maybe they realized they didn't hit the targets with the suspension and they canceled the floor to save budget ? I think AR made an article about this, but it was (again) under paywall.
maybe they realized they didn't hit the targets with the suspension and they canceled the floor to save budget ? I think AR made an article about this, but it was (again) under paywall.
ScuderiaLeo wrote:Article from Autoracer.
I cut out the first part of the article which was about Vasseur's renewal, but in summary it just said the team decided stability was important and Vasseur had the full backing of the drivers.All teams “play” with tire pressures to protect skid block wear. In Budapest, there was an “inexplicable” collapse: data shows Leclerc was one second slower than the original plan.
The SF-25’s rear mechanical update was aimed at improving setup compromise, mainly by providing braking stability and better corner entry to a car overly unbalanced by an unpredictable rear end. The evolution of the rear layout, including wishbone geometry and updated internal components, delivered positive results relative to the set goals. In Hungary, pole position probably wouldn’t have been possible without the improved confidence the car can now give, with Leclerc already benefitting compared to a Lewis still in the learning phase with the previous platform. Managing floor wear will continue to force the team to seek compromises until the end of the year. The Budapest plan to keep at least one McLaren behind, taking advantage of a track layout unfavorable for overtaking, was working — until the final Hard tire set caused a collapse beyond expectations.
Reliable sources say a team typically increases pressures by up to 1.5 PSI to gain 1 mm of ride height in final stints, a practice that has become common since these cars’ downforce has grown exponentially since 2022. It’s a compromise, however, with negative effects on downforce and grip. With the final Hard set, Leclerc’s SF-25 went “out of window,” ending up one second slower than expected and losing 20 seconds in the final stint compared to simulations.
Ferrari has changed its dynamic behavior since 2024, and the floor now makes contact in unexpected areas: was the design mistake in not properly assessing how the 2025 suspension architecture would affect the floor? The SF-24 and SF-25 are aerodynamically related, but the same is not true for the chassis and suspension.
The thinking behind project 677 involved a deep mechanical redesign intended to unlock the famous aerodynamic potential — a technical choice that turned out to be “fatal.” The switch to a pull-rod front suspension in the final year of these regulations was meant to be a “calculated risk,” but it’s clear mistakes were made from the start of its development, as the car now strikes the plank with forces and in areas unforeseen by simulations, due to a lack of predictive correlation. Protecting the skid involves many measures beyond the well-known lift and coast, including raising tire pressures — something that we know for certain was done in Budapest, and which triggered the crippling of Leclerc’s No. 16 SF-25.
There are also some illustrations by Giuliana in the original article which I can't copy over due to their reprinting policy.
How I interpreted it: raising tire pressures is a common way teams raise the car's ride height. It doesn't mean all the teams are constantly doing it, but that if the problem occurs this is often how teams solve it.dialtone wrote: ↑12 Aug 2025, 21:59
So is the source from Ferrari or did autoracer talk with another team and was told about this 1.5psi increase? And did Ferrari just always do this so far, and it just happened to unravel like that in Hungary? They also write as if every team does it ‘a team typically’, do they?
While it appears to be that way, it seems they didn’t know what was going on.Xyz22 wrote:The chassis story was a huge lie. How could they know there was damage in the chassis without even checking the car? If they saw a downforce loss why they didn't tell Charles who was fuming like a mad man inside the car?
This is why there hasn't been any statement about the chassis after the weekend.
I agree.dialtone wrote: ↑13 Aug 2025, 00:57While it appears to be that way, it seems they didn’t know what was going on.Xyz22 wrote:The chassis story was a huge lie. How could they know there was damage in the chassis without even checking the car? If they saw a downforce loss why they didn't tell Charles who was fuming like a mad man inside the car?
This is why there hasn't been any statement about the chassis after the weekend.
The tire pressure change has been a routine operation, potentially run by other teams as well.
That the car fell out the window so hard was so unexpected that made them think of chassis damage. They probably did this in all races to preserve plank, there probably wasn’t anything special about how it happened here.
So while this wasn’t chassis damage, this wasn’t plank wear either, the car went off a cliff in ways they didn’t expect it would have.
This is the only way I can set the facts straight with the interpretation from ScuderiaLeo.