From the nightmare of qualifying to smiles after the race, but with the awareness that the road to the real goal is still long. Imola was a rollercoaster of emotions for Ferrari, managing to fight back from outside the top ten to finish with a solid fourth place for Lewis Hamilton and sixth for Charles Leclerc.
On a day that demanded a show of pride and an attacking race, the Scuderia did indeed show its claws, both in terms of race pace and especially strategy. In this area, Ferrari has clearly made progress in recent races, as seen again at Imola.
While Charles Leclerc had started with a two-stop strategy in mind, Ferrari cleverly read the situation during the first stint, taking advantage of Russell’s slow pace—keeping the pack bunched up—to undercut four cars in the pits. Hamilton, on the other hand, went for a one-stop strategy, capitalizing on the Virtual Safety Car’s arrival at a favorable moment.
From there, Hamilton’s race was smooth: he was able to make another pit stop under the Safety Car to fit a fresh set of hard tyres, then push and get closer to the podium. The Brit also benefited from the late duel between Leclerc and Albon to secure a valuable fourth place, with a clear smile on his face.
Charles Leclerc was less fortunate, having to face the final stint after the Safety Car with tyres already nearly 20 laps old. The first Virtual Safety Car, in fact, came too early for the planned two-stop strategy.
“The timing of the Safety Car didn’t work in Charles’ favor. The first came a bit too early, while the second happened when he was pushing hard. I understand his frustration because he wanted more, but in the end, we must make the best of the conditions we’re given, and today I think we extracted the maximum from the potential,” Fred Vasseur told Sky after the race.
Initially, the team considered switching to soft tyres, but at that point there were still many laps remaining. Although the softs had shown good durability, the C6 compound would likely have suffered a rapid thermal drop-off, as already seen in Friday practice. True, the car would have been lighter on fuel, but the track was quite hot.
“It depends on how long the car recovery takes. Thirteen laps would’ve been too many, but you can’t predict whether it would take 2, 4, or 6. In hindsight, it’s easy to say that with 8 laps the softs might have worked, but it still would’ve been on the edge. Charles then chose to stay out, and it was the right choice,” Fred Vasseur added, noting that Leclerc stayed out to avoid ending up behind Hamilton after a pit stop.
In the final phase, the Ferrari driver had to defend hard against Albon, who was on fresh tyres. At Turn 2, he even ran wide, pushing the Williams driver off the track. The team, via radio, advised him to give the position back to avoid a penalty that could have dropped him further down the order. It was a decisive choice, as the stewards took no further action precisely because Leclerc yielded the position before the checkered flag.
Looking back on the weekend, Fred Vasseur is aware that the SF-25 performs better in race conditions than on a single lap, which is positive, but starting from the back remains a handicap. Today, strategy and race incidents allowed them to beat teams like Williams, Mercedes, and Aston Martin—but looking ahead, it’s clear that relying on such factors won’t always be enough to make up for a tough qualifying session.
“In Jeddah we were probably faster on Sunday, while struggling in qualifying. We were two to three tenths behind Max. We’re still lacking something in qualifying, and we clearly need to work on it. As for the race pace, it’s not like we’re doing something magical.”
“The hardest part of my job is doing a complete analysis. We’re not champions, we’re not winners, and we’re not where we want to be yet. We need to assess what’s working and what’s not. The positives are definitely the race pace, the overall performance, the strategies, the execution—everything went very well. The negative point of the weekend remains the lack of qualifying performance.”
Fred Vasseur then praised the work of Ferrari’s strategists, who did an excellent job today, as well as the mechanics: “I think it was a good team effort, even when we had to swap positions between the two cars on track—everything went well. The strategy was good, pit stops were excellent once again. We can be satisfied with what we did today, but we’re still one step behind on Saturdays.”
Finally, the Team Principal wanted to thank the fans for their support, even in tough times. “Yesterday, as I was leaving the circuit, the fans were still cheering us on with great passion. It’s easy to be a fan when you’re winning, but we truly appreciate—and are far more grateful—for the support we get even when we’re struggling.” – he concluded at the end of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
