{"id":30509,"date":"2025-02-18T14:57:55","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T19:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=30509"},"modified":"2025-02-18T14:57:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T19:57:55","slug":"ferrari-and-mclaren-make-similar-gains-over-winter-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/18\/ferrari-and-mclaren-make-similar-gains-over-winter-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari and McLaren make similar gains over winter &#8211; Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/12\/f1-red-bull-reportedly-struggling-with-2026-engine\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull slowly lost ground<\/a>, shifting their focus to Verstappen and the drivers&#8217; crown, it was Ferrari and McLaren who fought for last year&#8217;s team Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Fine margins separated the two F1 titans, with McLaren narrowly taking the title in Abu Dhabi. Despite the papaya team&#8217;s victory, Ferrari made impressive progress in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n<p>This puts both teams in a very good place ahead of 2025. <strong>Early reports suggest they could be neck-and-neck once more<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Ferrari and McLaren brace for another title battle<\/h2>\n<p>For more than a decade, Mercedes and Red Bull have taken turns in winning the F1 drivers&#8217; standings.<\/p>\n<p>Although some Championship were more dominant than others, the German and Austrian outfits have been the reference in F1 for some time.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, seeing McLaren and Ferrari become front-runners in 2024 is hugely significant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/27\/andrea-stella-mistakes-from-norris-and-piastri-were-costly\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Andrea Stella&#8217;s team<\/a> built upon their 2023 trajectory to out-develop their rivals last season, with their Miami update package catapulting Norris into title contention.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Ferrari rebounded impressively from a bogey upgrade package in Spain &#8211; reasserting themselves as contenders after Monza.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 season is the final year of these regulations, meaning that <strong>improvements across the field could be relatively limited<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The kind of stratospheric gains that Aston Martin unlocked between 2022 and 2023 are unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, teams will generally introduce enhanced versions &#8211; evolutions rather than revolutions &#8211; of their 2024 challengers.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"TiX5o_kMRKlgXrp169bwfA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2187892556\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'TiX5o_kMRKlgXrp169bwfA',sig:'eH67ncaCnCyWLx_2xcEFgTkjGlIXq3n-yNEWt-dVzyc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2187892556',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Fine margins at the top<\/h4>\n<p>With this in mind, early reports that <a href=\"https:\/\/autoracer.it\/en\/mclaren-are-not-worried-by-the-fias-new-technical-directive\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">McLaren expect a 5 tenth improvement<\/a> to start 2025 are not altogether unsurprising.<\/p>\n<p>Team principal Andrea Stella confirms that <strong>McLaren&#8217;s winter progress is comparable to their mid-season gains last year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Having established a very reliable baseline for development, the Woking-based operation can be more confident than others about their trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Mercedes or even <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/14\/red-bull-will-not-abandon-2025-if-they-are-in-a-title-battle\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull<\/a>, their improvements should be consistent different types of circuit.<\/p>\n<p>The papaya team&#8217;s main rivals, Ferrari, have promised significant changes to their 2025 challenger. The SF-25, as revealed by Fred Vasseur, will consist of completely different components to its predecessor.<\/p>\n<p>With Maranello&#8217;s engineers satisfied with the platform established last year in Monza, Ferrari are opting for a substantively new car in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.corriere.it\/sport\/formula-1\/25_febbraio_18\/hamilton-ferrari-curiosita-9caf454b-b727-4e3a-b684-4ac53c6e3xlk.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Corriere<\/a> in Italy, <strong>the Scuderia anticipate improvement of approximately 4 tenths<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This puts them in a very similar position to McLaren, assuming neither team drastically surpasses or falls short of these figures.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"UbcX3Z2cTnRnW8ymCPed2Q\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2200405736\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'UbcX3Z2cTnRnW8ymCPed2Q',sig:'Q0sIJLxiYC9BaOMSvGbvyabKEw61r_9aS8TjnyWvjTY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2200405736',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Little margin for error<\/h4>\n<p>Of course, making assumptions is a dangerous game in F1. This generation of cars in particular has revealed immense of unpredictability between the simulator and the track.<\/p>\n<p>Still, all indications suggest <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/02\/mclaren-join-ferrari-in-all-out-2025-development-approach\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari will join McLaren<\/a> as early favourites in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Both outfits enjoyed relatively stable growth last year, and expect to carry that momentum into pre-season testing and round one in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of testing, given the miniscule margins that separate the front-runners, a smooth three days of running in Bahrain could make the difference.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere on the grid, Mercedes and Red Bull will work to overcome last year&#8217;s difficulties and challenge for the title.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing concrete emerged about either team&#8217;s winter progress, though it should be noted <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/04\/f1-which-teams-could-capitalise-on-latest-fia-directive\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the FIA&#8217;s new flexi-wing technical directive<\/a> could impact Red Bull more than McLaren.<\/p>\n<p>With Lewis Hamilton joining Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, the stage is set for a mouth-watering battle for the Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Red Bull slowly lost ground, shifting their focus to Verstappen and the drivers&#8217; crown, it was Ferrari and McLaren who fought for last year&#8217;s team Championship. Fine margins separated the two F1 titans, with McLaren narrowly taking the title in Abu Dhabi. Despite the papaya team&#8217;s victory, Ferrari made impressive progress in the second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":30510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[465,84,66],"class_list":["post-30509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-news","tag-ferrari","tag-mclaren"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30512,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30509\/revisions\/30512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}