What began as a year of hope with Hamilton's arrival has turned into Ferrari's bleakest season in years and with the prospect of finishing it without a win
There was a moment, not that long ago, when Ferrari was still one of the the great unknowns of the 2025 Formula 1 season, unsure about the potential of its car but convinced that it was a matter of time before it would unlock its hidden speed.
Fast forward a few months and the Scuderia is facing the prospect of enduring a winless season for the third time in the past 10 years and the first since 2021.
With Lewis Hamilton‘s big signing, what was supposed to be the season of reawakening has instead turned into a year of slow-burning despair as the team has become F1’s most conspicuous underachiever.
The SF-25 is at the root of Ferrari’s malaise and almost every race has exposed a new vulnerability: a lack of straight-line speed here, poor tyre management there, an inability to generate downforce everywhere.
A mid-season suspension overhaul – touted as a transformative step – only served to confirm more fundamental issues with the car: Instead of unlocking the potential the team thought was there, it aggravated balance issues and made the car trickier to set up.
Since the new suspension was introduced, Ferrari has been outscored by rivals Mercedes and Red Bull, let alone McLaren, by some margin.
The revised suspension introduced at Spa didn’t deliver what it was expected
Grand Prix Photo
In Baku last weekend, where Charles Leclerc had been on pole for the past four years, Ferrari looked like the sixth-fastest team on its way to its worst result of the season excluding the chaotic first race in Australia and the Dutch GP, where both drivers crashed out.
Two weeks earlier at Monza, last year’s winner Leclerc had to settle for a distant fourth.
Development misjudgments
As highlighted by the Spa suspension, the Scuderia’s technical development path has been marked by missteps.
Its underwhelming home grand prix at Monza was another example of technical misjudgements that have cost Ferrari dear this season.
The trimmed DRS flap used in Italy sacrificed cornering stability and made the lives of Leclerc and Hamilton quite difficult at a track where Ferrari’s hopes of salvaging a victory were as high as they had been in a while.
In a broader context, these technical and set-up struggles have contributed heavily to Ferrari’s decision to halt major performance upgrades to the SF-25 from mid-2025 onward.
With no further upgrades planned, Ferrari’s realistic potential is now about damage limitation rather than race wins.
Hamilton’s 2025 is still his Chinese GP sprint win
Grand Prix Photo
The team now has to rely on minor, track-specific tweaks and hoping to extract the maximum possible from an inherently compromised package, but the bare facts are merciless: Ferrari has not won a race in 2025, and with just a handful of rounds left, there is no obvious venue where it might break the drought.
The SF-25 has lacked the adaptability to spring surprises, and even in chaotic conditions, the team has struggled to capitalise.
Slim chances left
Of the seven remaining races of 2025, circuits requiring high downforce and strong cornering ability, such as Singapore are less likely to suit Ferrari’s compromised aerodynamics and ongoing set-up challenges.
Austin has historically been one of the circuits where Ferrari has shown strong potential in recent years, with Leclerc leading a dominant one-two ahead of Carlos Sainz in 2024.
This, in theory, makes Austin one of the more promising venues for Ferrari to avoid ending 2025 winless, even though it still feels like a long shot given its Monza and Baku results.
Ferrari also won in Mexico last year, but that came after strong showings at Monza, Baku and Austin as the team was still in the fight for the constructors’ championship, quite a contrast to this year.
Ferrari’s form at Monza and Baku suggest a winless year is on the cards
This year’s chances for Mexico, however, appear limited as downforce and cornering stability are likely to blunt competitiveness on the high-altitude venue. Similar problems will be faced in Brazil, Qatar, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
The pragmatic outlook is that Ferrari might end 2025 winless.
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Mark Hughes
For Ferrari, though, the real wound is not only the lack of wins but the manner in which it has slipped out of contention as it has failed to find the hidden potential it believed its car had early on.
While McLaren has dominated and Red Bull and Mercedes have found their way back after a rough period, Ferrari has become an afterthought and has been worried about the midfield catching up than about fighting the leaders.
Ferrari’s finances mean that finishing third or fourth instead of second won’t hurt it anywhere but in its pride, and with the 2026 rules overhaul right around the corner, it won’t see a winless 2025 as a big issue.
For now, Ferrari can point to the SF-25’s flaws, to development dead ends and misjudged upgrades, as reasons why 2025 never took off.
But next year, the tifosi will demand nothing less than a championship contender, Hamilton will expect a car capable of fighting for an eighth title, and Leclerc might be entering the part of his career where loyalty requires a winning car.
