2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[CHT]

if you look at FP2, Ferrari had a particularly strong spark in turn 6, as well as in turns 11-12, they clearly drove lower in FP2, in FP3 Ferrari lifted the car and even in qualifying Leclerc showed a speed of 242 in turn 6, in turn 14 - 241 are the best indicators among all cars, I think the basic downforce of the car is excellent, the only question is why and why did they lift car on Saturday

None of FP potential we saw was repeat during the race and Ferrari was struggling to overtake Albon, while LH was unable to defend Oscar in the final lap. If SF-25 is not quick enough Ferrari may have difficulties to keep LH motivated.

Ferrari may also be missing Sainz's input on race strategy.

[trinidefender]

Has there been any confirmation as to why the car was lifted? So far I’ve heard the gearbox theory and also the plank theory that they were risking too much wear at the lower ride height.

Something makes me think it’s not the plank wear issue because knowing it was going to be a wet race the intermediate and wet tyres have a slightly larger diameter iirc lifting the car and reducing plank wear. Something isn’t adding up

[Luscion]

Has there been any confirmation as to why the car was lifted? So far I’ve heard the gearbox theory and also the plank theory that they were risking too much wear at the lower ride height.

Something makes me think it’s not the plank wear issue because knowing it was going to be a wet race the intermediate and wet tyres have a slightly larger diameter iirc lifting the car and reducing plank wear. Something isn’t adding up

So far only people speculating, Federico Albano saying it could be a possibilty and Carlo Vanzini who is a sky italia commentator saying it was for plank wear. No mention from other journalists or news sources and apparently there are other journalists who were denying Carlo's claims according to reddit. SmilexTech, whos a co founder of Autoracer was asked about it about and didnt seem to know anything about the plank wear stuff. Hoping we get more info today or in a few days

[venkyhere]

Lewis could not overtake but this because of the current formula and tyres. It was not going to be possible againt a Williams. He made a few attemps. His quality of being solid also shone through.

Really ? I thought Lewis did very poorly w.r.t 'race craft', ie positioning his car optimally to defend against two 'skillful overtakes' by LeClerc and Piastri. Positioning the car defensively has nothing to do with learning the buttons on the wheel or having effective communication with the pitwall. Two possible reasons :
- too busy keeping the car stable that he didn't have the 'spare processing power' in his mind to bother about racecraft
OR
- lost his edge, which he can't be really blamed for (age), no matter how motivated he is.

None of FP potential we saw was repeat during the race and Ferrari was struggling to overtake Albon, while LH was unable to defend Oscar in the final lap. If SF-25 is not quick enough Ferrari may have difficulties to keep LH motivated.

LH struggling to overtake Albon or ineffective in defending from PIastri has less to do with the car and more to do with the driver. It isn't the job of Ferrari to keep LH motivated. It's his job to keep himself motivated - this whole narrative of 'LH has done a favour to Ferrari' is completely wrong ; unless Elkaan comes out in public and says that they signed him mainly for the branding/marketing and the jackets/caps sales.

[Chuckjr]

I think in some ways he thought the transition would not be this dire, but is certainly that. The chassis is unpredictable, they went with an entirely new game plan on the last year of the regs, and he is still figuring the steering wheel gadgets and all the different terminologies Ferrari uses. It's like learning a new language, and he is scrambling, and he is 40. It will take him the better part of the year just to get all the tech and coms worked out.

[DGP123]

I think in some ways he thought the transition would not be this dire, but is certainly that. The chassis is unpredictable, they went with an entirely new game plan on the last year of the regs, and he is still figuring the steering wheel gadgets and all the different terminologies Ferrari uses. It's like learning a new language, and he is scrambling, and he is 40. It will take him the better part of the year just to get all the tech and coms worked out.

No surprise with this anti-ham nonsense from you. A year to figure it out . If Ferrari do their bloody job on the pit wall, he likely bags a podium, and none of the above nonsense or criticism gets posted.

Wonder boy CL spun, got mugged by Tsunoda and had a bad day too. Where’s the lengthy post on him? Didn’t think so.

[Fluido]

Lewis is too old, you can't go against time. No old driver performed well, I think he is only destroying his legacy, he had to retire after the historic 2021-theft.

