Ferrari now wrestling with ‘strange’ problem on Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 F1 car that didn’t exist last season

Ferrari ended the 2024 Formula 1 season with arguably the fastest car on the grid and narrowly missed out on the constructors’ championship.

McLaren clinched their first constructors’ title since 1998 thanks to Lando Norris winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of both Ferrari drivers.

Charles Leclerc was fantastic in Abu Dhabi with a brilliant drive from P19 to finish on the podium but it wasn’t enough to overturn the deficit even after Oscar Piastri was spun by Max Verstappen.

Leclerc has now been joined by Lewis Hamilton who would have been buoyed by the Scuderia’s brilliant end to the previous campaign.

Hamilton was delighted at the end of testing although that couldn’t necessarily be said about Leclerc who said questions over the balance of his Ferrari.

The Australian Grand Prix didn’t go as planned for team principal Frederic Vasseur’s outfit, coming away with only five points after Leclerc came home in P8 and Hamilton squeezed into the points in 10th.

It appears as though the design decisions Ferrari made in Maranello over the winter have created more problems than they solved.

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Ferrari suffering from ‘massive balance problems’ not seen last season

Journalist Michael Schmidt was speaking on the Auto Motor und Sport YouTube channel after the Australian Grand Prix.

After reviewing Ferrari’s performance during the race, he said: “Here, it was the same as when McLaren suddenly exploded in Q3.

“Ferrari in Q1 and Q2, you thought they were about as good as in practice, and then they were completely pushed back.

“They were seven-tenths behind McLaren and here too, there were massive balance problems, which is strange because they didn’t have that last year.

“They obviously had to go up with ground clearance because if they had been a bit too low, there would have been a risk that they could have been disqualified if they wore the plank too much.

“Going a bit higher wasn’t exactly good for the car. Last year, they weren’t the best car in the rain either because they always had problems heating up the tyres enough.

“Charles Leclerc was mostly in fifth, sixth place, so they couldn’t have done any better and that’s why they took a risky strategy similar to Red Bull when the rain came.”

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Lewis Hamilton’s performance at the Australian Grand Prix analysed after testing Ferrari debut

There were plenty of drivers racing for new teams in Australia including six full-season rookies getting to grips with their cars in treacherous conditions.

Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto all crashed out in the rain, although experienced racers Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso showed how difficult the situation was in Melbourne.

Hamilton wasn’t entirely happy with his radio communications and that saw him lose out during the final downpour of the day as he didn’t have the information that a second wave of showers was coming.

Martin Brundle questioned Ferrari’s attitude to Hamilton’s debut which was far below their expectations.

Ferrari have to quickly work out why these balance issues have started and with a brand new car on the horizon in 2026, the longer these difficulties persist, the less incentive the team will have to try and solve them.

Every manufacturer will be spending the bare minimum time on this year’s car so that they can get a head start on the changing ruleset, but Ferrari aren’t a team who can afford to simply write off a campaign, especially at this stage of Hamilton’s career.