Jacques Villeneuve stunned Ferrari ‘didn’t even think about’ using zero-win F1’s team ‘very clever’ tactic at Imola

Tifosi hearts sank in qualifying for the 2025 F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday as both Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, failed to make Q3 at Imola.

It is the first time since the 2020 Italian Grand Prix at Monza that both Ferrari drivers did not reach the top-10 shootout during a qualifying session in their home country. Ferrari will also now hope that Leclerc and Hamilton avoid a repeat of their race result at Monza from 2020.

Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel could only qualify in P13 and P17 for the 2020 Italian GP, before both of Ferrari’s drivers at the time retired within the opening 23 laps. Leclerc and Hamilton are set to start the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP in P11 and P12 after a bleak qualifying at Imola.

Imola is in Ferrari’s backyard but the Scuderia failed to enthral the Tifosi in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP as Leclerc lamented understeer and Hamilton bemoaned oversteer. And Jacques Villeneuve was surprised that Ferrari did not copy how Aston Martin ran qualifying.

Jacques Villeneuve is stunned Ferrari did not copy Aston Martin using medium tyres in qualifying at Imola

Aston Martin were the only team to use the medium C5 tyres during Q2 as Fernando Alonso secured P6 and Lance Stroll sealed P7 with 0.244 and 0.299-second deficits to Williams ace Carlos Sainz, as the driver Ferrari dropped for Hamilton set the fastest lap with a set of softs.

Ferrari missed out on a spot in Q3 as Leclerc and Hamilton finished Q2 0.406 and 0.567s off Sainz’s pace. They even had 0.083 and 0.244s deficits to the other Williams, as Alex Albon got into the top-10 shootout. Only Mercedes in Q3 ultimately matched Aston Martin’s tactic.

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But Villeneuve could not fathom why other teams like Ferrari did not mimic Aston Martin by using the medium tyres in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola. Mercedes copied them at the end of Q3, as George Russell took P3 with a 0.137s gap to Oscar Piastri on pole.

Villeneuve told Sky Sports F1 (17/05, 17:09): “Very clever. But what’s amazing is they’re the only team that thought about it. The big teams, everyone had the numbers, everyone had the writing, they knew.

“So, why didn’t the big teams? The ones fighting at the front, they’re the ones who should have the most knowledge, but they didn’t even think about it.

“And if you look at his P5, that was on used tyres, as well. Good on Mercedes to react with Russell, to see it and think, ‘Oh, let’s try that’.”

Fred Vasseur confirmed Ferrari chose to rule out using the medium tyres in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP

Every team also elected to run the soft C6 compound tyres for their provisional Q3 runs, but Aston Martin and Mercedes returned with medium tyres at the end of the stage. Alonso and Stroll also secured P5 and P8 on the grid, with gaps of 0.761s and 0.911s to Piastri’s pole lap.

But, while Villeneuve felt Ferrari and their rival teams did not consider the medium C5 tyres in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP until Mercedes joined Aston Martin at the very end of Q3, Ted Kravitz added on Sky Sports that Fred Vasseur confirmed they ruled out doing so.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Vasseur also told Kravitz that Ferrari did not want to use the medium tyres in qualifying after practice at Imola indicated that the SF-25 would perform stronger on the soft tyres. Leclerc’s fastest lap in FP3 earned him fifth place and he was 0.554s behind Lando Norris’ fastest lap.

Leclerc also secured P6 in FP2 at Imola during Friday’s qualifying simulations with a deficit of 0.475s to Piastri atop the timesheet. Hamilton was the Scuderia’s first pace-setter in FP1 this Friday, as the 40-year-old scored P5 and was just a mere 0.096s behind the pace Piastri set.

Yet their pace failed to transfer into qualifying, so Leclerc and Hamilton now face unrealistic hopes for scoring Ferrari’s 248th Grand Prix victory at home at Imola in the Emilia Romagna GP. Aston Martin have never won a Grand Prix in their Formula 1 history across 103 entries.