[Mosin123]

Lewis is too old, you can't go against time. No old driver performed well, I think he is only destroying his legacy, he had to retire after the historic 2021-theft.

He didnt lose it like his much younger team mate did, he only qualified 0.2 behind CL ( Is he not supposed to be the fastest man over a lap on the entire grid?) and only finished 2 places behind because OP ruined a 1 - 2 finish for his team... i would say that was pretty good drive for a too old driver in a new team.

Its not like he got out qualified by Albon by 0.3 ( is Albon even considered one of the fastest over a lap? hmm dont think so...? ) and crashed out while his team team mate finished 5th

[Fluido]

Lewis is too old, you can't go against time. No old driver performed well, I think he is only destroying his legacy, he had to retire after the historic 2021-theft.

He didnt lose it like his much younger team mate did, he only qualified 0.2 behind CL ( Is he not supposed to be the fastest man over a lap on the entire grid?) and only finished 2 places behind because OP ruined a 1 - 2 finish for his team... i would say that was pretty good drive for a too old driver in a new team.

Its not like he got out qualified by Albon by 0.3 ( is Albon even considered one of the fastest over a lap? hmm dont think so...? ) and crashed out while his team team mate finished 5th

Yes, but what happend last year, you think Merc "slow down" him or he loose speed?

[bananapeel23]

Lewis is too old, you can't go against time. No old driver performed well, I think he is only destroying his legacy, he had to retire after the historic 2021-theft.

Conveniently forgetting how good Hamilton was in 2022 and especially 2023.

He's doing just fine still. He might not be a match for Leclerc, Norris or Verstappen at this point, but he's still a great driver and is far from destroying his legacy.

Also frankly I think the importance of age is heavily overstated. I think the reason that "old" drivers usually end up performing worse has much more to do with complacency and familial obligations than it has to do with actual age.

Football players or other pro athletes start getting worse with age because their bodies simply can't keep up with the insane demands of elite sports anymore. Formula 1 doesn't set those requirements on the body. Physicality in F1 is a lot more binary than traditional sports. Either your body can cope with the demands or it can't. It isn't a slow degradation over several years where you become more and more injury prone and lose a bit of endurance.

With F1 it's simply a question of whether your body can cope or not. If you're strong enough, you get very few additional benefits from getting even stronger. It isn't like football where more endurance or a faster run speed is always a good thing and the slow degradation of your ability to run in your mid to late 30s causes you to become washed.

Obviously you suffer a slight degradation of your reaction speed and stuff as you age, but Alonso is the oldest driver on the grid and still has cat like reflexes and is still among the best starters on the grid.

If anything I think age has very little actual effect on your ability to actually race, and has a lot more to do with the loss of neuroplasticity. Older drivers struggle a bit more to adapt to new car behaviour, but even then Alonso has adapted really well to this regulation set. Hamilton has struggled more, but I think that has more to do with his unwillingness to actually spend time in the sim, which has allegedly changed with his move to Ferrari.

Hamilton can perform if he wants to put in the work. He says he wants to work hard, thus he should be able to perform. Age has a very small impact on your ability to perform in F1 compared to traditional sports.

[DJ Downforce]

Vasseurs quote taken from https://autoracer.it/it/vasseur-melbour ... ra-ferrari

In China, we will start again from scratch.

Having said that, we must also keep in mind what happened in the last four races of last season, in which both we and Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren won, and always with great gaps over rivals.

In Las Vegas the Mercedes flew, in Austin or in Mexico we, in short the situation changed a lot depending on the weekend. It's all in the preparation work,

if the car is not on point on a certain track then you will never have a performance. That's why I think next week will be a different story”.

Bold words, but talk is cheap - next weekend must at least be solid strategically. It's a track which rewards a strong all rounder car.

[DJ Downforce]

https://t.co/iPcVmfTY4X

It seems that the FIA are immediately looking at rear wing flexing. Let's see who gets hindered

[ringo]

Lewis could not overtake but this because of the current formula and tyres. It was not going to be possible againt a Williams. He made a few attemps. His quality of being solid also shone through.

