Ferrari’s straight-line speed falls short in Miami: 7 tenths lost over 4 corners. Ferrari's SF-25 continues to struggle in qualifying.

After the Miami Grand Prix qualifying session, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur offered a clear-eyed analysis of the Maranello team’s current form, especially in qualifying, where the SF-25 single-seater struggles to get the most out of the tyres. While the issue may remind some of last year’s SF-24, the characteristics differ: then, the challenge was with the soft compound, but now the problem seems more structural.

The Team Principal stressed that the issue is not a lack of potential, as the French manager is convinced it is there, but rather the difficulty in unlocking it. This results in underwhelming qualifying sessions, up to the point where Ferrari found itself even behind Williams at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida. The words of a visibly dejected Charles Leclerc perhaps reflect most clearly the reality of an SF-25 that struggles to balance its strengths with its weaknesses.

The numbers from Miami qualifying are telling: compared to Max Verstappen, Ferrari lost around seven tenths of a second in four corners: two tenths in Turn 1, another tenth and a half between Turns 7 and 8, and three and a half tenths between Turn 12, where chronic understeer emerged, and the section before Turn 16.

Most of the gap, therefore, comes from the slow-speed sections, where the SF-25 car shows its greatest weaknesses in this start of the 2025 Formula 1 championship. In fact, both Williams and Haas were faster than Ferrari in those areas. McLaren, on the other hand, proved superior thanks to its strong front-end response and a mechanically soft setup that allowed aggressive use of the kerbs.

While Ferrari continues to search for its identity, its rivals are making steady progress. The issue is not just absolute performance, but also the fact that Ferrari’s current main strength, namely its straight-line speed, is clearly not enough to make a real difference. McLaren, for example, has often been praised for its versatility: despite suffering in terms of straight-line efficiency, and having opted for lower-downforce configurations in recent rounds, it remains competitive in other areas. While not matching Red Bull’s peak performance in fast sections, the MCL39 single-seater typically makes up for it with overall balance, and that makes it a formidable competitor across most of the Formula 1 calendar.

The SF-25 has made a modest step forward in high-speed sections, continuing the aerodynamic development path started with the SF-24. However, it still suffers from understeer in slow corners, partly due to overall weak mechanical grip. Charles Leclerc has emphasized this repeatedly: beyond balance, what is truly missing is grip.

Perhaps the most telling figure is that Charles Leclerc managed to post better sector times on used tyres than on a fresh set, failing to exploit the grip peak—highlighting the SF-25’s qualifying weaknesses. These issues also affect race day: starting too far back means getting stuck in dirty air and being forced to chase. At present, a situation that has also been seen two weeks ago in the Jeddah race, the SF-25’s only real strength is its straight-line speed, similar to Mercedes, which typically runs low-drag setups. However, Ferrari struggles to capitalize on it as effectively, often failing to make equivalent gains in other performance areas.

McLaren stands out for its adaptability; Red Bull, except in Miami, can count on excellent DRS performance and great pace in fast sections. A favorable calendar has helped, but the RB21 clearly has higher performance peaks than the Ferrari, even if Bahrain exposed some of its own weaknesses.

From this picture, two key takeaways emerge. First, Red Bull aside, all of Ferrari’s main rivals have made significant progress. Second, despite the fact that the SF-25 single-seater has gained about 6 kilometers per hour on the straights compared to 2024, it has not shown similar improvements in either slow or fast corners. In high-speed corners, Mercedes has significantly reduced bouncing and improved in low-speed sections as well, especially in sequences of turns, thanks to a more efficient low-drag setup for the W16. McLaren has made a clear step forward in slow-speed corners, becoming a benchmark there, while still improving its straight-line performance with the MCL39.

In this context, the SF-25’s lack of versatile downforce and its mechanical setup limitations reveal the car’s core issues in terms of qualifying performance, especially on tracks where a balance between fast and slow sections is crucial. As a result, it becomes much harder to hit the ideal performance window, further highlighting its flaws.

Setup work can mitigate some weaknesses, but on complex circuits that is not enough, as one compromise often leads to another issue. In the Miami Grand Prix race, Ferrari may show more competitive pace, especially since tyre management becomes less critical, but starting too far back makes it difficult to build a solid race.

— see video above —