Italian Media: “Ferrari are in crisis and it’s worsening” – With Lewis Hamilton’s signature captured and the seven times world Formula One champion driver joining the Ferrari team in 2025, hopes were high for a marriage made in heaven. Having suffered the ignominy of sixteen long years without winning either F1 title, the iconic Italian squad is staring down the barrel of a record length of drought without championship glory the year.
Hamilton’s move to Maranello was also one which sought redemption for the British driver, who since being defeated in spectacular fashion by Max Verstappen on the last lap of the last race in 2021 had suffered his worst run in the sport.
With just two race wins in almost four years, Hamilton is facing up to the fact he is unlikely to even make the podium this year as Ferrari’s fortunes have collapsed. The biggest mistake the senior management made was by choosing to build an all new car for 2025 during the last year of a set of FIA design regulations.
Ferrari ‘CRAZY’ decision for 2025
The SF-24 was a very good machine which saw Charles Leclerc score more points than any other driver following the 2024 summer break. The team too overhauled a 79 point deficit following the Singapore Grand Prix falling short of the constructor’s title in Abu Dhabi by just 14 points to McLaren.
Fred Vasseur announced to the Italian media at the Maranello festive bash that for 2025, “The car will be completely new; I think we’ll have less than 1% of the parts in common with the 2024 car.” This writer penned at the time this appeared to be a most bizarre decision given the ‘goodness’ in the 2024 car and the fact that little would carry over into 2026 from Ferrari’s efforts in 2025.
McLaren merely built on the success of their previous car and are now the F1 constructors’ champions with a quarter of the season remaining. It must haunt the tifosi of what might have been if the Scuderia have followed the same plan. The decision itself demonstrates clearly there is something dysfunctional in Maranello, almost an arrogance that they believe they can do as they please, just because they are Ferrari.
Italian mainstream publication Corriere della Sela is scathing in their latest assessment of Ferrari’s F1 efforts this season. They refer to the conceited attitude in many of the senior engineers and personal in Maranello, and the fact that deviously much of the blame for the poor performance of the team has subtly been placed on the drivers and they blame team principal Fred Vasseur for this endemic attitude of refusing to accept responsibility.
Leclerc already eying Ferrari exit
Tension between trackside boss and Vasseur
Tension between Vasseur and Matteo Togninalli who coordinates all of the activities trackside has been cited as a blame game which is yet ongoing, with the double disqualification in the Chinese Grand Prix being the spark that lit this particular touch paper.
The fact that Ferrari group president John Elkann was bounced into renewing Vasseur’s contract during to reports he was talking to Horner, have only exacerbated the lack of authority the Frenchman has within the team, which is reflected in the stubbornness of his engineers claims Corriere’s senior F1 journalist Daniele Sparisci.
Lewis Hamilton too has weighed in on why the trackside team’s procedures and processes are failing in several reports he’s written to the team’s management. Clearly his years of dominance with a Mercedes team means nothing to those who believe their way alone is right.
Its also very notable that Ferrari starts the weekends well but deteriorates as each session is concluded. Sparisci claims the track side decisions are too centralised and inflexible and despite the setup of the car moving from session to session in the wrong direction, those in charge refuse to bend to the drivers wishes.
Hamilton ignored despite being promised influence
Mercedes did not have a good car since 2022, yet they’ve worked on improving it but most of all trying to understand how to make it work rather than searching for a silver bullet. Given their tyres work poorly in certain temperatures, Russell and his crew have often selected the medium tyre in qualifying to great success.
Lewis Hamilton called for this to be tried in Singapore and stated to the media that his requests merely fell on deaf ears. In Azerbaijan Lewis called out the engineers for giving him the wrong run plan as he crashed out in Q2 without having tried a medium tyre run.
Sparisci reveals his sources suggest Hamilton was promised more input into the way the trackside function was run but has faced “a series of unheard of demands” and his having to “fight against internal politics.”
The report suggests Ferrari are growing more irritated with the FIA, whose post race checks in China found Leclerc’s car was underweight and Hamilton’s car had been setup below the legal limit with the result of excessive plank wear. Yet the team failed to solve their problems of ride height by round nine in Barcleona and again in Hungary, where lift and cost instructions were issued to reduce plank wear and Leclerc whilst leading the race in Budapest was sabotaged by the team who pumped up the tyre pressures at his final point stop – worried they wold end up with egg on their faces once again.
Insider confirms Ferrari to enlist Horner
‘Ferrari ‘bitching about ‘extreme’ FIA scrutiny
Yet the bitching about an “extreme focus” on their team by the FIA is unreasonable, given they are no more scrutinised than any other team. This accusation is of serious concern and demonstrates as Corriere del Serra suggests a team living in complete denial.
The trackside engineering and setup analysis is as crucial as the car upgrades designed by the engineers back at base. Sparisci reveals it is this where the biggest area of weakness is for Ferrari and has been exacerbated by “many valuable” personal leaving the team recently – with more coming having handed in their notices.
Unlike towards the end of last season when Ferrari were in the ascendance, this year the team has entered a death loop from which they seem incapable of returning from. This does not bode well for 2026, given these levels of disharmony in that should be a finely honed working machine of individuals as a group of one, is not a problem that is fixed in a day.
Williams boss wants to scrap Fridays and add even more Grand Prix
Williams team boss advocates more F1 race weekends – James Vowles is enjoying the limelight as his leadership is bringing the iconic British racing marque back into the limelight in Forula One. Despite being one of the first outfits to abandon this seasons in car development to focus on 2026, Williams are having the year of their recent lives.
The Grove based team have collected 102 points this year and with a quarter of the racing calendar remaining in 2025 this tally astonishingly represents more than the cumulative points scored over the last four F1 seasons.
Yet Williams F1 remain in a rebuild mode after years of under investment in their production facility which is using some 20 year old technology. Whilst the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull use complies databases to track the 20,000 components required to build an F1 car, Vowles reveals his team were using spreadsheets when he joined in 2023…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
