It hasn’t been quite the dream start at Ferrari that Lewis Hamilton must have hoped for. A solitary points finish in Australia was followed by a disqualification (for both him and teammate Charles Leclerc) in China, and the idea was to bounce back in Japan. Sadly, the best he could manage was P7.
Given that Ferrari finished just 14 points behind winners McLaren in last year’s Constructors’ Championship, it was almost certain they would be among the frontrunners heading into the 2025 season. However, as evidenced by Sunday’s race at Suzuka, Ferrari is still far from challenging for wins and podiums.
The chequered flag falls in Japan pic.twitter.com/4k2tc0qslJ
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 6, 2025
The top three teams this year so far appear to be McLaren, followed by Red Bull and Mercedes. And in Suzuka, Hamilton struggled to even get the better of the third-fastest car. Talking about chasing his successor Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, the seven-time world champion said, “When I was behind Antonelli, he was just so much faster in some parts of the circuit.”
This is a comment that is ought to give the Ferrari crew sleepless nights.
“I just couldn’t follow him,” Hamilton continued. “I really got the most out of my car today. There was nothing left in it.”
What exactly is wrong with the Ferrari SF-25 remains unknown. Some experts, like Jacques Villeneuve, believe that even Ferrari themselves aren’t quite sure how to improve the car. “They know they are in trouble and do not know how to get better,” he said this past weekend.
In terms of true pace, the Scuderia look to be the fourth-best at the moment. But the concerning factor is that they don’t appear to be closing on to Mercedes ahead. This puts them in danger of dropping out of the championship race altogether.
For the Maranello-based outfit, this would be a disaster, especially after all the talk of Leclerc and Hamilton being the ‘best driver pairing on the grid’.
Hamilton himself stated that a fix is important. But, echoing Villeneuve’s sentiments, he admitted that the solution remains unknown. “I think it’s just they’re aware of it and they don’t know what’s [causing], they don’t know why and so as I said when a new component comes hopefully it’ll be gone and it’ll be the same across cars,” the 40-year-old said in the Suzuka media pen after the race on Sunday.
Thankfully, a respite could soon be on the way.
Taking the positives into the next two weeks pic.twitter.com/xTzK5ccDY3
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 6, 2025
Team principal Frederic Vasseur revealed that new upgrades will be introduced in the coming races. But before that, the most glaring problem of all, Ferrari’s balance issues, will have to be sorted. “As soon as we can make the most of what we have today, then it will make sense to introduce new features,” the Frenchman said.
Provided the Italian team’s performance gets back on track, Hamilton and Leclerc would finally be able to go up against Antonelli and gradually climb their way up the grid to challenge the frontrunners.
