Ferrari struggling with understeer: rear downforce peak is another issue

Is Ferrari in a full-blown crisis? There is no doubt that the first encounter with Formula 1 hasn’t been ideal in 2025. The performance of the SF-25 has not met expectations. We have all seen it with our own eyes, and the key figures have confirmed this in front of the microphones. In theory, according to the technical director of the historic Italian team, the alleged correlation issues don’t exist. Loic Serra has been very clear on this matter, even though, for the past two weeks, he has been locked away in the Maranello factory looking for solution unlock the performance of the 2025 Formula 1 car.

In addition to the performance-related issues that are not improving, the team has not even been able to optimize the two race weekends. Unlike Red Bull, for example, which, although it does not seem to have a better car than Ferrari, also benefiting from Max Verstappen’s talent, has managed to push the RB21 to the limit and achieve respectable results, at least with one driver. Ferrari, on the other hand, is struggling and also making basic mistakes. This is where the embarrassment came in at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix.

While the Australian weekend was a true nightmare, where analyzing what happened revealed a lack of understanding of the car, along with various other issues, at the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit, against all expectations, even considering Lewis Hamilton’s pole position and victory in the Sprint Race, the Maranello team managed to perform even worse. A double disqualification that went viral, humiliating the Prancing Horse. The technical maneuvers to get the SF-25 on track failed miserably, starting from Saturday.

The team has been unable to find the correct setup, despite tweaks that were actually needed. Now, a few days later, we can delve deeper. The goal is to understand the reasons behind certain behaviors of the Italian car, which, since the Bahrain pre-season testing session, has displayed handling tendencies that are far from easy to manage. Issues that have greatly limited the car’s potential on track.

The intention of this latest article about the Ferrari car is to bring clarity to certain interconnected points. The SF-25, between the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, has shown a clear struggle with understeering. Through on-board footage, starting from the Sakhir track tests, many suggested that the Red car suffered from excessive rotation, especially during exit phases.

But this is not true at all. Let us explain further. At certain moments, the rear of the car tended to lighten too much, okay, that can’t be denied. However, when examining all the footage of the Italian car, on average, we observed a decidedly understeering behavior. Among other things, to confirm what we are saying, this situation was repeatedly reported by the drivers themselves.

When observing the handling of the SF-25 single-seater, it is noticeable that the Ferrari drivers reach the peak with a steering angle larger than necessary. Therefore, when they put their foot on the gas, the rear does not have enough grip to sustain either the lateral or longitudinal acceleration. The result? A destabilizing moment is triggered, but all, as mentioned, originates from the initial understeering, the real problem in the balance that both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have suffered from and would like to resolve.

But what are the causes of the lack of rotation? Having clarified this important aspect, we need to analyze the situation better to understand the triggering causes. Ferrari must certainly improve the rear end’s performance, and there is no doubt about that. The goal is to optimize the aerodynamic interaction between the floor and the rear suspension, which at this moment is not working properly.

Within the operating window, the floor reacts well and creates a lot of downforce. All true. Unfortunately, this range is quite limited. The aerodynamic map of the SF-25 is not sufficiently large, as we have already said in recent days. The surplus of downforce shifts the balance towards the rear end and consequently causes the understeering behavior that we have almost always seen aboard the Red car.

Other top teams like McLaren and Red Bull try to limit the downforce peak in the floor area. This way, they achieve more stable downforce and, above all, a more consistent balance that contains the lack of rotation. With wing cars, all teams struggle with this tedious effect, which, for the reasons mentioned above, Ferrari still does not know how to manage. The updates expected will also help dampen this downforce peak, stabilize the car, and improve the balance.