Seeing a Ferrari on the front row at the Bahrain GP alongside pole-sitter Oscar Piastri is eye-opening for the Maranello team’s fans. Until yesterday, talk centred on a red car in deep crisis, and today we find the SF-25 as McLaren’s primary challenger in Sakhir.
Of course, seeing Charles Leclerc’s car at the front helps lift the team’s morale, which had arrived at the fourth round of the season somewhat deflated due to a lack of results, but it’s worth noting that the starting grid was reshuffled after qualifying, due to a penalty imposed on George Russell (and Kimi Antonelli) for an illegal pit lane manoeuvre in Q2.
On paper, the Briton’s W16 is more competitive, but we know the determination of the Monegasque driver when he smells the scent of a result: Charles has a very quick ability to fire himself up (just as quickly as he can fade), and he often pushes past the limits of the car.
It is now clear to everyone that the main weakness of the SF-25 is its lack of aerodynamic load compared to the papaya-coloured car: the upgrade package introduced on the red car in Bahrain aims precisely to address that issue, increasing downforce generated by the floor and diffuser so that the car doesn’t need to be run with an excessively extreme setup scraping along the asphalt just to find the vertical load it lacked.
Easier said than done. The upgrades are more significant than Ferrari’s engineers themselves wanted to highlight, given the uncertainty over whether they would bring the expected benefits.
And judging by Friday’s free practice, there were valid doubts: with extreme heat, strong winds, and virtually no grip on the track, it was risky to draw any conclusions.
Charles Leclerc’s performance in qualifying proved that the updates work, but it will take time for every component to contribute as expected to overall performance.
The modification that aroused the most curiosity is certainly the barely visible one in the diffuser: Diego Tondi, head of aerodynamics, redesigned the keel of the floor to increase vertical load with better air filling in the extractor.
The small step that framed the central ramp has disappeared, making way for a novel solution: a triangular tongue made via rapid prototyping has appeared, indicating an added element developed in the wind tunnel.
It’s good to see that the team led by Loic Serra isn’t just copying opponents’ solutions, but that Ferrari is pursuing its own ideas and concepts in developing the SF-25. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that these upgrades, together with those of the flow diverters in the Venturi channels and vortex generators on the floor edge, will solve all of the red car’s issues, but it’s undeniable that the path taken is the right one—evidence that rumours about a miniature gearbox flexing at the rear were just attempts to shift blame where it didn’t belong.
What’s concerning, however, is Lewis Hamilton’s lack of feeling with the Ferrari. The seven-time world champion at times seems like a foreign body within the team: he doesn’t “feel” the SF-25, and without trust, he struggles to extract its potential in fast corners—as if he’s deaf to the car’s increased downforce. And that’s a problem…
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