Ferrari team boss believes “we need to improve by 2-3 tenths more than McLaren”. Fred Vasseur on the never-ending F1 rivalry between Ferrari and McLaren.

The Great Challenge
Frederic Vasseur, during the presentation of the Ferrari SF-25, did not hide that the ambitions for 2025 must inevitably be focused on pursuing both World Championship titles. In 2024, the Scuderia from Maranello won five races and finished the season on a high note, ending just 14 points behind McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship battle.

The groundwork for a prominent 2025 Formula 1 season is all there, but that doesn’t mean Ferrari starts as the favorite. According to Frederic Vasseur, McLaren should be seen as the team to beat. “Those who say that we are the favorites forget about McLaren,” said Frederic Vasseur in an interview with the French outlet Auto Hebdo. “McLaren is in a better position than us. We are entering the last year of this technical and regulatory cycle, and finding performance gains is becoming more and more difficult. It’s true that we scored more points in the last eight races of 2024 compared to them, but they had a performance advantage that they were unable to fully exploit due to some incidents or minor issues. We need to improve by 2-3 tenths more than McLaren will improve, and if we succeed, nothing will be off-limits for us.” – the French manager pointed out.

The first races will be crucial. Not by chance, both Ferrari and McLaren have already declared that they have planned significant developments for the early stages of the season. The 2026 revolution looms, and focusing too much on 2025 could jeopardize the new technical and regulatory cycle. However, it won’t be easy to “abandon” development for 2025 with the World Championship titles at stake. Regarding this scenario—which also involves a technical directive on wing flexibility that will come into effect from the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, i.e., after eight races— Frederic Vasseur emphasized that the development of the 2025 cars will be complicated by the fact that there is not much more to “squeeze” from this generation of cars: “It will be difficult to see significant performance gains throughout the year compared to what we will see in the first races,” he added. “Sooner or later, we will all have to start thinking about 2026. I certainly don’t expect to drastically improve the performance of our car as we were able to do in 2024.”