Just two weeks after it was claimed Ferrari would bring a sizeable upgrade to Imola, it will now only be a “small step”, as confirmed by Fred Vasseur.

That will be a concern for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, who both lamented the pace of the SF-25 at the Miami Grand Prix.

Will Lewis Hamilton be in the hunt in Imola?

Neither team-mate was happy with the car’s performance around the Miami Autodrome this weekend, despite Hamilton returning to the podium in the Sprint where he was third.

But come qualifying for the Grand Prix, the seven-time World Champion couldn’t make it out of Q2 where he finished with the 12th fastest time while Leclerc was eighth on the grid.

It was a little bit better in the Grand Prix as Leclerc brought his car home in seventh place with Hamilton finishing eighth, but the Briton’s radio message where largely complaints about his car’s pace as well as his race engineer, Riccardo Adami.

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, after the race, he said: “I think this car really does have performance. We’re just not… Something’s holding us back at the moment.

“We’ve lost performance since China. It’s there, it’s just we can’t use it. So we need a fix for that.”

“I truly believe that when we fix some of the problems that we have with the car, we’ll be back in the fight with the Mercedes, with the Bulls, and it just can’t come quicker,” he added.

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That fix, though, is unlikely to be in place at the next race, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Last month, it was reported that Ferrari, under the guidance of technical director Loic Serra, would bring a substantial aerodynamic update package to the Imola circuit.

But reports of reshaped sidepods and a revised floor appear to be wide of the mark as it’s now being claimed that, despite Imola being the first of Ferrari’s two home circuits, it will only be a small update.

According to Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport, Ferrari are bringing something new to round seven ‘but not too much, because it will be necessary to balance aspirations with the calendar’.

The calendar that sees Ferrari and their rivals racing in Imola, before Monaco and then Spain with the third event in the triple-header heralding the introduction of a revised Technical Directive aimed at minimising the effect of flexible front wings.

Depending on how flexible the car’s wing has been up until that point, that could have an impact on the rest of the car’s aerodynamics, meaning further changes would be needed.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur hinted at this in Miami.

“There will be updates for Imola, but it’s not just about development,” said the Frenchman. “It’s about finding the best compromise with this car.

“We definitely have a small step planned for Imola, then another one for Barcelona, but the most important thing is to put everything together. Imola will likely suit us better than Miami, because we struggle a lot in low-speed corners.”

This isn’t the first time this season Vasseur has been on the more cautious side when it comes to updating the car, Luigi Mazzola telling Sky’s Race Anatomy that he has a very different approach to that of former Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto.

It has the former Ferrari engineer worried that the potential actually “isn’t there” in the SF-25.

“The motto has changed a bit,” he said. “When Mattia Binotto was around, ‘we needed to understand’; now with Fred Vasseur, ‘we need to search’.

“And they’re searching for this blessed potential without managing to find it, because it isn’t there. Let’s be honest. The two drivers are convinced of it, and the performance is what it is.

“Also, every time Fred Vasseur is asked about updates, now we talk about Imola and Barcelona, he puts them in the background.

“I have this doubt, and I hope I’m wrong, that the updates coming will be very little. That’s why he prefers to shift attention to the potential, even though it no longer aligns with what the drivers are saying. And the situation seems disastrous for him.”

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