Following his sensational lap in Saturday's qualifying which saw Charles Leclerc claim a shock pole position for Ferrari, the Monegasque endured a heartbreaking result at the Hungarian Grand Prix despite his impressive pace during his first two stints of the race. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis in his column branded as F1MATHS.
It's like there is no front in all turns, the driver is forced to reduce speed to be able to turn and especially Leclerc wasn't able to rotate the car with the tricks he do normally.
Same story with Lewis, he was sawing the steering wheel in corners. At this point, I just hope Ferrari have found every possible mistake they can make to have a clean and hopefully competitive car for the next regs.bluechris wrote: ↑05 Oct 2025, 08:31It's like there is no front in all turns, the driver is forced to reduce speed to be able to turn and especially Leclerc wasn't able to rotate the car with the tricks he do normally.
I suppose they saw again after FP1 that the plank will not finish in specs and raised it once more and this is game over.
I've mentioned this prior and I'll mention it again: allowing team employees to openly, transparently, and freely discuss (potentially highly sensitive) internal information is generally discouraged in public-facing, highly competitive industries, especially professional sports.Seanspeed wrote: ↑04 Oct 2025, 23:18It's so insanely annoying that the drivers clearly aren't allowed to say anything. I'm getting so damn tired of this as a fan. This is the end of the season with nothing to gain from 'hiding problems' or whatever. It's completely ridiculous. This is muzzling out of sheer insecurity of looking bad as a company. And I fear that might actually be symptomatic of what's wrong within the team. If you're afraid to admit problems openly and have some humility, then you're probably not building the right kind of environment to progress.ScuderiaLeo wrote: ↑04 Oct 2025, 16:43
Antonelli has looked good recently, I see no chance of them keeping P2 in the WCC.
This all makes sense. The issue is, I am not even sure they ride the car high as the others when the performance is there. Another way of thinking this could be, they are forced to ride lower than the others because downforce from the floor isn’t there at all.catent wrote: ↑05 Oct 2025, 10:10I've mentioned this prior and I'll mention it again: allowing team employees to openly, transparently, and freely discuss (potentially highly sensitive) internal information is generally discouraged in public-facing, highly competitive industries, especially professional sports.Seanspeed wrote: ↑04 Oct 2025, 23:18It's so insanely annoying that the drivers clearly aren't allowed to say anything. I'm getting so damn tired of this as a fan. This is the end of the season with nothing to gain from 'hiding problems' or whatever. It's completely ridiculous. This is muzzling out of sheer insecurity of looking bad as a company. And I fear that might actually be symptomatic of what's wrong within the team. If you're afraid to admit problems openly and have some humility, then you're probably not building the right kind of environment to progress.ScuderiaLeo wrote: ↑04 Oct 2025, 16:43
Antonelli has looked good recently, I see no chance of them keeping P2 in the WCC.
Be frustrated that the team - the same team that delivered the SF-24, mind you, a car everyone loved, or at least quite well liked - clearly made a significant misstep during the development of the SF-25; don't be frustrated that the team seemingly has a policy against openly discussing internal specifics (as they well should).
Again, this is basic management stuff, and not only to protect potentially sensitive information, but in order to protect the team, and the individual(s) possibly responsible for this mess. You don't have to like Vasseur's approach, but it's largely expected of someone in his role.
As for his comments about the potential of the car in FP1, my only potential explanation (off the top of my head) is that they believe, or have identified, that the plank wear issue is a major flaw/oversight that has hamstrung an otherwise capable car. Maybe someone - or certain people - in the vehicle mechanics/suspension department screwed up something re: plank wear, missed something, had a major oversight, and while the rest of the car works well, and would have potential if they could run the car at a similar ride height to their competitors, they are unable to do so because of this plank issue.
That's not to say the situation is any less frustrating, but maybe he sees a strong car in most facets, but this plank issue is actually hindering some underlying potential.
