It has been one other headline-filled season for Ferrari, with seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton arriving, scrutiny over a deliberate title bid that didn’t materialise, and group boss Fred Vasseur subsequently having to navigate a barrage of hypothesis about his future. So, the place do the legendary group stand on the summer time break? Right here is their half time period report…
Greatest end
Charles Leclerc – 2nd in Monaco
Ferrari got here agonisingly near ending their title drought (which stretches again to 2008) final season, with simply 14 factors separating them and World Champions McLaren after the Abu Dhabi finale – however momentum was constructing and hopes have been excessive for 2025.
Because it has transpired, although, Ferrari are and not using a Grand Prix win throughout 14 weekends to date, whereas McLaren turned an already super-competitive package deal into a fair stronger one to bag 11 victories between Australia and Hungary and go away scraps for his or her rivals.
It means Charles Leclerc’s run to second on dwelling soil in Monaco marks Ferrari’s greatest Sunday consequence, forward of 4 extra of his personal podium finishes – not together with the Dash periods and Hamilton’s breakthrough pole place/victory double in China.
Qualifying head-to-head
Leclerc 10-4 Hamilton
Leclerc was out of the highlight over the winter, given all the eye and give attention to Hamilton’s blockbuster swap from Mercedes, however it’s the Monegasque who has comfortably led the Ferrari intra-team battle over each one lap and a race distance up up to now.
Going “extra excessive” with the SF-25’s set-up early within the season, as he explored each attainable approach of slicing the hole to pace-setters McLaren, Leclerc was solely out-qualified by Hamilton as soon as throughout their first eight important grid-deciding periods as group mates.
Hamilton appeared to show a nook mid-season with a automobile he has typically discovered to be “on a knife-edge”, beginning forward of Leclerc in three out of 4 races, earlier than Q2 and Q1 exits in Belgium and Hungary (the place Leclerc claimed pole) triggered his “ineffective” feedback.
Race head-to-head
Leclerc 11-2 Hamilton*
Leclerc’s benefit is even larger on paper relating to race days, having misplaced out to his new group mate throughout a Grand Prix simply twice – when Hamilton completed fourth on Ferrari’s dwelling soil at Imola and bagged one other P4 end on his dwelling turf at Silverstone.
It’s, after all, value noting that 2025 marks Leclerc’s seventh yr in the identical setting, having stepped as much as Ferrari after his debut 2018 season with Sauber, whereas Hamilton has had all types to get used to on and off the monitor since arriving at Maranello in January.
“It was an enormous change for Lewis when it comes to tradition, when it comes to individuals round him, when it comes to software program, when it comes to automobile, when it comes to each single matter,” Staff Principal Vasseur just lately instructed F1.com, including that he and Hamilton maybe “underestimated” the problem.
*No mark included for the Chinese language Grand Prix, from which each drivers have been disqualified
Greatest second
Round these struggles, Hamilton has proven flashes of the driving force who has scored extra poles and wins than anybody else in F1 historical past, and who’s tied with Michael Schumacher for probably the most world titles achieved – the duty now being to unlock that tempo persistently.
Again in March, Hamilton and the SF-25 instantly clicked on the Shanghai Worldwide Circuit en path to P1 in Dash Qualifying and the Dash itself – touchdown an emotional maiden Ferrari victory and arguably attaining the group’s greatest second of 2025 to date.
Worst second
Sadly for Hamilton and Ferrari, the next day’s Grand Prix in China represented a thud again to Earth, with the Briton and Leclerc – who had already misplaced some floor in the primary Qualifying session – being disqualified from respective P5 and P6 finishes.
Hamilton was excluded after post-race checks discovered that his automobile had exceeded plank put on limits, whereas Leclerc suffered the identical destiny resulting from his being underweight, ending what had been an in any other case morale-boosting weekend in painful circumstances.
Leclerc’s pole-to-P4 droop in Hungary additionally made a late shout to be included on the checklist – the elation of that consequence turning to large frustration when his victory push received derailed by an unspecified automobile downside and finally left him greater than 40 seconds adrift.
Going ahead
As talked about in the course of the introduction of this half time period report, Ferrari had their eyes mounted on a championship problem heading into the 2025 marketing campaign, however these hopes have been quickly dashed due to McLaren’s imperious velocity and consistency.
Across the time of the Canadian Grand Prix, Italian media retailers began to report that Vasseur – who joined Ferrari in 2023 – was on shaky floor, a scenario the Frenchman described as “disrespectful” to the group, and one he moved on from to pen a brand new deal.
Now, with McLaren boasting greater than double the factors of their nearest rivals, Vasseur and Ferrari’s readjusted goal is straightforward: construct on current updates, safe P2 within the Groups’ Championship over Mercedes and Pink Bull and nail the 2026 guidelines reset.
“All people within the firm is aligned on this venture,” Vasseur insisted earlier than the summer time break. “That is in all probability the most effective feeling when you may have a purpose and all people is satisfied that we will obtain it, we will go for it, and we’re all pushing in the identical path.
“It’s not a secret that Ferrari wish to win once more, however we now have a goal, and the purpose may be very, very clear. We’ll put all the things [in] to attain it. We did a good step ahead in all places, however now we want maybe a bit extra time to place all the things collectively, and the 2026 problem [is] alternative.”
