Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were forced to settle for 7th and 8th place respectively at the Miami GP.
Ferrari’s failure to swap Hamilton and Leclerc quickly enough – and the team radio messages that followed – have created plenty of headlines post-race.
Despite this, poor strategy was not the biggest issue that emerged for Ferrari last weekend.
More than at any stage in 2025, Charles Leclerc is increasingly pessimistic about the SF-25.
Leclerc admits Ferrari have no clear solutions for SF-25
Since their catastrophic start to the 2023 campaign, Ferrari have spent most of the last two years making steady progress.
At the end of last season, Vasseur’s team were seen as favourites to challenge McLaren for the title.
Charles Leclerc echoed this sentiment in pre-season, admitting it would be “disappointing” if Ferrari didn’t claim at least one Championship in 2025.
Aside from a few highlights, such as the China Sprint, the SF-25 has failed to deliver any significant strengths.
In both qualifying and race, low and high-speed corners, the Italian outfit are lacking compared to the other front-runners.
“It’s every corner, really. It’s not like we are particularly weak in one type of corner,” Leclerc explained in Miami.
Even the notorious RB21, thanks to recent updates, is becoming a more consistent car than the Maranello-produced machine.
Leclerc and Hamilton finished almost 60 seconds behind Oscar Piastri in Miami. This equates to losing almost one second per lap to the MCL39.
For a driver who typically shows optimism and unwavering faith in Ferrari, Leclerc’s post-race comments are telling:
“Yeah, unfortunately it confirms a bit what I was saying yesterday.
“With a really good lap, with everything in the lap, the best we could do was P8.
“And that’s more or less where we deserved to finish today.
“It’s not good, we need to do better.”
Arguably the most concerning of Leclerc’s quotes concern his forecasts for the rest of 2025:
“We are in a difficult situation in the moment, so I just hope we can turn that situation around as soon as possible.
“I think it’s very clear why we are struggling. I don’t know if we have the solutions just yet.”
Rivals ready to introduce major upgrades
With the 2026 regulations less than a year away, tough decisions must be made over the coming months.
Ferrari, via Fred Vasseur, have emphasised they will continue developing the SF-25 for the foreseeable future.
The team believe there is enough potential in the car to justify using wind tunnel hours and diverting financial resources to its development.
Despite this, the upgrades Ferrari introduced in Bahrain have had very little impact.
The Scuderia have lost ground to Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and even Williams since the first round.
Of these teams, only Red Bull have brought major updates – and even then only Max Verstappen received the RB21’s new floor.
Whilst Red Bull and McLaren are also committed to this year’s title fight, the likes of Mercedes and Williams already have one eye on the 2026 regulations.
In this sense, there is a risk of Ferrari getting the worst of both worlds.
On one hand, the deficit they suffer to McLaren could be too significant to recover in 2025.
Even if they find a way to close the gap, the points advantage that Piastri and Norris have accumulated could be too large to overturn.
There is also the risk of Ferrari losing ground in the race for 2026, with other teams more prepared to divert their resources.
