Ferrari went into the final race of the 2024 Formula 1 season with hopes of winning their first title in 16 years.
The Constructors’ Championship was in sight for team principal Frederic Vasseur, especially when Oscar Piastri spun out at the first corner after contact with Max Verstappen.
Carlos Sainz was entering his final race for Ferrari before moving on to join Williams.
He finished on the podium alongside Charles Leclerc but Lando Norris’ victory was enough to hand McLaren their first team championship this century.
Leclerc’s performance in Abu Dhabi was heralded as perfect but despite making up 16 positions from the start of the race, he still couldn’t do enough to help the Scuderia leapfrog McLaren.
Ferrari improved as the season went on, aside from a failed update package that was installed for the Spanish Grand Prix.
However, they still made too many errors that ended up making the difference after missing out on the title by just 14 points.
The Race spoke to expert Gary Anderson who gave his opinion on what every team in the paddock needs to do ahead of the 2025 season.
He admitted that the concerns Sainz had about Ferrari’s strategy calls needed to be fixed before Lewis Hamilton makes his debut for the team.
Gary Anderson tells Ferrari to fix strategy issues before Lewis Hamilton’s debut
Talking about Ferrari’s performance last year and how it can be improved in 2025, Anderson said: “Ferrari must focus on not taking so long to realise when it’s gone down the wrong development route – its mid-season dip cost it a title in 2024 – and just as importantly, it must not make strategy mistakes.
“From the outside, it seems that when the pressure was on it tended to react differently to when it was just another day in the office.
“In Las Vegas mistakes were made that didn’t go down too well with either driver, and whether you are running first and second or ninth and 10th the strategy team needs to be simply making decisions to suit the situation.
“Even though Ferrari has improved in this area, we heard Carlos Sainz on the radio many times offering suggestions or complaining about strategy calls, so with Lewis Hamilton’s arrival, this is something the team must be on top of.”
READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory
Anderson went on to warn Leclerc that with Sainz gone, the team dynamic at Ferrari could be very different this year.
Leclerc and Sainz got on very well, and while there’s no animosity between the Monegasque driver and Hamilton, if they’re competing for the title against each other, they won’t be friends for very long.
Anderson also believes Ferrari are paying Hamilton ‘way more’ than Leclerc, meaning they could back the Brit at the beginning of the season which may not go down well with the 27-year-old’s camp.
Ferrari’s strategy errors compounded at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
Although Ferrari managed to fix many of the issues they had in previous seasons, they were far from perfect in 2024.
Sainz said to the press after the Las Vegas Grand Prix where Ferrari were critiqued for their strategy calls for both drivers: “It just shows that in this sport, you need to do things perfectly week in, week out. We’ve been doing things really well in strategy and on race management all year around but today wasn’t our day.
“We just didn’t do things well and we will have to learn from it and make sure we come back in Qatar stronger.”
Leclerc was furious with Sainz after the race after missing out on the podium, but Ferrari later explained Leclerc’s mistakes to him highlighting why he had ultimately caused some of his issues for himself.
Leclerc’s relationship with his engineer Bryan Bozzi may have also played a role in why they weren’t perfect when it came to making the right split-second decisions.
Gary Anderson pinpoints the race that will be the ‘showdown’ between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
If Ferrari continue on the trajectory they ended last season on, then they’ve got a great chance of winning both championships.
The task for Vasseur is to manage both of his drivers’ expectations, particularly if they feel they’ve got the best chance of winning the title.
Red Bull and Mercedes will only need to back Max Verstappen and George Russell, while McLaren could face a similar issue to Ferrari with Leclerc and Hamilton.
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How the beginning of the season plays out will ultimately decide which driver Ferrari should back for the rest of the campaign.
Anderson told The Race that the Monaco Grand Prix will be the ‘showdown’ event between the two drivers.
He admitted both drivers are good there – Hamilton has won in Monaco on three occasions – but believes that Leclerc is ‘exceptional’ at his home track after finally winning the event for the first time last year.
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