Karun Chandhok shares the worrying thing rival F1 engineers have told him about Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari

Ferrari arrive at the Monaco Grand Prix fourth in the world championship. They’re on course for one of their worst seasons of the 21st century.

Since 2000, Ferrari have only finished outside the top three on three occasions (2009, 2014 and 2020). They will hope to dislodge Red Bull, a de facto one-car team, eventually, but there’s almost a third of the season gone.

The Scuderia only have one Grand Prix podium to their name after seven rounds, and that came courtesy of Charles Leclerc in Saudi Arabia. The Monegasque is also responsible for their only top-three start in Bahrain.

It’s telling that Lewis Hamilton, the team’s superstar signing in the off-season, was so pleased with fourth at Imola last time out. He’d started 12th but benefited from a VSC and full safety car during the race.

Leclerc’s performances and pit stops aside, standards have dropped across the board at Ferrari. This was supposed to be the year where the team ended their title drought.

Ferrari’s risk with Lewis Hamilton’s first F1 car hasn’t paid off

It was clear from the opening qualifying session of the year in Australia that something was wrong at Ferrari. Leclerc and Hamilton could only manage a fourth-row lockout.

In Melbourne, Karun Chandhok learned that Ferrari had ‘put more effort’ into overhauling than their car rivals. The headline change was a move from a pushrod front suspension to a pullrod.

With hindsight, it seems Ferrari took an unnecessary risk with their 2025 car. They were only 14 points off winning the constructors’ title last year, which suggests only minor tweaks were needed.

Ferrari have already given up on winning either championship until 2026. But the concern is that they may not have ‘balanced their resources’ as well as other teams.

“Expectations were sky high with Lewis Hamilton arriving,” Chandhok wrote for The Telegraph. “Yet several rival technical chiefs pointed out to me during the opening race weekend in Melbourne that Ferrari seemed to put more effort into changing this year’s car design than any of the other top teams.

“Ferrari’s rivals are all mindful of balancing their resources ahead of a huge rules reset in 2026.”

Did Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur just upset the company chairman?

Guenther Steiner says Leclerc should leave Ferrari if he wants to win a world championship. He was the runner-up to Max Verstappen in 2022 and finished third last year.

Leclerc has never entertained talk about a possible exit, but the narrative is damning nonetheless. Racing for Ferrari is supposed to be the pinnacle of F1.

Team boss Fred Vasseur could soon come under pressure. There’s no indication his job is at risk for now, but all of his recent predecessors have paid the price for not delivering a title.

One journalist suspects that Ferrari chairman John Elkann doesn’t like Vasseur’s beleaguered demeanour. He needs to transmit positive signals to his team while acknowledging the depth of their underperformance.