{"id":32239,"date":"2025-04-01T07:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=32239"},"modified":"2025-04-01T07:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:52:05","slug":"ferrari-prepare-first-upgrade-package-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/01\/ferrari-prepare-first-upgrade-package-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari prepare first upgrade package of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Currently 5th in the constructors’ championship with just 17 points, Ferrari<\/a> have underperformed in the opening rounds of 2025. Although the SF-25 has shown flashes of potential, there are undeniably key weaknesses to address.<\/p>\n

As explained by team principal Fred Vasseur over the winter, the Scuderia will take a pragmatic approach to development this year.<\/p>\n

Rather than having a fixed date to switch their focus to 2026, Ferrari will allocate resources depending on the Championship develops.<\/p>\n

The factory in Maranello already has an important upgrade in the pipeline, which the team are pushing to debut imminently.<\/p>\n

Why Ferrari must quickly understand their problems<\/h2>\n

During pre-season, Ferrari were frequently labelled as the team most likely to challenge McLaren for the title<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was solid reasoning behind this school of thought, given that Ferrari ended last year fighting at the front.<\/p>\n

Like the British team, they also began 2025 development slightly earlier than Red Bull<\/a> and Mercedes – who were still working to eliminate more foundational limitations last season.<\/p>\n

However, Bahrain testing exposed some unfavourable characteristics on the SF-25.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Encouragingly, the data being produced by the car was relatively consistent with the wind tunnel data.<\/p>\n

This accurate correlation is generally a positive, but it does not override Ferrari’s other problems.<\/p>\n

As the likes of Aston Martin<\/a> and Mercedes<\/a> have discovered in recent years, peak downforce does not automatically equate to usable downforce.<\/p>\n

In short, if a car’s operating window is too small, consistently capitalising on downforce becomes almost impossible.<\/p>\n

McLaren’s success in establishing a large operating window since 2024 has allowed them to compete at various track configurations.<\/p>\n

Such consistency and predictability is essential to fight for a title.<\/p>\n

Ferrari have shown signs of true competitiveness this year, but the SF-25 has proven tricky to optimise – even compared to the Mercedes W16, which is far more compliant then previous cars from the Brackley factory.<\/p>\n

With the 2026 regulations inching closer<\/a>, Ferrari only have a few months to rectify their early vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Should they fail to find solutions, or at least develop a better foundation to build upon, they have little chance of closing down McLaren.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Floor upgrade incoming<\/h4>\n

Arguably the most essential component in modern F1 cars is the floor.<\/p>\n

This area has seen immense scrutiny and development since 2022, generally regarded as the foundation for a competitive car in the ground-effect era.<\/p>\n

Ferrari have a floor upgrade in the pipeline, which will debut within the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

The Bahrain GP seems the most likely date for the SF-25’s new floor to arrive, although Vasseur’s personnel are reportedly pushing to have it ready for this weekend<\/a> in Suzuka.<\/p>\n

For the reasons mentioned previously, Ferrari are understandably eager to bring this upgrade as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

The intention is for the modified floor to more efficiently manage the aerodynamic load being produced by the SF-25.<\/p>\n

A consequence of this should be a more consistent car, less prone to swings in its characteristics.<\/p>\n

Whether this package arrives in Japan or Bahrain, it will nonetheless represent the beginning of Ferrari’s 2025 development.<\/p>\n

With wind tunnel hours and development budgets limited, Vasseur’s team cannot afford and missteps with in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currently 5th in the constructors’ championship with just 17 points, Ferrari have underperformed in the opening rounds of 2025. Although the SF-25 has shown flashes of potential, there are undeniably key weaknesses to address. As explained by team principal Fred Vasseur over the winter, the Scuderia will take a pragmatic approach to development this year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":32241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[445,2452,84,76],"class_list":["post-32239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-ferrari","tag-lewis-hamilton"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32239","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=32239"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32253,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32239\/revisions\/32253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}