In Ferrari’s post-race debrief, several interesting data points emerged. The SF-25, during the second stint on medium tyres, did not deliver the level of performance the Maranello engineers had expected. This allowed Max Verstappen to close the gap before being held back by the Virtual Safety Car. Still, in Maranello, there’s hope that the best of the red car is yet to come.
Charles Leclerc’s second place at the Mexican Grand Prix gave Ferrari a renewed sense of confidence. The team secured the Monegasque driver’s seventh podium of the season and reclaimed second position in the Constructors’ Championship by one point over Mercedes. The race at high altitude showcased a SF-25 capable of shining again, reigniting the fighting spirit of a team that, before Austin, seemed to be melting away like snow in the sun. The public backing from president John Elkann for Fred Vasseur and the entire team reduced the internal tension within the Racing Division, restoring greater clarity and more rational decision-making.
Setting aside the 30 seconds that Charles Leclerc conceded to the untouchable McLaren of winner Lando Norris, Ferrari’s performance was still strong enough to fight on equal terms with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, which finished just seven tenths behind. Some claim that the four-time world champion would have overtaken Charles without the Virtual Safety Car—questionably deployed after Carlos Sainz stopped his Williams in a safe position—but the final standings speak for themselves.
Ferrari in Mexico finished ahead of Verstappen’s RB21, a car that had previously collected three wins, two second places, and a third in the last six races, recovering 70 points on the championship leader during that period. This suggests that perhaps the Milton Keynes car experienced a slight dip in form with the introduction of its latest upgrade package (once again featuring changes to the floor) on a low-grip track characterized by thin air at high altitude.
Fred Vasseur had reasons to be satisfied, as both Red Bull and, more importantly, Mercedes finished behind. “Lately, we’ve made a step forward in putting everything together over a race weekend,” he explained. “We don’t have the feeling anymore, like in Baku or Singapore, that we’ve left something on the table to regret. Even in those races, the car wasn’t bad, but we didn’t manage to maximize the results.”
And that’s the key point. The recent Grands Prix have proven Vasseur—and Lewis Hamilton—right in their insistence that execution is what makes the difference. The SF-25 remains the only top car yet to win a race this season. The numbers are clear: McLaren has 13 wins, Red Bull 5, and Mercedes 2.
But do those numbers truly reflect the car’s real potential? The internal debrief revealed some interesting insights. Charles Leclerc’s second place came from a highly consistent race, free of mistakes, allowing him to stay ahead of Verstappen. However, questions remain as to whether Ferrari truly extracted the car’s maximum potential.
By comparing race data with pre-race simulations and overnight analysis between Friday and Saturday, the engineers believe Ferrari may have left some performance untapped during the second stint. This was when Charles Leclerc, on lap 31, switched from the softs he started on to the medium tyres. Meanwhile, Verstappen did the opposite—starting on mediums and switching to softs on lap 37 in an attempt to maintain his strong run of results with a second place finish.
Charles Leclerc’s skill, combined with the Virtual Safety Car, prevented Max Verstappen from achieving that goal. However, a deeper look at the race data suggests that Ferrari could have done even better, potentially pulling further ahead of the RB21.
During Friday’s long run on medium tyres, Leclerc completed 14 laps with an average time of 1’22”290—significantly faster than Verstappen’s 10-lap simulation, which averaged 1’22”728. In other words, Ferrari had a half-second advantage. Promising numbers indeed.
In qualifying, Charles Leclerc was superb, putting the SF-25 second on the grid, beating Verstappen, who was only fifth, by 122 thousandths of a second.
At the start, Charles immediately slotted into second place on the softs, while Max, after a brief trip across the grass, was fifth on the mediums. With a full fuel load, the Monegasque clocked a 1’22”476 on lap 5 and maintained a high 1’22” pace. Verstappen, by comparison, recorded a 1’22”981 on lap 7 and continued in the low 1’23”s. As seen in practice and qualifying, Ferrari was clearly superior. But the picture changed in the second stint, when Charles Leclerc switched to mediums and Verstappen began pushing on softs.
As the cars became lighter, simulations had predicted the SF-25 would be able to match Red Bull’s pace. Instead, a performance gap opened up that went beyond the expected tyre difference. The difference wasn’t evident in the peak laps—Leclerc’s fastest lap was a 1’21”588 on lap 45, while Verstappen’s was a 1’21”108 on lap 50—but in the overall pace. Charles Leclerc’s average hovered in the high 1’22”s, while Max ran in the low 1’21”s. At times, the gap reached a full second per lap.
So what happened? The Ferrari didn’t adapt as well to the medium tyres during the race as simulations and Friday practice had suggested. The hot conditions—53°C on the asphalt at the race start, around 10 degrees higher than Saturday’s Q3—and the limited grip compromised Ferrari’s performance. This shows that there’s still a small margin of performance to extract through better setup work.
It’s remarkable that, in the 20th race of a 24-race season and without new technical updates, Ferrari is still searching for the perfect execution. Even at Maranello, there’s no absolute clarity about the true potential of this SF-25. Work on the setup could yet deliver surprising results, and the trend now is to move back towards stiffer configurations.
With four races remaining, the pressure for a first win has seemingly subsided, but simulations for Interlagos once again point to a Ferrari capable of performing strongly—perhaps even becoming a disruptive factor in the world championship battle.
Leave a Reply