Ferrari ‘big’ upgrade for Spa to suit Hamilton – The news that Lewis Hamilton wold be joining the Ferrari team came before the 2024 season had even begun, giving the team time to adjust their planned SF-25 in line with the seven times champions demands.
Hamilton had observed of the design of his previous three Mercedes F1 challengers that the driving position was the furthest forward he has experienced in his life. He believed this meant he was experiencing significant difficulties with the feel of the rear end of the car and during Hamilton’s dominant era with the silver arrows, a planted rear was key to his extended success.
Ferrari’s 2025 challenger moved the position of the cockpit rearward when compared to the design Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc had run last season. This meant the fuel tank and engine were also relocated rearwards which as ex-F1 car designer Gary Anderson believes this compromised the space in front of the gearbox, affecting the pull rod rear suspension too.
Huge change on Ferrari suspension for ’25
Yet remarkably, the Scuderia took a step backwards with their SF-25 given its predecessor was the dominant challenger across the final six race weekends of last year. The Scuderia from Singapore to Abu Dhabi closed a 74 point gap to Ferrari to just 14 points as the curtain fell on the year’s racing.
The biggest change was to switch their front suspension which had historically been a push rod system used by the Italian team. The new pull rod approach allowed the team to build a greater degree of ‘anti-dive’ in their car design and whilst this year to date has not been a success, the modification is believed to be more about testing the design for 2026.
The geometry change forced by moving the cockpit rearwards has given Ferrari other problems to content with as their double disqualification in China for running the cars too low in the Grand Prix demonstrated. The minimal space for the rear damper has compromised the ability of the car to properly control its ride height leading to frequent concerns about the wear of the plank underneath the car.
Photo’s from Ferrari test in Mugello since the British Grand Prix, suggests the Italian team is bringing a big upgrade for the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix. “What we can see is that Ferrari has also increased the anti-lift on the rear suspension top wishbone forward leg,” says Anderson.
Leclerc lost qualifying pace
“Increasing the anti-lift on the rear of the car, as Mercedes also did with its Imola upgrade, does what it says on the tin. It keeps the rear lower under braking, so offers more rear stability in the braking and corner turn-in area.”
All this is designed to deliver improved rear stability to the SF-25, something which Hamilton has been complaining about since the introduction of the ground effect cars in 2022. Yet this will also help his team mate Charles Leclerc who believes he has lost his qualifying magic this season.
“I’m not doing the job,” said Leclerc after a disappointing qualifying in Silverstone. “Since the beginning of the season, I’ve been performing very well in the races and there are actually not many races where I will go back to change something that I’ve done inside the car.
“Unfortunately, when I look back at qualifying, which used to be my strength, there are many [sessions] where I’d like to go back and change something because every time I get to Q3 it’s not clicking for some reason. We’ve had good qualifyings, but we haven’t had great qualifying [form].
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“This used to be my strength, [I’m] not happy with the level I’m showing. In qualifying we’ve got issues for sure, particularly from Q2 onwards we’ve been fighting with something inside the car, but it’s not an excuse; I need to be better,” the Monegasque driver revealed.
When considering Leclerc’s career pole positions, it is stark he has had no front of there grid start this season. With 26 career poles (16.35% of race starts) across the first six year’s of his career, the Ferrari driver is suffering a considerable drought, with his last pole start in Baku 2024.
His average starting place on the grid this year is just 6.62, more than a whole position further back than he was in 2024. Yet Leclerc is winning the inter team battle in qualifying as on Saturday’s he is now 8-4 up on Lewis Hamilton and on average is 0.168 seconds quicker than the British driver.
Given Hamilton has the most pole positions of any driver in F1 history, this may not appear too bad a result for Leclerc. Yet he does not have the advantage over Hamilton that did George Russell in their final season together at Mercedes, where the quali count come Abu Dhabi was 19-5 in favour of the younger racer.
Hamilton directs the team on upgrades
Hamilton had some advice for his new team in Silverstone in terms of the direction any future upgrades should take. “We have low-speed understeer, which is inherent with this car,” Hamilton told assembled media. ”I think we’re over-driving to get that extra bit of time, but on actual pure pace, the car is as quick as those ahead.
“We’re probably having to do a little bit too far, which is making the car a bit more peaky, so we need to find a little bit more performance,” concluded Hamilton. The upgrade coming in Spa, will definitely help Lewis Hamilton, but it may have an indirect effect in improving Leclerc’s qualifying performances.
A more stable rear end facilitates later braking and a better balanced car when it arrives at the apex of a corner, all things in qualifying which are regularly on the limit. The risk when making big upgrades to a car, is that it suits one of the drivers more than the other, usually then leading to questions over the team motivation for the changes.
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