Ferrari F1 will not abandon the disappointing SF-25 minimum until summer

He SF-25 He had at least a “merit”: he showed the technical director, Loic Serrawhat is the way not to continue with the car next year. After the Miami GP, sixth career of the season, an idea was consolidated: The design of the last Ferrari with soil effect was wrong and before the 2026 revolution there is time to make some cold evaluations to prevent it from becoming a transition campaignalso because among the president’s declared objectives, John Elkann is precisely the return of the team to the top.

The French engineer has encountered a car that is almost finished and the results he is giving on track are worse than those of the SF-24. The car of last year, second in the World Cup of Constructors only 14 points in McLaren, won five races and, at the end of the season in Abu Dhabi, gave the impression of having completed its development cycle. In summary, there was absolutely nothing to squeeze, to the point that Vasseur approved a 99% new car that had an important margin of growth.

It broke with the past to start a new growth path: The SF-25 should be a car with great potential to give greater degrees of freedom to aerodynamists and, on the other hand, betrayed expectations. Although Frederic Vasseur will never admit it, this car is the son of a bad design. The 2024 car’s philosophy has been invested: before it was very fast in the slow part of the circuits but suffered in rapid curves, it is now defended in the middle-summary areas, but loses a lot of ground at low speed. They have gone from one place to another without finding balance.

The director of the French team, rightly defends the team: he is convinced that the SF-25 has potential to be competitive, but so far they have not managed to extract it, because the window of use of this car is very narrow and it is enough that a parameter becomes uncontrolled to lose performance.

In Miami, the red car was fifth force, from behind even Williams, which advances by leaps and bounds in its rise to the first positions. From the beginning, the SF-25 showed its limits and the engineers anticipated in Bahrain solutions that will be seen in Icola.

The rear wobbles and the car becomes unpredictable and difficult to driveespecially in braking. There is a lack of aerodynamic load in the rear and when the car is stopped, it moves too much, putting the two pilots in crisis, who like to wear a lot of speed in the curves.

With the improvements in Bahrain, Ferrari found a tenth, but it was not enough to overcome to the positions they really tell. In Isola, the first race of the European season, we will see some more changes, but nothing that suggests a great leap forward. Something more substantial will arrive in Spain, in the race that will impose much more strict controls on the front wings.

Another rear diffuser and detailed modifications are expected at the bottom for Barcelonabut also a different mechanical configuration To bet on suspensions that work with more rigid adjustments, which will allow them to dare with lower heights with respect to the ground.

In Maranello they are convinced that McLaren and Mercedes will pay the broken dishes with the new verifications of the FIA ​​and that will allow them to approach, if not to the impregnable orange machines, at least Red Bull and Mercedes.

Ferrari is willing to bet on SF-25 to the summer stop After the Belgium GP: it will reach the 13th test before deciding whether to dedicate all economic and human resources to 2026. It is possible that some novelties for Monza and Singapore have already been planned, but nothing more is expected, because the expense limit is oriented to the work of next year. What expectations?