Ferrari were expected to race out of the blocks as victory contenders at the start of the 2025 F1 season and they have done the complete opposite.
The Italian outfit’s performance at the Australian Grand Prix was almost embarrassing. Lewis Hamilton struggled for one point on his debut.
Charles Leclerc’s seat filling with water was the most notable part of Ferrari’s race, which was a major disappointment in Melbourne.
They’re even behind customer team Sauber in the constructors’ championship already – a team who usurped their tally of points for 2024 in one round thanks to Nico Hulkenberg.
Ferrari are wrestling a ‘strange’ problem with Hamilton’s 2025 car and have been suffering with the balance of their car. It wasn’t an issue last season.
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Lewis Hamilton may be furious to hear Fred Vasseur admit Ferrari’s winter development was poor
At the end of 2024, it seemed that Ferrari had almost identical pace compared to McLaren, who are now dominating the sport.
Somewhere since then, they have failed to keep up and may have been overtaken by Hamilton’s former team – Mercedes. It’s a worrying omen for the 2026 F1 regulations and beyond.
Team boss Fred Vasseur shared his disappointment with ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner, as they dropped the eight-ball over the winter.
“I spoke to team boss Fred Vasseur. He’s a bit disappointed with the development over the winter. He also thought they were closer,” he told F1-Insider.
Vasseur has a close relationship with Hamilton, stretching back to their days in GP2 together. It means that they can be honest with each other.
The Brit won’t be pleased to hear that the Italian outfit have failed to make the impression they wanted but will be equally eager to get to work and correct their issues as soon as possible.
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Peter Windsor ‘can’t believe’ Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton failed to rectify one issue
It has been just over two months since Hamilton officially began work at Ferrari, where he greeted every member of the team and brought a smile to their faces.
He crashed an older car during some testing in Barcelona, but apart from that minor blip, everything had been smooth until the opening race.
Peter Windsor ‘can’t believe’ Hamilton and Ferrari for failing to correct a communication issue before their first race together.
They won’t have long before they hit the track again for the Chinese Grand Prix, so they must find a quick solution to a problem which plagued them Down Under.
With the Shanghai circuit being a permanent surface, the SF25 may prefer its high-speed nature compared to Albert Park’s rather unique track.
