Fred Vasseur doesn't give up: "It's still a long way to go, 21 races left, but we must improve everywhere"

Fred Vasseur doesn’t give up: “It’s still a long way to go, 21 races left, but we must improve everywhere”. Japan GP: Team principal Frederic Vasseur remains optimistic despite result.

Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team boss, 2025 F1

After just three race weekends of the 2025 Formula 1 season, Scuderia Ferrari is already struggling in both world championships. In the drivers’ standings, Charles Leclerc is the best placed – sixth – 42 points behind leader Lando Norris. In the constructors’ standings, the Prancing Horse is in fourth, 76 points behind McLaren Mercedes, which leads the ranking.

Surely, fans, after the great winter enthusiasm, expected a different start, but so far the SF-25 seems to fluctuate between the third and fourth strongest car on track. The best qualifying and race results came from Charles Leclerc in Japan, with two fourth-place finishes, while Lewis Hamilton registered a flash of brilliance in the Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint in China – with two first-place finishes – in what has been a rather anonymous start to the season.

Fred Vasseur remains confident
The first seasonal updates are expected in Bahrain, and Ferrari is aware that it needs to “improve everywhere,” as emphasized by Frederic Vasseur at the end of the race. The team principal of Ferrari, in charge since the 2023 season, is in a rather complex position, that of instilling hope and confidence into the team and the fans after a 2025 start that is decidedly below expectations.

“We made progress compared to last week, at least on the operational side, and we need to build on this,” explained the French manager. This refers to the setup found by Charles Leclerc in Suzuka, which allowed the Monegasque driver to find a balanced base for the upcoming races, although it didn’t bring a performance breakthrough for the SF-25.

Fred Vasseur acknowledged the current situation at Ferrari but doesn’t intend to wave the white flag: “We need to improve everywhere, it’s certainly not ideal at the start of the season. But it’s still a long way to go, 21 races left.”

However, Ferrari is at the top in one area: pit stops. In Australia (Charles Leclerc 2.32s), China (Charles Leclerc 2.05s), and Japan (Hamilton 2.18s), the Maranello team’s mechanics were the fastest in the lot.