Last Updated on December 1 2025, 9:28 pm

The grandee Ferrari Formula One team fell so far from grace across the Qatar GP weekend, they became a midfield runner in terms of their results

Lewis Hamilton crashed out of SQ1 and started the Sprint from P18, the last car on the grid given the Alpine team had elected to start their drivers from the pit lane. He made no progress during the one third race distance, but was handed one place by a late puncture for Lance Stroll.

Come Grand Prix qualifying, the Scuderia had modified their cars significantly, but to no avail for the seven times world champion who again crashed out in Q1. Such was the desperate lack of pace in the SF-25, Charles Leclerc burned up all his new soft tyres, just making it into the lower regions of the top ten for Q3.

 

 

 

Leclerc ran out of tyres in qualifying

With no fresh rubber, Leclerc was consigned to start the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix in tenth place, but was quickly overwhelmed at the start by others behind him dropping well outside the points before the end of lap one.

The Monegasque driver did make some progress after the first round of pit stops, where he benefitted from others being trapped in their pit boxes as the entire field filled the pit lane on the same lap with the exception of Ocon and  the McLaren’s.

But P8 was the best Leclerc could manage for Ferrari, whilst Lewis Hamilton languished down in P12 at the chequered flag. Ahead of the second Ferrari were all of the drivers from amongst their top four rivals teams – including Yuki Tsunoda. Both Williams cars finished ahead of Hamilton as did the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and the remaining racing bull of Liam Lawson.

This was a humiliation for the iconic red team and the Italian press are scathing as Ferrari were confirmed a distant fourth in the 2025 constructors’ championship. Corriera della Sera described it as a “nightmare” noting that Williams driver Carlos Sainz now has two podiums this season, whilst Hamilton has none.

Hamilton launches attack on Qatar GP event

 

 

 

Hamilton is “like a foreign body” at Ferrari

The report described Hamilton as like a “foreign body” amongst the Maranello based team, who has failed to deliver and is full of “negativity.” It referenced Vasseur’s earlier excuse that the team had stopped development of the SF-25 early to concentrate on 2026, concluding “its time for answers.”

La Gazetta reports an interview Leclerc did in Italian, and makes fun of the fact his Ferrari was so uncompetitive that the Monegasque driver sarcastic revealed he spent the race calculating the world championship points differential amongst the top three drivers.

“During the race I was able to follow what was happening in front by looking at the mega-screens along the track” Leclerc said after the race. “I was trying to do the calculations in my head for the world champion ship fight, and that for me was the most exciting part of my race, which for the rest was very boring.”

Leclerc reflected whimsically: “The title race is beautiful and very intense – he added – but I would like to be part of it”. The writer concludes this is a dream Leclerc has carried for 7 long seasons whilst driving for Ferrari and once again the Scuderia have broken it with their incompetent failure.

McLaren’s bizarre reaction to Piastri after Qatar calamity

 

 

 

The irony of another Sainz podium

Tuttosport, one of Italy’s big three F1 news outlets described “Ferrari’s late night in Qatar is a merciless photograph of a team that no longer recognises itself.” The report refers to “the deep crisis into which the Scuderia has sunk,” noting this time last year they had the fastest car and were hunting down McLaren for the constructors’ championship ship.

“The Red’s in Qatar were the worst versions of themselves and to make the picture even more bitter, Carlos Sainz’s second podium of the season was in a Williams that is not a top car.” The writer notes the irony of the Spaniard being ruthlessly discarded by Ferrari for the much vaunted Lewis Hamilton, who looks set to complete his first ever F1 season without a podium, whilst Sainz has two.

Ferrari have not won a dry race for 27 Grand Prix now notes La Gazzetta, as if to pour oil on the flames of Italian misery caused by their national racing team. Unlike his team mate Charles Leclerc, Hamilton didn’t have the bandwidth mentally to know what was going on in the race.

“I had no idea of the order,” he explained before calculating the points differences between the title contenders. “Lando 12 points ahead of Max, Oscar 16 points behind… wow! I thought Piastri had won. Three drivers fighting at the last race, it will be interesting to see how it goes”.

F1 driver trash talk again in Qatar

 

 

 

Hamilton praises Red Bull as “phenomenal”

As if to exaggerate the point that Ferrari have been a shambles this season, Lewis heaped praise on his once arch rival Max Verstappoen and the Red Bull team. “Max did a fantastic job this year. He has a phenomenal team, no one can deny it. In the last four years they have had the best car. Maybe less at the beginning of this year, but then they came back strong. Max does an exceptional job with his car.”

Only once in over two decades have Ferrari failed to secure a race win during an F1 season, but it looks highly probable without wholesale carnage in Abu Dhabi that record will be added to. Hamilton appears to remain in conflict with the hierarchy at Ferrari as he once again referred to the ‘documents’ he has filed with suggestions on how the team improve.

Leaks reveal more chaos at Aston Martin

 

 

 

Hamilton doubts Ferrari will change their ways

Coming twelfth in Losail, Lewis described the race in Qatar as a “fight like you couldn’t believe” with his SF-25 car. But more of a concern were his comments to follow. “It definitely has been the most challenging year both in and out of the car. I’ve got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve on.

“Time will tell whether or not we act on those things and we keep hold of the things that are good and change the things that are not – and there’s plenty of those. There’s literally no reason why we couldn’t fix those [which are bad] if we just put those [my notes] into action. I’m hopeful for us making progress.” Lewis concluded leaving the impression he had no idea what Ferrari would do to resolve their current plight and that they may completely ignore the suggestions he has making to help the team improve.

This shocking statement from Hamilton suggesting there are those who are refusing to listen to him in Maranello, is a clear indication he’s lost faith in a Ferrari turnaround any time soon.

 

 

 

Toto Wolff SLAMS Verstappen’s engineers suggestion as “brainless”

Whilst McLaren made a strategy call which would have made those at Ferrari proud, a small detail was playing out during the final two laps of the Qatar Grand Prix which mostly went un-noticed.

The Woking based team had made a disastrous strategy call during a lap 7 safety car, which in effect gave the rest of the field a free tyre change in a race where two stops were mandated. This meant Piastri and Norris Rivas were handed a free 26 seconds by the McLaren strategist being the time it usually takes at Losail to complete pit lane visit to a tyre change.

This locked the other nine teams into a race strategy where they would stop again on lap 32 then run 25 laps (The Pirelli maximum allowed per set of tyres) to the end of the race on lap 57. Norris however, performed his final pit stop on lap 44 giving him 12 lap fresher rubber than Antonelli and Sazin ahead who he was chasing down for third place…. READ MORE