, as was a broader window in which to optimize performance. In fact, it remained quite evident throughout the weekend that Ferrari never truly found a fully satisfactory balance.

Fred Vasseur urges calm and encourages Lewis Hamilton

As mentioned, the Draveil-born team principal did not hide the issues faced by Ferrari. In his usual interview, he discussed the drivers and the car. Regarding Charles Leclerc, he confirmed what the Monegasque driver himself had said over the radio: the imperfect lap placed him only in the second row. For Lewis Hamilton, Fred Vasseur expressed satisfaction, noting that the British driver showed progress in car feeling.

This improvement was indeed noticeable, thanks in part to Ferrari’s support, and Hamilton adapted more smoothly than expected. Fred Vasseur also stressed that nothing is lost for tomorrow. However, he may not have fully accounted for McLaren’s and Red Bull’s race pace. The SF-25 has historically shown stronger performance on Sundays, which could offer some hope. Nevertheless, chronic issues are likely to persist during the race.