Ferrari hand Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc a blow ahead of the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP by confirming an upgrade package is on the way, but that it won’t fix their problems with the SF-25 car.
The Scuderia came into the campaign looking to battle it out with McLaren as both teams chase a first drivers’ title in over a decade, but the Italian outfit has dropped the ball.
Going for a radical concept in the hopes of finding extra time over Zak Brown’s team, they instead find themselves dealing with a car plagued by understeer, a narrow operating window and poor performance in low-speed corners.
The result sees Maranello with just one podium to their name, a deficit of 152 points to overturn as they sit fourth in the constructors’ standings with two very disgruntled drivers.
And they experienced a new low of the season at the Miami International Autodrome on May 4, finding themselves battling Williams for the lower points instead of taking the fight to McLaren, Mercedes and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull ahead.
As a result, they are planning to bring upgrades soon but team principal, Fred Vasseur, warns it won’t fix their problems as Ferrari hand a blow to Hamilton and Leclerc ahead of the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP.
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“There will be updates for Imola,” Vasseur told media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “But it’s not just about development.
“It’s about finding the best compromise with this car. We definitely have a small step planned for Imola.”
Ferrari blow in Emilia Romagna but hope at 2025 Spanish GP?
Ferrari will then look to bring a performance upgrade to the 2025 Spanish GP at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a track very useful to teams due to the corner types and the historical data gathered there.
Containing the types of corners you can expect to find across the entire Formula 1 calendar, apart from a very heavy braking chicane, it offers teams a good projection for their cars.
On top of this, it can also offer a good like-for-like comparison to previous packages for a further reference, meaning it is a good location to bring upgrades when chasing performance; which is what Ferrari aim to do.
“Then another one for Barcelona,” Vasseur added. “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.”
Additionally, the 2025 Spanish GP is also the last bastion of hope to stop the dominant McLaren cars from cruising to easy victories for the majority of the season due to a clamp down on flexible wings.
McLaren insist it won’t affect them as the FIA reduces the permitted flex from 15mm to 10mm, although rivals expect, or hope, it could prove damaging to the championship leaders and Mercedes too.
If the TD018 directive costs Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri a tenth of a second, it could put their rivals back in play in qualifying. Across a race distance in Spain, it would amount to 6.6 seconds of lost lap time – assuming the aerodynamic philosophy continues working unchanged.
