Why Ferrari made the right decision in creating a completely new car for 2025 F1 season

There is a recurring question among the fans of the Prancing Horse: why did Ferrari completely overhaul the layout of the car after finishing second in the 2024 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship, just 14 points behind McLaren? In the last year of the ground effect regulations, the Italian side decided to redesign its car, introducing 99% new components according to Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur himself.

This issue has been widely debated not only on social media but also among various insiders: why wasn’t the SF-24 development continued, especially considering it finished last season close to the McLaren cars, while the SF-25, after three races, has plummeted to fourth place among the top teams, with a drastic drop in competitiveness?

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have already accumulated a 76-point deficit to McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, having scored only 35 points so far compared to 111 from the Woking team, while Mercedes has earned 75 points and Red Bull, which runs only one car in the top 10, Max Verstappen‘s, has accumulated 61 points. There could not have been a worse start for the Maranello team, but the Italian side never considered deploying a “carry over” car.

The arrival of Lewis Hamilton was an additional push to aim for a leap in quality, with the belief that Ferrari could aim for two World Championships before the drastic regulatory changes expected for the 2026 Formula 1 season.

So why was the 2025 car redesigned? The answer is very simple: the SF-24 had very few possibilities for aerodynamic improvement and its development would have been limited compared to the evolution that rivals had planned.

The choice, therefore, was right, and in the 2025 budget cap, a significant amount was allocated to approve a new chassis with the cockpit moved further back and a shorter, sleeker gearbox.

The idea was to shift the weight distribution slightly toward the rear in order to offer more freedom to the aerodynamic team led by Diego Tondi. The SF-25 single-seater was designed to be under the weight limit of 800 kilograms to have the option of achieving the right balance by introducing ballast in the front wing, allowing the 0.5% weight distribution tolerance permitted by the regulations to be adjusted as desired.

Additionally, the aerodynamic department had requested the chassis chief, Fabio Montecchi, to switch from the traditional push rod front suspension to a pull rod system, already in use by Red Bull and McLaren. The needs, therefore, were not mechanical but stemmed from the belief that wind tunnel testing could yield more downforce for performance.

And evidently, the data emerging from the winter simulations had to be positive compared to the SF-24, fueling the championship hopes that were repeatedly raised by the drivers and team leaders.

In China and Japan, we saw F1 cars that were about 1.5 seconds faster than the previous year, which is a huge improvement considering that, usually, by the end of a regulatory cycle, only a few tenths are found because teams are already scraping the barrel with mature cars. However, the house of cards began to collapse during the preseason testing session at the Bahrain International Circuit, when it became clear that McLaren was more competitive and Ferrari was struggling.

Initially, attention was focused on the pull rod suspension: with the new setup, there might have been a need to adjust the setup, as very different stiffness adjustments are required. But the “issue” with the SF-25 car was not found there. Observers then shifted their focus to the rear end, pointing to the transmission: the miniaturized carbon gearbox could suffer damaging torsions, preventing the rear from being sufficiently stiff to make the car responsive in direction changes, resulting in annoying understeer that was heavily criticized by the drivers.

The Ferrari SF-25 car was designed to be focused on the front, as both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton prefer, with great corner entry, but in reality, it has significantly improved in high-speed sections, thanks to good aerodynamic efficiency, while it has lost its traction and handling in low-speed corners.

So, what is missing for Ferrari? One might say the aerodynamic downforce that presses the car onto the track surface and generates the energy to transfer to the tires. Without enough downforce, the team is forced to use minimal ground clearance, knowing that the closer the car is to the ground, the more the floor can create downforce. But the wear on the plank has to be taken into account: the FIA allows consumption of 1 of the 10 mm thickness of the plank, after which disqualifications are triggered, as happened to Lewis Hamilton in China.

Beyond the embarrassment that a prestigious team like Ferrari shouldn’t allow, it is evident that finding immediate countermeasures is not easy. The first upgrade package for the SF-25 was scheduled for Imola, at the debut of the European season, but after the Sakhir tests, it is possible that the development plans were brought forward based on what emerged from the wind tunnel work.

So, we can expect modifications to the floor in Bahrain, along with other details, but it’s hard to think the gap to the MCL39 and the improved Red Bull can be closed in one go, because the 3-4 tenths gap is not easy to reduce, as others won’t stand still either.