Hopes were high for Ferrari as the 2025 Formula One season got underway, they had the best car come the final six races of the previous season and the headline signing of Lewis Hamilton was a media match made in heaven.
Following the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, the Scuderia were 74 points behind McLaren who were leading the constructors’ championship. Wins for Charles Leclerc in Austin, Texas followed by a victory for Carlos Sainz in Mexico together with regular podiums saw the the lead slashed to just 12 points come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.
Expectations for the SF-25 were high despite the strange decision by Vasseur and his senior engineers to build a car for 2025 that was “99% new” in the final year of the current set of FIA technical regulations.
Ferrari call to abandon 2025 heaps massive pressure on Maranello
Yet Ferrari got it woefully wrong. The switch to an unfamiliar suspension layout was a disaster as Lewis Hamilton was disqualified in the second round of the year in China for his car having run at an illegal ride height.
Before the start of the European racing season the decision was made to abandon all aerodynamic upgrades for the SF-24 and focus the team’s resources on the 2026 car instead. This mirrored a decision taken by Williams although the minnow team from Grove claimed two podiums late in the year whilst Ferrari languished in the midfield.
Ferrari finished the 2025 campaign winless which was their worst performance since 2020 when the team broke a 40 year old record by claiming just three podiums in a season. Having admitted the decision to abandon early hopes for the year for the promise of nailing the huge regulation changes coming next season, the pressure is mounting in Maranello to prove the team made the right call.
Engineers sacked by Renault following their decision to abandon their F1 power unit programme have been recruited by Ferrari and their dismay at the relative lack of performance of the Scuderia’s new powertrain has been reported in the Italian media. The future for F1’s most iconic team next season, looks bleak indeed.
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Fred Vasseur under mounting pressure
Team boss Fred Vasseur is under mounting pressure in Italy to deliver in 2026 given the team’s decision to focus its resources this season on next year. Yet there are mounting concerns the Frenchman is incapable of mediating between competing factions amongst the senior engineers in Maranello.
F1 journalist Rebecca Clancy now shares the chit chat she is hearing from paddock folk over the future of Ferrari and Fred Vasseur. Speaking on the “inside the Piranha club podcast” she reveals time is short for the Frenchman and that his revelation over the cancelled 2025 season has mounted the pressure on Ferrari to start the 2026 campaign strongly.
“I think that they will regret that they didn’t continue their development, and I think the comparison is with Red Bull. When Laurent Mekies came in, he continued the development of this year’s car because he wasn’t entirely convinced that what was happening back at the factory was translating to what was going on at the track.
“So, he wanted to check all of their systems, from the sims to the CAD drawings, to everything.” Meanwhile Ferrari were bimbling along with poor correlation of their tools and tinkering with mechanical revisions to the SF-25 in the hope of finding a silver bullet that would unlock the potential for next year.
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Time is short for Vasseur
Ferrari’s final effort to understand their new suspension system came in Spa with a much vaunted upgrade although despite the praise of the engineers for improving the SF-25 from chairman John Elkann, this was not a move in the right direction. The average points tally before the upgrade was 19 per weekend. Afterwards despite there being 4 Sprint weekends remaining with extra points, the tally fell to just over 16.
Fred Vasseur claims the decision to abandon the 2025 project was taken “in consultation” with all the senior engineers and the drivers. Yet his carefully crafted words his the reality that Hamilton and Leclerc were not on board with the decision. Clancy reveals, “They went too early on the 2026 design; they seemed to completely give up on this season for reasons that no one really understood, least of all the drivers.”
She further alleges that whilst Red Bull in bringing upgrades late in the season solved their correlation issues that Ferrari in this respect remain in the dark: “They still don’t know if what happens at the factory does correlate onto the track.”
Further, paddock whispers are despite having signed a new contract in the summer, Fred Vasseur is on borrowed time and “rumours in the paddock already that Fred Vasseur doesn’t have very long, perhaps until the summer.” TJ13 reported that Italian mainstream media outlet Corriere della Sera claim that Vasseur has been given only until April – the month when the SF-25 project was abandoned this year – to prove his call was right.
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Horner waiting in the wings
Whether a coincidence or not, April is the month when Christian Horner’s garden leave from Red Bull concludes. With testing in Barcelona just over a month away, the die is already cast on how Ferrari’s new racing prototype will perform.
Lewis Hamilton is said to be receiving a Mercedes type steering wheel for 2026, although his efforts to make Ferrari more ‘Mercedes like’ has not been well received amongst the Ferrari faithful.
Ferrari may yet face another crisis, this time on the driver front with Lewis Hamilton unlikely to suffer more than on more humiliating season if the 2026 car and powertrain are not up to scratch. There could even be a double driver change on the horizon, given Charles Leclerc has given his all for the team and is said to be ready to leave the Scuderia if after eight years of anguish the 2026 challenger not be up to scratch.
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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.
