Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has offered a candid assessment of the 2025 British Grand Prix and outlined the team’s ambitions for the remainder of the Formula 1 season. Following a weekend of mixed emotions at Silverstone, Vasseur believes that Ferrari is still in contention to win races, despite the team’s recent struggles.
The Maranello-based outfit left Silverstone with a fourth-place finish for Lewis Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc ended the race outside the points. The Monegasque driver’s Grand Prix was compromised by a risky strategic decision and some costly on-track errors. While Friday’s practice performance had raised hopes of a stronger result, qualifying mistakes ultimately weighed heavily on the team’s outcome.
In the traditional post-race press conference, Vasseur reviewed the key moments of the British Grand Prix weekend and turned his attention toward Ferrari’s goals for the second half of the 2025 season.
Leclerc’s early call that backfired
At a wet and unpredictable Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton managed to finish in fourth place, crossing the line 40 seconds behind the race-winning McLaren. Meanwhile, his teammate Charles Leclerc failed to score any points after a bold gamble to switch to slick tyres before the start backfired immediately.
On a damp and drying track, the Ferrari SF-25 lacked pace compared to the McLaren cars—often referred to as the “papaya machines”—but Vasseur believes that outright performance was not the root cause of Leclerc’s poor result.
“I’m not sure that the pace was the main problem today,” Vasseur explained. “For Charles, the race was essentially over after the first lap, when he made the call to pit. The biggest issue we had was the difficulty in overtaking when we were in dirty air. Sometimes it took us ten laps to pass a car, and only after that we could show how much faster we actually were.”
The decision to switch to slick tyres just before the race start left Leclerc in trouble from the outset, forcing him to struggle for grip on a surface still too wet for such a compound. Leclerc himself quickly realized the mistake: “Charles knew from the first lap that the call was wrong, as he was already five seconds slower than the driver in second place,” Vasseur noted.
Still, the French team boss did his best to defend his driver. “The decision came from the driver. But to be honest, I could have said no. Even though the drivers are the ones on track, in those situations it’s very difficult to assess the level of grip after a very slow formation lap behind the Safety Car. It’s not easy.”
Looking ahead with optimism
Despite a disappointing outcome at Silverstone, Vasseur remains optimistic and insists that Ferrari is still in the fight to win races in 2025. The team’s early-season podiums, along with flashes of competitiveness in various conditions, suggest that the potential is still there—if they can minimize errors and improve decision-making during key race moments.
With the championship now entering its second half, Vasseur made it clear that Ferrari’s objective remains ambitious. “We are in the fight to win races,” he stated, reiterating his confidence in the team’s development path and driver pairing.
The road ahead for Ferrari will require cleaner weekends, better strategy calls, and more consistent performance to close the gap to Red Bull Racing, McLaren, and Mercedes. However, with Lewis Hamilton bringing experience and Leclerc still delivering speed—albeit inconsistently—Vasseur knows that the team has the tools to turn things around in the coming rounds.
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