Ferrari showed a completely different face in Brazil after Friday’s difficult qualifying session, when no setup seemed to make the car work properly. Following this morning’s Sprint Race, however, the team was able to gather valuable data and make adjustments that helped improve the car’s overall balance and performance.
Even so, the outcome was mixed. Charles Leclerc managed to place his Ferrari in third position on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton, struggling with the setup of his SF-25, had to settle for thirteenth. Despite the uneven results, there was a sense of partial satisfaction within the team as progress was clearly visible compared to the previous day.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur took the result with composure, defending the work and effort of everyone at Maranello. He explained that the margins in Formula 1 are so fine that even the smallest difference can completely change the picture. “The grid is always incredibly close; there are just a few tenths between the first and the thirteenth driver. Any error, or even a different preparation on the out lap or traffic on track, can change everything. It was the same situation in Austin. Today we worked better than yesterday — we only gained a few hundredths, but that was enough to completely turn the classification around,” he told Sky Sports F1.
Frederic Vasseur also revealed that the team was able to push harder thanks to a different approach following the Sprint. The team had made a misjudgment in the morning, expecting rain, which led them to make setup choices that initially limited performance. “This morning we were expecting rain, and for that reason, we opted for a lower downforce configuration,” Fred Vasseur explained. As it turned out, the weather conditions stayed dry, and the Maranello team was able to extract more potential from the car once the setup was adapted to suit the track’s actual conditions.
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