Really ? I thought Lewis did very poorly w.r.t 'race craft', ie positioning his car optimally to defend against two 'skillful overtakes' by LeClerc and Piastri. Positioning the car defensively has nothing to do with learning the buttons on the wheel or having effective communication with the pitwall. Two possible reasons :
- too busy keeping the car stable that he didn't have the 'spare processing power' in his mind to bother about racecraft
OR
- lost his edge, which he can't be really blamed for (age), no matter how motivated he is.

None of FP potential we saw was repeat during the race and Ferrari was struggling to overtake Albon, while LH was unable to defend Oscar in the final lap. If SF-25 is not quick enough Ferrari may have difficulties to keep LH motivated.

LH struggling to overtake Albon or ineffective in defending from PIastri has less to do with the car and more to do with the driver. It isn't the job of Ferrari to keep LH motivated. It's his job to keep himself motivated - this whole narrative of 'LH has done a favour to Ferrari' is completely wrong ; unless Elkaan comes out in public and says that they signed him mainly for the branding/marketing and the jackets/caps sales.

Not really. Hamilton avoided crashes where he had the right not to move. In the case of Charles overtake, it was lunge and Lewis did not need to move aside. But he did to avoid a crash.
In the case of Piastri, another desperate lunge, Lewis did. Not need to leave so much room but he did to avoid a big crash, and actually lost an endplate. It's the just the first race and bringing the car home without damage and cost is most important.
I think you may be over analyzing. Worse psychology of someone esles motivation. You cannot know what's in someone's mind.
If you rewatch the replays you would see Lewis simply was avoiding damage as he usually does.
Charles was more desperate to finish ahead because he started ahead of Lewis, hence the dive in the way of his teammate. Piastri was driving angry.
Not overtaking Albon was not possible. And albon is also a risk of contact given his history.
The drive was not bad.
There's another race next week.

[Luscion]

https://t.co/iPcVmfTY4X

It seems that the FIA are immediately looking at rear wing flexing. Let's see who gets hindered

Id be surprised if Ferrari is affected considering they were doing their own flex tests during pre season testing and was the only team doing so iirc

[CHT]

Lewis is too old, you can't go against time. No old driver performed well, I think he is only destroying his legacy, he had to retire after the historic 2021-theft.

Conveniently forgetting how good Hamilton was in 2022 and especially 2023.

He's doing just fine still. He might not be a match for Leclerc, Norris or Verstappen at this point, but he's still a great driver and is far from destroying his legacy.

Also frankly I think the importance of age is heavily overstated. I think the reason that "old" drivers usually end up performing worse has much more to do with complacency and familial obligations than it has to do with actual age.

Football players or other pro athletes start getting worse with age because their bodies simply can't keep up with the insane demands of elite sports anymore. Formula 1 doesn't set those requirements on the body. Physicality in F1 is a lot more binary than traditional sports. Either your body can cope with the demands or it can't. It isn't a slow degradation over several years where you become more and more injury prone and lose a bit of endurance.

With F1 it's simply a question of whether your body can cope or not. If you're strong enough, you get very few additional benefits from getting even stronger. It isn't like football where more endurance or a faster run speed is always a good thing and the slow degradation of your ability to run in your mid to late 30s causes you to become washed.

Obviously you suffer a slight degradation of your reaction speed and stuff as you age, but Alonso is the oldest driver on the grid and still has cat like reflexes and is still among the best starters on the grid.

If anything I think age has very little actual effect on your ability to actually race, and has a lot more to do with the loss of neuroplasticity. Older drivers struggle a bit more to adapt to new car behaviour, but even then Alonso has adapted really well to this regulation set. Hamilton has struggled more, but I think that has more to do with his unwillingness to actually spend time in the sim, which has allegedly changed with his move to Ferrari.

Hamilton can perform if he wants to put in the work. He says he wants to work hard, thus he should be able to perform. Age has a very small impact on your ability to perform in F1 compared to traditional sports.

LH track performance in recent years was a shadow of his past, not sure if its due to the car or age.
And F1 cars with its hybrid engine, is a lot more complicated and there are so many different setting drivers can make to get the best out of the car. Switch from Merc to Ferrari is perhaps like switch from PS2 to Xbox gaming console. And this is part where LH may be still be struggling.

Perhaps with age drivers may start to experience decline sensory function which make it harder to adapt and drive at the limit with full concentration.