Ferrari fought for F1 2024's constructors' crown - now it's in a rut

In a season often characterised by single team dominance, rather demonstrated by McLaren's successful defence of its Formula 1 constructors' title with six rounds to spare, it was refreshing to see three squads at the sharp end in the Singapore Grand Prix.

That's the sort of F1 that we like (even if the race wasn't exactly a humdinger), and demonstrated what the cost cap regulations were put there to do: bring more teams and drivers into the picture for race wins.

Those two events: three different teams vying for the podium placings, and McLaren's early teams' title win, rather contrasted with Ferrari's current run of form. It was lucky to rescue a 6-7 finish from Singapore, particularly as Lewis Hamilton's brakes had become completely inert by the final lap.

Let's not forget that Ferrari had run McLaren all the way to Abu Dhabi in the chase for the constructors' championship last year. 21 points separated them with a round to go, and Ferrari had been in contention for victories across the season - particularly as it found greater momentum in the second half of the year. The spoils duly went to McLaren, but Ferrari's development through the year had given it hope that it could go one better in 2025. Where did it go so wrong?

There was fleeting optimism at the start of the season, particularly after Hamilton registered a sprint race win in China, but this was little more than a false dawn. Since then, both drivers have spoken of Ferrari 'moving in the right direction' and being 'pleased with the steps we've taken'.

In reality, these aforementioned steps have only really been on-pace with the rest of the field, keeping Ferrari effectively locked in the same position: good enough to beat Red Bull and Mercedes on their off-days, but fourth-best when the other 'Big Four' teams are on song. At this stage of the year, the Scuderia's grand total of five grand prix podium finishes scarcely presents the return that was teased by the pre-season hype.

Ferrari made a decision to do something different for 2025, and reworked the front suspension and the associated aerodynamic changes to get the car working across a broader range of ride heights. In the lead-up to 2025, new technical director Loic Serra - who effectively presented a car he had little involvement in given the timing of his arrival from Mercedes - relayed Ferrari's design decisions to the public.

Hamilton's China sprint win was supposed to be a new dawn - but only proved to be a false one

Photo by: Getty Images

"In general, the approach [with the SF-25] is to find room for improvement in development," Serra explained in February. "This had become impossible with the SF-24. We wanted to try to optimise what we already had. The main target with the SF-25 was to find room to push on aerodynamic development, but in general in what will be the upgrades that will come later in the season. The SF-24 finished the season very well, but it had become impossible to find any more room to improve performance.

"Although the car has changed a lot, it is in continuity with the 2024 one. We have changed many of the internal components, but the philosophy is the same. Hopefully it is the development margin that will give us that extra momentum compared to last year."

Although apparently a continuation of the SF-24's philosophies, Ferrari bucked the trend of every other team on the grid by opting for a pull-rod front, pull-rod rear on its SF-25, a decision made to retain some degree of familiarity at the rear end. While redesigning the front end to that extent will confer a change in the aerodynamic properties of the car, it also requires the vehicle dynamicists to analyse the kinematic changes that this will bring. It's a complex task to perform that change.

"It just feels like we're kind of passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more" Charles Leclerc

Retaining the pull-rod rear offers a centre-of-gravity benefit as the rockers operating the torsion bars are low down in the car, but the caveat is that the diffuser has less space for expansion. It's the reason why many have opted to implement rear-end push-rod suspension with these current cars.

The caveat was that Ferrari made a significant change to the rest of the rear end, by shortening the gearbox owing to its backwards shift of the cockpit. Since the internals had to move back, this forced some degree of modification to its otherwise tried-and-tested rear suspension platform.

Ferrari had got through a rough patch with its aero design in 2024, and had bet on itself to enjoy a similar rate of progress; its Barcelona-spec floor last year had the side-effect of inducing instability through high-speed corners, which had presented as bouncing when the car was loaded up. A course correction by Hungary had set the ball into motion in a different direction, which operated as the basis for its late-season progress.

Leclerc's second-place finish in Monaco remains its 2025 grand prix highlight

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

In Serra's comments, the team expected that its SF-25 would also benefit from in-season development. To a certain degree, it has, but the yield from each update has not been as great as the team was expecting. The rear suspension update that Ferrari took to the Belgian Grand Prix, which was implemented to reduce the level of compromise experienced in the movement of its components, was much heralded - but it hasn't offered a day-and-night change to the situation.

The visible indicator of this was the downwards shift in the front leg of the upper wishbone. By changing that angle, coupled with the car's centre of gravity, this can induce the anti-lift effect that many teams have been exploring across 2025. While it might have made the aero platform a bit more stable, the overall handling of the car has been a continual problem for both drivers. It hasn't quelled the difficulty that both drivers find under braking, and it hasn't really helped the drivers feel much more comfortable at the wheel of the SF-25.

Prancing Horse? It's more like a bucking bronco. "It just feels like we're kind of passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more", was Charles Leclerc's verdict after Singapore, after meandering to a sixth-place finish. Leclerc made a good start to the race and got ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but spent most of the race just about holding on from the Mercedes teenager - the rookie found his way back past with 10 laps to go. Baku had been another difficult outing - in fact, Ferrari has scarcely looked like putting itself in contention for a sixth podium since F1 returned from its summer break.

Arguably, the harbinger came before that in Hungary. Leclerc's surprise pole was partly down to his own brilliance, and partly down to a shift in wind direction that halted McLaren's progression through the sessions. In the race, however, the Monegasque fell out of the podium places. It was labelled as a chassis fault, although Leclerc had suspected that a front wing change had drastically altered the handling of the car.

There were suspicions that Ferrari had made a tyre pressure adjustment and turned the engines down to minimise wear on the floor in that race, a suggestion precipitated by George Russell, which Ferrari was never going to truly confirm nor deny. It's a bit of a tin-foil hat theory, but the sudden drop in pace through the Hungarian Grand Prix was nonetheless alarming.

Post-summer, it does appear that the drivers are taking a bit more margin with the car. While Leclerc can handle a car that's incredibly pointy at the front end, this has been a trait that Hamilton has really struggled with. It is suspected that a mismatch between the suspension packages at the front and rear have contributed to this, and the developments at the rear were implemented to breach the disconnect, but it hasn't made the expected difference.

Ferrari's SF-25 has proven difficult for both drivers to handle

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images

Ferrari could throw the kitchen sink at its SF-25 if it wanted to, not that it would be prudent to do so at this time of year, but would continue to get little in reward; the issues appear to be fundamental, and could only be reversed with an entirely new car. One wonders if the SF-24 lineage truly had run out of developmental steam, and this was merely presented as a justification for the direction it took with the SF-25.

Either way, it raises more existential questions about Ferrari itself. Serra will have the opportunity to flex his influence over the next design, and direct the development of the car in his image, but there's an inescapable feeling that Ferrari should be doing better.

You need only look at McLaren's growth over the past three years, Red Bull's recent ability to soul-search and dig more out of a misbehaving RB21, and even Williams' resurgence this season, and wonder why F1's most historically successful team continues to cycle through reasonable years and less auspicious ones on an almost annual basis.

Perhaps Hamilton's dossier will be the key, if the advice within is taken on-board...

All spark, no fire: Can Ferrari turn its form around next year?

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images