{"id":31263,"date":"2025-03-10T05:10:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T09:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=31263"},"modified":"2025-03-10T05:10:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T09:10:24","slug":"ferrari-have-quite-a-bit-of-work-to-be-ready-for-2025-leclerc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/10\/ferrari-have-quite-a-bit-of-work-to-be-ready-for-2025-leclerc\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari have “quite a bit of work” to be ready for 2025 – Leclerc"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari head into the 2025 season as one of the favourites, tasked with challenging the reigning constructors champions – McLaren. Had it not been for a significant blip between the Spanish and Italian GP<\/strong> last year, Ferrari<\/a> could have claimed the team’s title with rounds to spare.<\/p>\n

However, it took Fred Vasseur’s team a few months to rectify the unexpected problems caused by their mid-season upgrades.<\/p>\n

Whilst proving a limiting factor in last year’s success, the Scuderia were optimistic that a productive winter break<\/a> could put them in contention for both Championships.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the team, pre-season testing revealed some problems with the SF-25.<\/p>\n

Why Ferrari must eliminate any problems on the SF-25 quickly<\/h4>\n

Of course, it is normal for teams to encounter some problems in testing.<\/p>\n

It is essential for the engineers working trackside to ensure they can understand the machinery at their disposal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Over the three days of pre-season testing, Ferrari managed to get a good understanding of data correlation between the track and factory.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, there is no panic about the SF-25 producing data that is inconsistent with the wind tunnel and simulator. Last year’s baseline has given the Scuderia a good platform to build on for 2025.<\/p>\n

With that said, the Maranello-based outfit still encountered some unexpected issues<\/strong> in Bahrain testing.<\/p>\n

Not only is Ferrari’s raw performance in question, (with the McLaren MCL39 seemingly enjoying a notable edge) but the SF-25’s handling also created some headaches in Sakhir.<\/p>\n

This is an especially critical point for Charles Leclerc<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, who will be demand a car with a wide operating window as the year commences in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

This generation of cars have shown that a small operating window (something Mercedes have consistently suffered) can create very inconsistent results.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Florent Gooden \/ DPPI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leclerc: Further improvements needed before season opener<\/h4>\n

Speaking after three days of pre-season running, Leclerc explained that Ferrari are conscious of the McLaren threat:<\/p>\n

“As much as testing is all about focusing on ourselves, whenever there is obviously a race run, you always look a little bit at what the others are doing.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But we don’t know the conditions they [McLaren] are running. So it’s a first glimpse of what we can expect<\/strong>, but there are lots of unknowns still.<\/em><\/p>\n

“So we need to take this with a pinch of salt.<\/em><\/p>\n

“However, it was a really, really important run to understand where we are lacking compared to them – b<\/em>ut also compared to my own feeling.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Unlike McLaren, Fred Vasseur’s team are incorporating a new driver into their ranks.<\/p>\n

Ensuring that the SF-25 behaves predictably is essential if Lewis Hamilton is to perform at his best<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This puts a significant burden on Charles Leclerc, whose experience at Maranello will be essential for Ferrari to progress as 2025 develops.<\/p>\n

At least for now, the Monegasque believes progress is necessary<\/strong> if the team want to contend for the Championship:<\/p>\n

“As I’ve been saying quite a few times, we still have quite a bit of work to be ready for Melbourne.<\/em><\/p>\n

“So that’s what we are trying to find and work for with Lewis.”<\/em><\/p>\n

With the Australian GP weekend just days away, Ferrari will soon have their first concrete aspirations<\/strong> about their winter development and title chances this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ferrari head into the 2025 season as one of the favourites, tasked with challenging the reigning constructors champions – McLaren. Had it not been for a significant blip between the Spanish and Italian GP last year, Ferrari could have claimed the team’s title with rounds to spare. However, it took Fred Vasseur’s team a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":31145,"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":[2452,84,2481],"class_list":["post-31263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-ferrari","tag-sf-25"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31263","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=31263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31264,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31263\/revisions\/31264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}