A third of the 2025 Formula 1 season’s Grands Prix have now been contested, and the current championship is experiencing its crucial phase. This is a very important period for the season’s verdicts but also for laying the groundwork for the future. In Ferrari’s case, these weeks are decisive for the choice to be made: whether to continue believing in the SF-25 and its as-yet-unrealized potential or to begin focusing on 2026. With this in mind, the upcoming rounds, such as Spain and others, will be decisive in understanding the fate of the Italian team and its difficult 2025. And precisely to put these difficulties behind them, it seems that the GeS engineers want to bring a new rear suspension to the track at the beginning of summer: an element that should solve part of the project’s problems, helping to unlock the touted potential, which can only emerge with a mechanical configuration that the current suspension is not able to guarantee.
Goodbye problems?
On closer inspection, beyond the lack of speed, reliability problems with the power unit have also raised alarm bells at Ferrari, both on the Prancing Horse’s car and on customer teams. As we exclusively reported over the Jeddah weekend, the Scuderia’s engine specialists decided to replace Lewis Hamilton’s and Charles Leclerc ’s PUs as a precaution after seeing unsettling data, bringing forward the scheduled change in Miami. And it was in Florida that Ferrari’s customers, such as Haas and Stake, recorded double retirements due to structural failures of power unit components (for Bortoleto an issue with fuel supply), similar to what happened to Ocon at Imola. And it was at Imola that we received confirmation of these issues even from a team member who, when asked whether he was calm about engine longevity, did not profess calm at all, preferring instead to rely on hope.
Between hope and (non) answers…
Moreover, as I exclusively reported, at Ferrari they have decided to reduce engine mileage to safeguard reliability while, if possible, remedying the problems. A move that, however, should not affect engine power but that could lead the Rossa and its customers to take penalties by year’s end, failing to finish 2025 with only the four units allowed by the FIA. A new issue, therefore, that Fréd Vasseur’s sporting management will have to deal with.
Although, when specifically questioned on the matter, the head of Sporting Management preferred (as his role demands) to give evasive answers, choosing instead to comment on other teams’ decisions or speaking of choices aimed at pursuing maximum performance, rather than explaining what is happening in house.
“Regarding the power unit we made a change in Jeddah, while I think Honda has already made two or three. I wouldn’t pay attention, since they talked about the fifth race, to the events in which the units are introduced: these are choices made based on where one wants to be more competitive and achieve maximum performance.”
