Ferrari boss teases "crucial" early upgrades to Lewis Hamilton's F1 2025 car
Ferrari will see how the early races of F1 2025 unfold before making key development decisions about next season.
Ferrari’s early upgrades are set to prove “crucial” to their hopes for the upcoming 2025 F1 season.
Teams are set to face a tricky development dilemma heading into a year which promises to be closer than ever with stable rules, while needing to prioritise resource and focus on the major regulation changes coming for 2026.
Next season will see sweeping changes on both the power unit and aerodynamic side of the cars, and teams have been able to start work on their 2026 challengers as of 1 January.
Following a competitive end to 2024, the field is set to converge even more in 2025, leaving teams balancing their development for the drastic 2026 rules reset with not wanting to spurn any potential opportunities this year.
“For sure if we have to develop the current car, it would be the first couple of races,” Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur told media including Crash.net.
“And then I think everybody will – I don’t want to say that we will stop the current car, but we’ll be more focused on ’26.
“It means that the first races and the first upgrade that we will bring for the car will be crucial for the season and for sure we’ll bring something in the early stage into the season.”
Ferrari are set to face a tougher decision than other teams given they are expecting to be in championship contention, having fallen just short of winning the constructors’ title last term.
F1’s most iconic team have already made significant changes to their SF-25 challenger, which has been described as being “99% new” for 2025.
A switch from a push-rod to pull-rod front suspension is among the biggest redesign aimed at extracting greater performance and development gains for this season.
“If we have to react [to something], we can’t react after June, for example,” Vasseur continued.
“We know that the lead time is quite important for big parts and probably in the summer time we’ll all be fully focussed on 2026.
“If you have a look at the previous change of regulations at the end of ’21 when you had the fight between Mercedes and Red Bull, they were able to bring upgrades [to] the last couple of events.
“Even if you decide now that ‘we do it like this, like this, like this,’ let’s see after a couple of races in the championship where you are,
“If you are one second behind, it makes no sense to continue to develop. If you are one second in front you can be focussed a little bit on ’26. But I think these two scenarios are not realistic at all.
“I think it will be the continuity of last year with four teams able to win races and four teams able to win the championship.”
What do Ferrari need to become F1 champions again?
A late season surge helped Ferrari claim runner-up spot, just 14 points behind champions McLaren, as the Italian outfit came agonisingly close to ending their wait for a world championship.
Ferrari’s last constructors’ title came in 2008, with their last drivers’ championship being achieved the year before.
The arrival of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton alongside Charles Leclerc has sparked huge excitement and anticipation for the new campaign, and Vasseur is aware of the pressure and expectation surrounding his team.
“It was already the case in the past that everybody was full of expectation, full of enthusiasm, of passion, I think it’s one of the characteristics of the team and the country,” Vasseur said.
“But I take it as a positive. It’s very positive energy. The first day at Fiorano, we had thousands of people on the bridge and honestly this is pushing the team.
“Now with the experience, I know that we have to calm down a little bit the expectation. It’s not because we have thousands of fans on the bridge that we will be world champion.
“If you want to win races you need to have a good car and need to improve every single race. It’s not a matter of fans or enthusiasm. But honestly I think last year we managed it pretty well.
“We were able able to react to a tough time, in June-July, we were able to come back quickly, to change our approach and react as a team, to work as a team, and this was good momentum for us and good for the development of the team. We came back into the fight quickly.
“For sure if we want to be champion, and that is clearly the target, we need to improve everywhere and we need to minimise the missed opportunities. We have to do a better job everywhere.”
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