2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[Sergej]

My very honest opinion is that they fully expected to be in contention with McLaren for the titles this year, and many things point to that:
- they ended last season with a very strong car, almost on par with McLaren, they almost won WCC
- they pumped the pre-season with a mega event in Milan, I live in Italy and I can tell that I never saw a thing like that for Ferrari
- drivers openly talked about titles: Charles said he would have been disappointed in not winnig at least one title, Lewis said they had everything to win the titles
- last, but most important, every source and in particular the high ranked AR reported that in simulator/wind tunnel they had the numbers to challenge McLaren

This season from Ferrari reminds me a bit of their 2016: they came from a very positive 2015, with huge improvements engine side, a good car, Vettel got 3 beautiful wins, hence they entered 2016 with great expectations and huge pressure (especially from Marchionne) for winning the title, but they fuc*ed up the car, a crucial mistake with the transmission, and the season was a disaster. Very much like this season where another crucial mistake on the suspension/mechanical platform destroyed all the good work they had done. Unfortunately with Ferrari it seems that they always miss that last bit to get on top.

[Fakepivot]

yes, it seems they always reach that 8 step and to get to 10th they always seem to jump and skip step 9 and end up slip and falling to 7. And now they are already lot of pressure to win next season lol like we really don't know which concept/engine is superior, yet they have put on the pressure to win it at all cost.

[deadhead]

- last, but most important, every source and in particular the high ranked AR reported that in simulator/wind tunnel they had the numbers to challenge McLaren

I still think that they actually have the aero to match the McLaren, they just don’t have a suspension design that can handle the downforce properly.

[Emag]

I think it is pretty obvious this team had high expectations for the season, both internally and externally. Claiming otherwise is just wrong. Saying 'oh but it was only their target, they never said they would definitely win' is nothing but technicality twisting to make it sound like something else.

It's not twisting anything. There's HOPE and there's actual reality. Of course they were aiming high. They very much wanted and hoped to be fighting for the title, but the idea that they 100% expected that they totally would is nonsense. There had been many more realistic comments talking about the very high challenge this would entail. They aren't idiots. They are FAR smarter and more informed about their actual chances than anybody here. They knew full well that overhauling Mclaren was a very tall ask. And nothing they've ever said has ever suggested otherwise.

The only people twisting things are those trying to suggest that Ferrari ever said that they would compete with or beat Mclaren.

I didn’t mean it in a confrontational way. But I mean come on. Again this is just sugar coating. Nothing is certain in life in general. You never know what happens tomorrow, so in that sense yeah you’re right. They didn’t know/say they will win for sure, but I think Its pretty clear what Ferrari’s expectations for this season were and its also pretty clear they’re very disappointed with how things turned out.

[Seanspeed]

I think it is pretty obvious this team had high expectations for the season, both internally and externally. Claiming otherwise is just wrong. Saying 'oh but it was only their target, they never said they would definitely win' is nothing but technicality twisting to make it sound like something else.

It's not twisting anything. There's HOPE and there's actual reality. Of course they were aiming high. They very much wanted and hoped to be fighting for the title, but the idea that they 100% expected that they totally would is nonsense. There had been many more realistic comments talking about the very high challenge this would entail. They aren't idiots. They are FAR smarter and more informed about their actual chances than anybody here. They knew full well that overhauling Mclaren was a very tall ask. And nothing they've ever said has ever suggested otherwise.

The only people twisting things are those trying to suggest that Ferrari ever said that they would compete with or beat Mclaren.

I didn’t mean it in a confrontational way. But I mean come on. Again this is just sugar coating. Nothing is certain in life in general. You never know what happens tomorrow, so in that sense yeah you’re right. They didn’t know/say they will win for sure, but I think Its pretty clear what Ferrari’s expectations for this season were and its also pretty clear they’re very disappointed with how things turned out.

This isn't a binary thing.

I'm sure Ferrari are disappointed that they didn't make the improvements they were after. But I also think they can look at even what their ultimate aims were and how good Mclaren showed up this year, and realize that they never had much of a chance anyways. It seems pretty clear to me that even if this current car performed exactly like they wanted, it still wouldn't have been a true title contender with a car that is literally fastest at every track and in every condition and has basically no real weaknesses.

Ferrari aimed high, but it doesn't mean they truly believed deep down that they would achieve the massive improvement required to compete with this year's Mclaren. You always have to try, but again, Ferrari are full of very smart, experienced professionals. They aren't like fans who want to make everything a simple narrative like is happening here. They know the complexities and challenges in a way that fans never will.

[Luscion]

Ferrari internal investigation concluded no damage to Charles' car during the Hungarian GP and the drop in performance was related to the increase in tire pressure and front wing change. Most likely to protect the plank

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what ... -revealed/

[Xyz22]

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.

