Yet to reach the podium in F1 2025, Ferrari have been given a boost ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with reports the SF-25’s operating window should be “30 per cent” wider.

That’s based on the circuit’s characteristics of being low downforce with minimal tyre wear and, more to the point, minimal ground clearance required.

Can Ferrari reach the podium at the Saudi Arabian GP?

The latter has been an Achilles heel for Ferrari’s SF-25, resulting in Lewis Hamilton being disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix as his skid block suffered excessive wear as the car was run as close to the ground as possible.

Too close it turned out, as his skid block worn to 8.6mm, 0.4mm under the minimum thickness of 9mm that is required in the technical regulations.

The Briton admitted that had a knock-on effect into the Suzuka weekend Ferrari were running the cars “higher than we would like.

“Particularly after the last race, we’re a bit higher than we want to be,” he added to Sky F1. “It’s usually the knock-on effect from a weekend like we had before.”

F1 2025: A deeper look at Ferrari’s season

👉 Time waits for Carlos Sainz, so why is Lewis Hamilton declared finished?

👉 The truth behind Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull wings

Into Bahrain where he and Charles Leclerc were fourth and fifth, the Monegasque driver once again ahead, Sky’s Naomi Schiff revealed that she’d heard that Ferrari still weren’t able to run the car – even with its new floor – in the window they wanted.

“It’s been a tricky start for Lewis at Ferrari,” the former W Series driver said. “[After qualifying] He was particularly down. I mean, even coming into this weekend, it felt like energies were really low.

“From our understanding, we heard that the car hasn’t been… they’ve not been able to run the car essentially in the optimum set-up, and that’s been frustrating, I feel for both drivers.

“They brought the new floor this weekend, clearly they’ve closed the gap because both Charles and Lewis towards the end there were very competitive, and Lewis, he always comes back alive on a Sunday.

“I think his issue is really much more on a Saturday with his qualifying pace, but in these long-run pace situations, he’s always a lot more on it, and you can feel that his energy’s lifted immediately as soon as he delivers a bit of performance.”

The good news for the Briton and his team, there’s an almost perfect scenario on the cards for them at the next race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Having already shown in Bahrain that the new floor that Ferrari brought to the track is a step forward, and also that the SF-25 doesn’t mind the heat, Jeddah throws in three other positives for the Scuderia’s car.

Low downforce. Minimal tyre wear. And very few bumps.

The latter should allow Ferrari to run the car as close to the ground as possible, thus putting the SF-25 in its optimal window.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the data that Ferrari’s engineers analysed after Bahrain showed that the ‘Ferrari’s “operating window” in Bahrain was much wider (almost double) than the one it had at Suzuka a week earlier.

Going on to say that it is ‘undeniable that the new floor introduced in Sakhir has had a positive impact’, the Italian publication claims Ferrari will see the fruits of their labour in Saudi Arabia this weekend.

‘Allowing for greater linearity of performance in a wider range of conditions,’ it read, ‘it could represent the ideal condition for a further expansion of Ferrari’s performance window.

‘According to some rumours, this would be an increase of about 30 per cent compared to Bahrain.’

The Ferrari team-mates sit fifth and seventh in the Drivers’ standings after four races, Leclerc on 32 points and Hamilton on 25. They are, however, well off the pace set by Lando Norris who has 77 points.

The Scuderia are fourth on the teams’ log with 57 points, 94 behind McLaren.

Read next: Damon Hill: What Lewis Hamilton needs to ‘accept’ after Ferrari move