The Ferrari team principal reviews the 2025 championship
A season that wasn’t disastrous?
Speaking after the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur rejected the idea that the 2025 season should be considered extremely negative. “Until two weeks ago we were still fighting for second place, and that means the situation isn’t as dramatic as it may seem. It wasn’t a total disaster, that’s not the right word for me.”
However, the results are clear: Ferrari currently sits fourth in the championship, with no victories, only one pole position, and a single Sprint win so far.
The decision to stop development
During the FIA press conference on Friday in Qatar, Fred Vasseur was asked to summarize Ferrari’s season. “We didn’t start in the best way with the double disqualification in China, which cost us a lot of points compared to our direct rivals. And McLaren was dominating so much in the first four or five races that we realized it was going to be a very difficult 2025.”
The French manager then recalled something he had mentioned months earlier: “This led us to make the decision to switch to the 2026 project, I think in April. Maybe I underestimated this move from a psychological point of view as well, because when you still have 18–20 races to go and you already know you won’t bring any more aerodynamic developments, the psychological management becomes difficult. We introduced some mechanical updates and we’re trying to do a better job on the operational side. But I am confident in the choice we made.”
Frederic Vasseur also clarified that the decision was taken in full agreement with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. “This choice was shared by everyone in the team. We agreed to concentrate the wind tunnel resources we had on 2026. And the drivers took part in this decision — they are fully committed to the project. In situations like this you have to act as a team, and that’s exactly what we did at that point in the season.”
With both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc actively supporting the long-term strategy, Ferrari’s early shift to 2026 underlines their determination to come back stronger when the new regulations arrive.
