The ninth qualifying session of the 2025 Formula 1 season is far from ideal for Ferrari, which, although it improved the handling compared to yesterday, was unable to optimise the car’s performance over a single lap. Basically, the same thing that happens every Saturday. Analyzing Friday’s data, it seemed they might have entered the fight behind McLaren. However, Mercedes and Red Bull made a better step forward compared to free practice at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona.
Ferrari’s hopes for the near future
There was quite a bit of anticipation surrounding the TD018 technical directive ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. The Maranello team was convinced that, in some way, the FIA measure could penalise McLaren and, as a result, offer a significant advantage to the Red team. Reflecting on Saturday’s result, we can confirm that the historic team completely misjudged its optimistic forecast.
On the contrary, as we had predicted some time ago, the Ferrari SF-25 might actually suffer more than the other top teams from this change concerning aero elasticity. After all, expecting that less flexing would solve the Italian cars’ problems was rather far-fetched, even though Fred Vasseur had repeatedly claimed otherwise. Let’s wait for today’s race to see what happens over the 300-kilometre race distance.
The pace of the SF25 cars could be very good. It’s not the first time that their performance improves on Sunday, delivering results very close to the best. This is the hope Ferrari is clinging to, even though it’s clear that much more is needed to fight at the top. The next package of updates, expected in the coming weeks, might be the last hope to see a car at least worthy of its name.
We are talking about the usual two tenths that are missing and weigh on performance when trying to stay behind the reigning world champion team. The handling of the Ferrari has partly managed to mitigate the lack of rotation seen during practice. The Italian team improved quite a bit in Turn 5, where you don’t approach the kerb but have to take the correct line. At least the setup was decent and not problematic, even though the now well-known shortcomings remain.
Charles Leclerc continued to complain about the front end during qualifying. In the first chicane, he couldn’t follow the same lines as the McLaren, being unable to use the same portion of the inner kerb. Moreover, there was a noticeable lack of downforce, an issue we’ve been talking about for several weeks now. The SF-25 suffers from this rather serious flaw.
At medium and high speeds, the car is unable to generate the same level of grip as McLaren or Red Bull. In Turn 4, the difference in cornering speed is significant, and in general, in that section the MCL39 has a lot of lateral grip. Looking at the split times, the SF-25 tends to improve as the lap progresses. This is a sign that the tyre warm-up strategy and activation are delayed.
Tyres, the great unknown remains
There is a tendency to start the lap with tyres generally below the target temperature. Yesterday, they lost a lot of time in the first sector, particularly between Turns 2 and 3. We are especially referring to the part of the track exiting the first, tricky chicane. In this case, the deficit is paid entirely in cornering. For this reason as well, we can confirm that the time loss is linked to suboptimal tyre temperature.
Afterwards, as the lap progresses, the tyres heat up and start to work. Grip increases, as the two compound temperatures—internal and external—approach the ideal value. In sector two, Lewis Hamilton lost about a tenth, while in the final sector the gap dropped below a tenth. Ferrari was fairly consistent in sector three, but by failing to maximise tyre performance, the intended result slipped away.
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