Charles Leclerc had been hoping that the Singapore Grand Prix could represent a genuine opportunity for redemption, a chance to turn around a season that had been largely disappointing for Ferrari. He envisioned a moment under the bright lights of Marina Bay where the Scuderia could finally deliver a positive result and bring a smile back to its fans. However, on this particularly demanding and technically challenging street circuit, the SF-25 once again revealed its chronic weaknesses. Among the most significant issues highlighted was the car’s limited flexibility and adaptability when it comes to setup adjustments, which has been a recurring problem throughout the 2025 Formula 1 season. Despite the numerous experiments and setup trials that the team attempted over the weekend, Ferrari was ultimately confronted with what is often referred to internally as a “short blanket” problem—a situation where there is simply too little flexibility to optimize the car across all conditions—further compounded by brake issues that became evident during the race itself.
A few weeks prior to the Singapore Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc had explicitly identified this race as one of the few remaining events on the 2025 calendar where he genuinely hoped Ferrari could rebound and provide a much-needed morale boost. He envisioned a fleeting, yet significant, spark in a season that had otherwise been defined by frustration and underperformance. The idea was that the unique nature of the Marina Bay circuit, with its long, flowing, low-speed corners and a mix of high-demand technical sections, could offer a rare opportunity for Ferrari to find a competitive edge. However, as the season progressed and several other disappointing results accumulated, expectations for the team were gradually tempered. Even before the Singapore weekend officially began, the Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc had prudently lowered his expectations, signaling that the team would need to manage ambitions carefully in order to avoid further disappointment.
It was, in many ways, entirely logical that Ferrari, having accumulated a string of setbacks and underwhelming performances in previous races, did not wish to create excessive anticipation or pressure for the Singapore Grand Prix. At the same time, however, there was a quiet but clear understanding within the team that the Marina Bay street circuit could also very likely expose the SF-25’s inherent limitations in a more pronounced manner. This was a point that analysts and journalists had highlighted in previews of the race weekend, emphasizing that Ferrari would need to perform exceptionally well in areas where it had consistently struggled throughout the 2025 Formula 1 season.
One of the car’s longstanding weaknesses has been its handling in low-speed corners, particularly those extended, sustained turns that require a sharp and incisive front end to rotate effectively. These types of corners have historically put the SF-25 under significant strain, generating chronic understeer—a condition where the front of the car does not turn sufficiently into the corner—which has consistently challenged both Charles Leclerc and his teammate Lewis Hamilton throughout the year. The hope entering Singapore was that the relatively uniform and homogeneous nature of the circuit’s corners could offer a clearer setup direction for the engineers, allowing them to reduce the compromises that have had to be made on other tracks and potentially mitigating some of the SF-25’s most glaring weaknesses.
Despite these expectations, this hope quickly faded as the weekend progressed. Friday practice unfolded like a moving, high-intensity laboratory, with constant testing, cross-checks, and iterative adjustments both between sessions and during individual practice runs. Charles Leclerc himself acknowledged that the team was compelled to make forced and significant modifications to the car, particularly concerning the ride height.
It is well known that the SF-25 is designed to seek maximum performance by pushing the ride height to the very limits of what is feasible. This allows the car to achieve optimal aerodynamic efficiency and balance. However, at a street circuit like Singapore, all teams are required to raise their cars to a higher ride height than usual due to the bumpy and irregular surface, which demands a larger safety margin. The decision to experiment with a raised ride height was still logical—it was aimed not only at testing the limits of the car but also because several resurfaced sections of the track offered smoother asphalt, potentially allowing the SF-25 to operate in a slightly different window of performance.
While raising the ride height certainly had an impact on the car’s performance, the difficulties encountered in Singapore extended far beyond this single factor. Friday proved to be an exceptionally intensive day of testing, filled with continuous mechanical and aerodynamic experiments, all with the overarching goal of identifying a setup that could reduce the persistent understeer and make the SF-25 a more manageable and predictable car for the drivers.
Among the changes attempted was the use of a slightly lower-downforce front wing compared to the maximum downforce configuration. This decision aligned with the broader strategy to improve rotation and balance, as in terms of pure top speed, the difference between the two setups was not particularly significant. Singapore’s straights are relatively short and do not have a decisive impact on lap times, meaning the trade-off between front-end precision and rear stability had to be carefully considered. The fundamental issue for the engineers remained the need to achieve compromise—an effective balance between front and rear performance.
Having a precise and responsive front end is crucial for building driver confidence on a challenging street circuit like Singapore, as it allows the car to rotate more efficiently in corners. At the same time, it is equally important to protect the rear of the car. On a circuit with so many traction zones, thermal degradation of the tires weighs significantly more than simple tire wear, which makes maintaining rear stability critical. This was one of the primary reasons Charles Leclerc attempted what he himself described as “stupid” experiments at the end of Q3, testing different load distributions and handling characteristics to find a balance that could allow him to maximize performance despite the car’s inherent understeer.
Due to the SF-25’s chronic understeer, it had been exceptionally difficult for the drivers to rotate the car effectively through corners. Towards the end of the qualifying session, Charles Leclerc experimented with a different approach, loading the front end of the car as much as possible, even at the cost of making the rear even more nervous and unpredictable. The Monegasque driver commented that he had experienced a lot of understeer, but for some reason the car was still unstable and unpredictable, adding that driving with understeer was not his strong point.
The decision to adopt a more oversteering setup during his final Q3 attempt was primarily influenced by Charles Leclerc’s personal driving preferences. He finds it easier to manage oversteer compared to the opposite condition of extreme understeer. Nevertheless, the Monegasque driver acknowledged that this choice had a significant impact: the SF-25 remains a “short blanket” car, offering very little margin for adjusting or compensating for varying conditions on the track.
Tire performance continued to be another major challenge for Ferrari. The SF-25 often struggles to extract the full potential of the softer tire compounds compared to its main rivals. As highlighted prior to the Singapore Grand Prix, among the top teams, Ferrari drivers typically improve the least between the second and third stints of a session, which is when extracting the final few tenths of a second is critical. This pattern repeated itself at Marina Bay, where lap times between Q1 and Q3 remained surprisingly similar, underscoring the car’s persistent difficulty in generating optimal grip and performance.
From the very first turn, the SF-25 demonstrated difficulties in bringing the tires up to temperature, a problem that persisted through the central sectors of the track. Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton struggled to rotate the car efficiently and find sufficient traction on corner exit, which had a cumulative impact on overall lap times. Time lost in the pit lane only exacerbated these issues, as it became increasingly difficult to restore the front tires to optimal operating temperatures—a weakness that has plagued the team for the entirety of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
In addition to these well-known challenges, brake performance presented another significant problem. Brake management has been a season-long concern for Ferrari, but the issue was particularly pronounced in Singapore, starting from the very first free practice sessions. Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had to carefully manage their brake systems throughout various stages of the race. From lap eight onward, Charles Leclerc suffered from a temperature imbalance between the right and left rear brakes, an anomaly that extended to the front axle as the race progressed, further complicating vehicle control and consistency.
This brake-related issue has been a persistent challenge for Ferrari over multiple races, but it became even more extreme in Singapore due to the unique characteristics of the circuit, including a sequence of frequent and heavy braking zones and very few long straights to allow proper cooling. The fact that this problem manifested on both Ferrari cars serves as a confirmation that there are underlying design and operational factors affecting brake performance. These factors, combined with the city track’s unique demands, made the SF-25’s vulnerabilities even more visible and pronounced at Marina Bay than at any other venue on the 2025 Formula 1 calendar.
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