From Marketing to the Track
On Friday, during a press conference, Frederic Vasseur had been almost prophetic: “During the winter period, we are all world champions, and then we have the first qualifying of the year, and we return to reality.” He had also remarked, “We had two months of marketing, it was a huge wave. The most important thing is to turn the page and get back to our usual business. It will be a long road; we have about 150 sessions throughout the year. We need to focus on that and forget about the world around us.”
A world of devoted fans, so passionate about Ferrari that they crowded Fiorano for the SF-25’s debut and filled Milan’s Piazza Castello for its official presentation. A sea of red, fueled by bold statements aiming for the championship, iconic photos, and relentless marketing. And now, those same fans are left staring blankly at a season that, instead of Ferrari red, has begun in McLaren orange, Max Verstappen’s orange, and Mercedes gray.
And Ferrari?
Then came Melbourne’s Saturday, delivering a harsh wake-up call to Ferrari’s Australian dreams, with the team suddenly retreating like a crab. Rumors suggest the SF-25 was raised to protect the plank from excessive wear and that its performance window completely vanished. The result was a disastrous seventh and eighth place in qualifying, followed by an even worse race, with Charles Leclerc finishing eighth and Lewis Hamilton tenth.
Everything that could go wrong did. A flawed strategy—“But it’s easy to say that in hindsight,” Fred Vasseur defended—driver mistakes, and the car’s usual struggles in wet conditions. The frustration was evident over the team radio, with Leclerc complaining that his seat was full of water, only to receive the response, “It must be water,” prompting the Monegasque driver’s sarcastic reply: “What a pearl of wisdom.”
Looking Beyond
Ferrari fans had hoped for a red dawn but instead are faced with an infrared one—meaning they are being asked to look beyond what the eyes can perceive, to believe in something invisible. They are reminded that this is just the first of 24 races, that winning the first does not guarantee a championship, and that McLaren was in a much worse position just two years ago.
They are asked to look ahead. And, to be fair, that is often what love-struck fans do. But today, with a P8 and a P10 behind McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams, Aston Martin, and even Mattia Binotto’s Sauber, that may be asking too much.