While it appears to be that way, it seems they didn’t know what was going on.

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.

I agree.
But there is something we are all forgetting. Specifically, there has been a team radio where it's absolutely clear that Leclerc kind of expected this disaster. Maybe not of that magnitude but he knew that what decided before the race made the car absolutely impossible to drive, i.e. it was something they knew was going to happen.
Trust me, they used the "chassis" as a general "reasons" to avoid specific questions by the journalists. It's clear something related to the insane limitations of this car which they know about and can not be fixed fully (for every track, situation, etc.).

"After an internal investigation in Maranello, Ferrari has concluded that no damage was found on Leclerc's car during the Hungarian GP.

The drop in pace came from changes made during the final stop, which changed the balance in an unexpected way."
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what ... -revealed/

Exactly as i predicted.
Obviously the changes made during the final stop is another huge cover up.

[basti313]

Obviously the changes made during the final stop is another huge cover up.

For what? What should they cover?

[Luscion]

Obviously the changes made during the final stop is another huge cover up.

For what? What should they cover?

That they're still having plank wear issues despite bringing a new floor and rear suspension to try to mitigate those issues and by the looks of it it still has a big impact on their performance

[basti313]

Obviously the changes made during the final stop is another huge cover up.

For what? What should they cover?

That they're still having plank wear issues despite bringing a new floor and rear suspension to try to mitigate those issues and by the looks of it it still has a big impact on their performance

Everyone has plank wear issues and needs to manage the plank wear. Ferrari tried something different by setting up the car too low for the full race and raising it at the last stop on a track where overtaking was very difficult in the last years. I still think this was an interesting attempt, if Russel would not have had the free space to extend his second stint, it would have worked.

[deadhead]

No one else has plank wear issues of this magnitude

[Seanspeed]

It's obvious that the car was designed to be able to run lower, as they keep trying to run it, but something, be it the suspension as suspected or whatever, is preventing them from being able to do it without it causing problems.

Which is different from other teams, yea.

[catent]

While it appears to be that way, it seems they didn’t know what was going on.

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.

I agree.
But there is something we are all forgetting. Specifically, there has been a team radio where it's absolutely clear that Leclerc kind of expected this disaster. Maybe not of that magnitude but he knew that what decided before the race made the car absolutely impossible to drive, i.e. it was something they knew was going to happen.
Trust me, they used the "chassis" as a general "reasons" to avoid specific questions by the journalists. It's clear something related to the insane limitations of this car which they know about and can not be fixed fully (for every track, situation, etc.).

"After an internal investigation in Maranello, Ferrari has concluded that no damage was found on Leclerc's car during the Hungarian GP.

The drop in pace came from changes made during the final stop, which changed the balance in an unexpected way."
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what ... -revealed/

Exactly as i predicted.
Obviously the changes made during the final stop is another huge cover up.

Right, such a "huge cover up" that the team conducted an internal investigation and publicly released information contradicting their "huge cover up".

Does that not seem logically inconsistent to you, when actually thinking about it?

Seems much more likely that the team was simply off-the-mark in their initial analysis of the situation, rather than deliberately trying to mislead and cover something up. If they were actually attempting a "huge cover up", why wouldn't they just continue to lie/mislead, as you're implying they did from the very beginning. I don't buy it.

Occam's Razor.

[catent]

It's obvious that the car was designed to be able to run lower, as they keep trying to run it, but something, be it the suspension as suspected or whatever, is preventing them from being able to do it without it causing problems.

Which is different from other teams, yea.

Or other teams have fundamentally different racecar design(s) that are not contingent on running as low in order to hit their performance window.

Many seem to imply that all the other racecars run similarly low and simply don't have these issues with plank wear; while that could be true, I'm not sure it's the only answer.

It could very well be that Ferrari's fundamental issue is not suspension control/ride height management; perhaps their suspension is roughly on equal footing to the rest of the grid, but they've developed a car, conceptually, that cannot maintain competitiveness at higher ride heights, and that is why they are so aggressive with running as low to the ground as they possibly can.

That said, it could legitimately be a fundamental issue with suspension design, or more likely, a combination of multiple variables.

Stella is talking up Ferrari coming out of the summer break. I like Stella but the guy chooses his words tactically, so I take them with a big pinch of salt. More so curious if Ferrari outpace Red Bull and Mercedes over the back-half of the season.

[catent]

Leclerc:

"Russell's words? I'm not going to comment on that, and I don't really care about what George said after the race. The situation is much more complex than what he described, but I'm not going to comment too much. And I think, as we have already said, we won't go into the details of what exactly happened. It's something we are trying to resolve and are all working on, but the only thing I can say is that it's much more complex than that."

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-auto ... ll-Ferrari