Many high expectations — and just as many disappointments. This, perhaps, is the most accurate summary of the 2025 Formula 1 season for Scuderia Ferrari so far. The team from Maranello has failed to meet the lofty ambitions set during the winter, delivering performances that fall significantly short of both internal projections and the prestige associated with the legendary Prancing Horse emblem.
The second-place finish achieved in the 2024 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship, clinched just a few points behind the rising McLaren team, combined with the high-profile driver pairing of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Monegasque talent Charles Leclerc, had led many to believe that Ferrari was on the verge of a triumphant resurgence. The expectations were sky-high over the winter break. However, the reality presented by the first half of the 2025 championship has been sobering and disappointing.
The SF-25, Ferrari’s 2025 challenger, has objectively underperformed. The car has not delivered the performance expected of it, forcing the engineers to work overtime in an effort to extract its potential. At the same time, the drivers have had to wrestle with a difficult and unpredictable car, struggling to consistently find the speed and balance necessary to compete at the front. While a few podium finishes have been achieved, they have been rare and hard-fought — a modest and frankly unacceptable haul for a team of Ferrari’s stature. Given the challenges faced, these limited results almost feel like small miracles.
Vasseur under pressure once again
It is a turbulent situation — not unfamiliar to the team at Maranello — in which the person who inevitably finds himself in the spotlight is the team principal. Once again, the responsibility of justifying yet another season of underwhelming results falls on his shoulders. In this case, it is Frédéric Vasseur who must carry the burden of defending Ferrari’s campaign, and as has happened so often in the past, he now risks becoming the scapegoat for years of organizational shortcomings and a lack of championship success.
Vasseur has now found himself “on the hot seat”, much like many of his predecessors. Reports suggest that his role is now considered unstable, with Ferrari President John Elkann observing closely from the sidelines and reportedly evaluating possible replacements. However, this precarious situation should prompt a deeper reflection: in modern Formula 1, individual changes are rarely enough. What seems to be holding Ferrari back is not just a single person, but the overall organizational structure and working culture within the team.
This becomes evident when one looks at the career paths of several former Ferrari personnel, many of whom have gone on to thrive after leaving Maranello. They have excelled in new professional challenges and earned recognition across the motorsport world — despite being deemed expendable or not good enough during their time at Ferrari.
Consider the examples of Aldo Costa and James Allison, who both became key figures in Mercedes’ era of domination; Stefano Domenicali, now at the helm of Formula 1 itself through Liberty Media; Laurent Mekies, playing an important role within Red Bull Racing; Maurizio Arrivabene, who transitioned into football management at Juventus; and Marco Mattiacci, who is now contributing to Aston Martin’s F1 efforts.
Zapelloni highlights Ferrari’s role as a breeding ground for talent
Among the most striking recent examples are Andrea Stella and Mattia Binotto. Andrea Stella, now leading McLaren as Team Principal, is overseeing one of the most dominant campaigns seen from the Woking-based outfit in recent years. Meanwhile, Mattia Binotto, after just one year of work with the newly restructured Stake F1 Team (formerly Alfa Romeo/Sauber), has led a remarkable transformation, guiding the Swiss-based squad from the back of the grid all the way to the podium.
Veteran journalist Umberto Zapelloni, writing on the “Top Speed Blog”, reflected on this very theme — the ability of Ferrari to act as a school of excellence that shapes future leaders and technical masterminds in motorsport. According to Zapelloni, the rumored possibility of hiring legendary engineer Adrian Newey — widely regarded as the most successful designer in Formula 1 history — would not only have meant securing a fast and competitive car, but also ensuring the continuity of this internal talent-development culture that has long defined Ferrari’s identity.
“Stella and Binotto,” Zapelloni wrote, “are children of the Ferrari that once knew how to win, and which produced team principals in abundance after pushing them out.” He emphasized that the recent podium achieved at Silverstone — where the McLaren team led by Stella and a Haas car driven by Nico Hülkenberg finished ahead of Ferrari — carried a symbolic weight. It demonstrated how former Ferrari talents have taken the skills learned at Maranello and successfully applied them elsewhere.
Zapelloni noted that both Stella and Binotto developed their professionalism within the Ferrari organization. There, they learned the complexities of managing not just a racing car, but a full team, including engineers, drivers, and strategic operations. Ferrari, he argued, once functioned as a true academy of excellence, particularly during the Luca di Montezemolo era, when the team consistently identified and nurtured the most promising talents, allowing them to grow under the guidance of legendary figures.
This is why the hypothetical arrival of Adrian Newey would have carried a double benefit — not only would he likely have produced a race-winning car for Ferrari, but his presence would have helped reestablish a culture of mentorship and technical excellence within the team, creating a fertile ground for future leaders.
Zapelloni recalled how Andrea Stella left Maranello to join McLaren alongside Fernando Alonso during the Spaniard’s move to the British team. Meanwhile, Binotto joined Sauber just a year ago, and under his leadership, the Swiss outfit has undergone a significant revival — a clear demonstration that with better structure and operational organization, tangible results can be achieved even with modest resources.
In closing, Zapelloni remarked with irony that Sauber — now seemingly on the rise — was once the team led by none other than Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari’s current team principal. An observation that, once again, suggests that the key to Ferrari’s struggles may not lie in individual figures, but rather in the system they are asked to operate within.
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