Ferrari experienced an extremely complicated and demanding weekend in Lusail, one that ultimately pushed the team down to fourth place in the constructors’ standings and highlighted several issues that have been building for months. Team principal Frederic Vasseur explained in detail that the unusually high tyre pressures imposed for safety reasons played a negative role in the performance of the Ferrari SF-25. However, the difficulties behind the collapse have far deeper origins that go beyond a single technical parameter. The upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix now becomes the final opportunity to close the season on a slightly more positive note and to restore at least a portion of the team’s confidence.
Charles Leclerc made it clear that he looked forward to the race in Abu Dhabi in the hope of ending the campaign with something more uplifting, adding that he believed it would be discouraging to head into the winter break after two such disappointing and morale-draining weekends. His reflections captured a recurring pattern of this season: a race that initially appears to have limited importance or few direct championship implications can suddenly turn into one of the defining moments of the entire year. This paradox has followed Ferrari throughout a season filled with strategic ambition but also technical inconsistency.
The Qatar Grand Prix delivered an unsettling and somewhat bleak snapshot of Ferrari’s competitive state and further exposed the long-term consequences of a strategic decision made several months earlier, in April. The team chose at that point to halt aerodynamic development on a car that already showed clear structural shortcomings in terms of downforce generation and stability. This choice was made with the future in mind, specifically the radical 2026 regulations, which internally at Ferrari have been described as a reset point or “year zero.” The team has placed major hopes, long-term strategic investments and intense internal pressure on that new era.
However, as Frederic Vasseur correctly pointed out, Ferrari likely underestimated the impact of going through the entire second half of the season without meaningful upgrades. The last significant technical developments for the Ferrari SF-25 arrived before the summer break, leaving the car frozen in its performance profile at a time when rival teams continued to evolve and refine their machinery. This was not a technical department oversight but a deliberate, shared organisational decision. As Matteo Togninalli, Head of Track Engineering at Ferrari, explained, the instruction came directly from upper management, reflecting a top-down strategic direction.
Matteo Togninalli commented that it had been a corporate decision taken at the highest level of leadership, and that whether it would ultimately be considered the correct choice could only be assessed in the coming year. He said the team was fully aware that the decision would generate frustration among the engineers and drivers, perhaps amplified more than expected, and added that Ferrari might well have found itself in a stronger competitive position if aerodynamic updates had continued throughout the season. His words aligned clearly with Charles Leclerc’s post-race reflections.
This context ties in strongly with Charles Leclerc’s observations after the race, where he stressed that shifting resources toward 2026 earlier than planned could not on its own explain the scale and seriousness of the collapse experienced in Lusail. The weekend’s difficulties were too extreme to be attributed to a single structural choice. It therefore becomes important to examine the deeper causes that made the Qatar event such a problematic round, one that effectively sent the Ferrari SF-25 back several months in terms of competitiveness and behaviour on track.
Frederic Vasseur identified the tyre pressure issue as one of the factors behind Ferrari’s disappointing performance in Qatar last weekend. The French manager explained that the extremely high pressures meant the tyres behaved almost like overinflated footballs, reducing the team’s ability to generate the necessary contact patch and stability. Ferrari struggled throughout the weekend to adapt to these conditions. However, since the same pressure requirements applied to every team on the grid, Fred Vasseur acknowledged that Ferrari simply did a worse job than its rivals in managing the situation and finding an operational window.
The exceptionally high tyre pressures imposed by Pirelli for safety reasons—due to the harsh loads generated by the circuit’s rapid succession of high-speed corners—contributed to making the Ferrari SF-25 feel nervous, unstable and inconsistent. But this characteristic was more a symptom than a true cause. It is widely known that the Ferrari SF-25 has lacked aerodynamic load for a long time during the 2025 season, and when aerodynamic load is insufficient, the only alternative to extract performance is to rely on mechanical grip.
When tyre pressures rise sharply and the contact patch decreases, it becomes considerably more difficult to recover grip from the suspension and mechanical components. Even on a surface like Lusail’s, which naturally offers high grip, the lack of aerodynamic support magnifies every limitation. Qualifying exposed these weaknesses most dramatically: when running at the limit, every fraction of mechanical traction is vital, and both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton suffered from unpredictable behaviour. During the race itself, tyre and pace management helped to reduce the issue somewhat, but it never disappeared and continued to hinder Ferrari’s potential.
This dynamic produced a two-layer effect. On a single flying lap in qualifying, the tyres slid excessively, building up additional temperature that further reduced grip. It became evident how crucial it was to maintain tyre stability and temperature management for the final part of the lap, which is dominated by long, high-speed corners where downforce plays a decisive role. It was therefore unsurprising that most of Ferrari’s time loss occurred precisely in these faster sectors, where both downforce and grip were missing at key moments.
Frederic Vasseur also admitted that tyre pressures alone were not the sole source of Ferrari’s troubles. The elevated pressures affected every team, yet Ferrari failed to find the correct setup window from the very first practice laps and remained outside of it even after the parc fermé reopening, which allowed adjustments. At recent sprint weekends such as Austin and Brazil, Ferrari managed to mitigate some of its limitations thanks to setup changes. In Lusail, however, the constraints revealed deeper structural weaknesses that could not be masked or softened.
It was not only about ride height management, which was influenced by significant bouncing that affected multiple teams because of the track’s extremely high-speed nature. The fundamental issue for Ferrari was its persistent difficulty in generating downforce and grip, especially in long, sustained corners—a weakness that has defined the Ferrari SF-25 throughout the season. When these essential components failed to come together, and with harder tyre compounds offering less flexibility, Ferrari once again encountered the familiar pattern of understeer on entry transitioning to mid-corner oversteer. This swing in balance severely undermined driver confidence.
As a result, Ferrari effectively slipped backward by several months in performance progression, and given how tight the competitive order is—where a few tenths can translate into several grid positions—the consequences were particularly harsh. It was not surprising that the driver most affected was Lewis Hamilton, who had already struggled earlier in the season to find confidence in a rear end that often felt light, unstable and prone to unpredictable movements.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix therefore becomes a crucial moment for Ferrari. Not in terms of championship standings, which are already determined, but in terms of morale, internal confidence and team direction heading into the demanding winter development phase. Frederic Vasseur has promised that Ferrari will return to a more competitive level at Yas Marina, and the team is determined to close the season with a performance that can serve as a foundation for the intensive work that lies ahead for 2026.
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