Here’s why Ferrari perform only on Fridays: the unresolved limits of the SF-25
We have now reached race 17 out of 24 in the current Formula 1 World Championship, which also happens to be the final season of this particular regulatory cycle, and once again Ferrari have come away from qualifying with a result that is disappointing when compared to the expectations built up after a very promising Friday performance. It is a scenario that has become almost a ritual across this 2025 campaign, repeating itself nearly every weekend and leaving both supporters and analysts wondering why the team always seems to fall short when it matters most.
At Maranello, the considerable amount of work that was carried out over the winter months has so far failed to translate into victories, despite the very high expectations surrounding the SF-25 project, a car that was widely described as Ferrari’s best chance to close the gap to Red Bull before the major 2026 regulation change. Throughout this long season, however, something has consistently prevented the car from reaching its maximum potential. The Ferrari SF-25 has frequently suffered from unexplained issues that have led to sharp and sudden drops in performance on Saturdays, and on more than one occasion these same limitations have also affected strategic decisions during the races, undermining Ferrari’s ability to secure strong results on Sunday afternoons.
The Italian team have tried to keep these problems hidden from public scrutiny, often releasing statements that were deliberately vague or even contradictory. However, at this stage of the season the core problem is clear and well-known inside the paddock: Ferrari cannot run the SF-25 at the ideal ride height that would allow the car to generate its maximum aerodynamic load and extract the best possible performance. Running the car in this way would risk excessive plank wear, and that would leave the team exposed to post-race disqualification. The degree to which this factor has influenced some of Ferrari’s more puzzling strategic decisions has not yet been fully analyzed in detail, but looking across the race weekends of the season so far, strong correlations between the car’s limitations and its weekend pattern of performance can easily be observed.
Why Ferrari do not hide their pace on Fridays — they cannot
A very clear trend has been noted since the opening rounds of the season: Ferrari are always quick in the first two free practice sessions, and especially in FP2 when the conditions are most representative, but then they fall back on Saturday when qualifying comes. The telemetry data has often revealed that Ferrari are running with aggressive engine mappings already on Fridays. This artificially boosts the team higher up the timing sheets but at the same time exposes a lot of valuable performance data to rival teams like Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes. Normally, there would be no logical reason for a top team to reveal so much of its hand early in the weekend—unless, of course, Ferrari are forced into this approach by fundamental limitations within the design of the SF-25.
Take the example of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. During Friday’s free practice sessions, telemetry traces showed Ferrari deploying higher engine modes, a choice that is usually avoided on a circuit with extremely long straights in order to protect the power unit and also to avoid giving rivals reference data. The only reasonable explanation for such a decision is the need for Ferrari to simulate race-like conditions as early as possible, so they can gather data on plank wear and brake temperatures. These two factors—plank degradation and overheating of the braking system—have repeatedly forced Ferrari into painful compromises. The team have often been obliged to raise the ride height to avoid a disqualification, and they have also resorted to heavy use of lift-and-coast in order to control brake overheating.
The outcome is that by the time Saturday arrives, when rival teams like Red Bull with Max Verstappen or McLaren with Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri unleash more aggressive settings and lighter fuel loads, Ferrari are already at a disadvantage. Instead of moving forward, they actually move backwards in the pecking order, most noticeably in qualifying sessions where raw performance and low-fuel runs determine grid position.
Why Ferrari never attempt long stints or bold race strategies — they cannot
Another constant, visible at almost every single Grand Prix of 2025, has been Ferrari’s inability to gamble on long stints or bold race strategies. Instead, the team have consistently brought their drivers into the pits earlier than might have been strictly necessary, even on occasions when the drivers—particularly Charles Leclerc—reported that the car still had strong pace and that they wanted to stay out longer. The radio exchanges between Charles Leclerc and his race engineer have repeatedly provided very telling evidence: his messages from inside the cockpit have often been in direct conflict with the instructions coming from the Ferrari pit wall. This has been a recurring theme since as far back as the Chinese Grand Prix earlier in the season. The explanation is not that Ferrari lack courage or creativity—it is that their technical package leaves them with very little choice.
Consider what happened at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc was in the lead until around lap 40, but his pace collapsed dramatically after an early final pit stop. On that occasion, the Ferrari team were forced to mount tires with higher pressures in order to slightly increase the car’s effective ride height and avoid yet another risk of plank-related disqualification. But how much can such an adjustment really change the height of a Formula 1 car? According to data we have obtained—still pending full confirmation from Pirelli—the increase in tire pressure from the FIA-mandated minimum of 22 psi at the front and 20 psi at the rear, up to around 24 psi and 22 psi, would raise the car by approximately one millimeter.
In Hungary, the indications are that Ferrari may have run with tire pressures even higher than 24/22 psi. This compromised performance by reducing grip and increasing tire degradation, but it gave just enough margin to prevent a repeat of the disqualification that occurred in China, when the plank was found to be worn by only 0.4 millimeters below the legal limit.
This example highlights just how little strategic freedom Ferrari actually possess at the moment. The normal tread wear of a Formula 1 tire—between about 2.5 and 4 millimeters—can lower the car by the same amount during a long stint. For Ferrari, who are already working with virtually no margin in terms of ride height, this is completely unsustainable. It explains why the team’s race strategies are so consistently conservative, even in circumstances where an alternative approach might have offered a better chance of victory. It also explains why the drivers have often been instructed to use lift-and-coast even during phases of the race where, on paper, brake temperatures should not have been a major concern. In reality, it has been a necessary precaution to keep both the brakes and the underfloor wear under control.
Why Ferrari’s development program has not yet solved the fundamental problem
Most of the development updates that Ferrari have introduced during the 2025 season—including the significant change to the rear suspension geometry—were designed with the explicit objective of addressing this very problem. The aim was to provide a wider operational window for the SF-25, and at the same time gather knowledge that will be valuable for the 2026 car under the new regulations.
However, the analysis we have gone through above allows us to draw an additional and important conclusion: we will know that Ferrari have finally solved their underlying limitation only when two clear signals appear. The first will be when the team no longer feel the need to run higher engine modes already on Fridays, because that would indicate that they are no longer forced to simulate race conditions so early in the weekend. The second will be when Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, the two Ferrari drivers for the 2025 season, are able to execute genuinely long stints in races without being compromised by tire pressure adjustments or the ever-present threat of plank wear disqualification.
Until those two conditions are met, Ferrari’s struggles are likely to continue. The SF-25 has shown flashes of brilliance, and the drivers remain capable of producing moments of exceptional performance, but the car’s unresolved limits are still holding back the Scuderia’s campaign. The team’s challenge now is to find a solution before the curtain comes down on this regulatory cycle to try to at least secure one race win in the 2025 Formula 1 championship.
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