Ferrari’s SF-25 is a disaster: Lewis Hamilton demands performance upgrades. Frustration grows at Ferrari as the SF-25 underperforms in Miami qualifying.

The Miami-spec Ferrari SF-25 is a disaster: Lewis Hamilton is loudly calling for updates to get back to fighting in F1. The seven-time British world champion, already out in Q2, does not hide his growing frustration. The car is unstable, the balance hard to find, and every change attempted so far hasn’t solved the underlying problem: the car lacks performance.

It’s a black Saturday for the Prancing Horse. The third place achieved in the Sprint Race, thanks to a move as brilliant as it was – to a large extent – lucky, doesn’t salvage Ferrari’s weekend. The race is still to come, where anything could happen, but the signs are not good. In Miami, all the SF-25’s problems become evident, problems that had been masked by that podium in Jeddah which had seemed to reignite hopes of a world title.

Lewis Hamilton out in Q2, Charles Leclerc still behind – only eighth – at the end of Q3. The car has worsened, once again, between the Sprint Race and qualifying. Whatever the cause may be – whether ride heights or extreme attempts to find a working setup – the result is what really counts: the Red car is in deep trouble, and only updates can save it.

Lewis Hamilton: “We’re lacking pure performance, we need updates”
After the session, a visibly frustrated Lewis Hamilton speaks: “The sprint race was better than qualifying, but we are where we are. We need updates. We need improvements. We have a lot of things to improve.”

Reaching Q3 wouldn’t have changed much, according to the Briton. The chances of doing better than Charles Leclerc were very slim, if not nonexistent: “As I said, I’m trying everything. We’re trying everything. The smallest, tiniest margin of time and I was out. If we had gone out with a new tyre, I probably would have been in Q3 and then maybe I would have been eighth or ninth with Charles, so it doesn’t make a big difference.”

“But the fact is we’re trying and we don’t have performance. Williams are doing a great job, James [Vowles] and his team are doing an amazing job, but what we lack is pure pace. Charles was lucky to go through with the new tyre. That allowed him to make the cut. I had one extra new tyre, we should have used it.” – the British driver concluded.