From Formula 1’s glitzy launch event in London on Tuesday to a shakedown at Fiorano on Wednesday, Ferrari revealed its 2025 car in multiple parts.
The first images of the car were released on Tuesday evening to coincide with its new - and probably quite divisive - livery being revealed on stage.
Then on Wednesday came the second part of the launch, with a shakedown that gave us plenty of photos to confirm that Ferrari’s initial imagery was actually spot on (which isn’t always the case with teams).
There was also a chance to question senior team personnel plus the drivers - Lewis Hamilton, speaking properly about his big move for the first time since starting, and Charles Leclerc.
Here are the main things we learned across the various activities in different countries.
The biggest changes
Ferrari’s gone big with what it’s calling a “completely new” F1 car to give Hamilton and Leclerc a title shot.
A significant front suspension design change is the most obvious visual difference on the SF-25, switching from pushrod to pullrod for aerodynamic optimisation.
One thing our F1 tech expert Gary Anderson noticed is that Ferrari has nowhere near as high a level of anti-dive on the front suspension rear leg inboard pickup as McLaren, which has gone more aggressive in how much it wants to stop the front of the car from diving towards the ground under braking.
Presumably Ferrari feels its own change gives it greater platform control, keeping the car more steady to maximise its aerodynamic performance, without going too far and inducing unwanted car traits.
The revisions should also give Ferrari more scope for aero development. Ferrari felt it had “pretty much exhausted” this with the 2024 car, hence building on what Serra calls a good basis by making big architectural changes.
An emphasis on creating space around the chassis fits with what looks like a slightly extended wheelbase, achieved by moving the front axle forward. Serra didn’t deny this - but said the adjustments in wheelbase are small and not the main driver of the concept.
Ferrari’s expectation is that as the main performance concept of the car is still the same, it will not operate the car in a very different way and therefore should not face a steeper learning curve than rivals in optimising its car early on. It should just have a more fruitful development rate with the extra aerodynamic opportunities it believes now exist.
Why it was necessary
The looming prospect of F1’s rules revolution for 2026 prompted some thoughts last year that teams would minimise the effort they put into their 2025 cars.
Some teams have taken the opposite approach though, with McLaren and now Ferrari revealing challengers for the season ahead that are a step-change different.
Ferrari chassis technical director Loic Serra has talked of a car being 99% different from the SF-24, with both aero and mechanical aspects changed.
Such sweeping changes may seem to be a bit of a gamble – and will not bring much long-term benefit because the carryover into 2026 will be minimal – but from Ferrari’s perspective it was something that had to be done.
As Serra explained to media on Wednesday: “We needed to help the development rate because it was getting extremely difficult to find performance on the previous car.
“So it's more of an evolution and it made complete sense to try to re-optimise your packaging.”
The revamp may not bring a revolution of speed, but if things are as close as they appear at the front, even small gains could make a big difference.
Several times during the briefings with the media Ferrari made reference to the gap to McLaren over the course of the season being just 0.030 seconds. Make a leap bigger than that and it could be decisive.
Why Ferrari thinks first races will decide everything
Ferrari’s battle with McLaren for the constructors’ championship went all the way to the final corner of the final round last year – as it was only in Abu Dhabi that it ultimately lost out when Lando Norris took that win.
Team boss Fred Vasseur sees a championship that will be decided much earlier in 2025, because of everyone’s thoughts being dominated by all that is new coming for 2026.
With engineers wanting to be totally heads down on 2026 from the summer, and the lead time on major development components being many weeks, the most influential part of the championship will most likely be the first half.
And Vasseur sees things being settled even before that, with the pace early on – and the improvements that need to be be had from the first in-season upgrade – potentially deciding the championship.
“If we’re to develop the current car, it will be the first couple of races and then I think everyone will- I don’t want to say we’ll stop the current car, but we’ll be more focussed on ’26,” he said.
“The first races and the first upgrade we bring to the car will be crucial for the season.”
But teams will have to remain flexible, and being very fast or very slow early on could also influence how the remainder of the campaign plays out.
Vasseur added: “Even if you have a plan, even if you decide now 'I will do it 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 focused a little bit on '26. But I think those two scenarios are not realistic at all!”
Hamilton’s emphatic judgement
Although we have been able to piece together a good picture of how Hamilton’s Ferrari move had started, this was the first time Hamilton has spoken publicly about it.
When The Race asked a simple question of whether Ferrari’s ready to win a championship, Hamilton gave a simple and emphatic reply: “Yes.”
Prompted to explain what gives him that certainty, Hamilton said: "I've worked with two world championship-winning teams before. I know what a winning team looks and feels like.
“The passion here is like nothing you've ever seen. They've got absolutely every ingredient they need to win a world championship. It's just about putting all the pieces together.”
As a result of this, Hamilton also believes he can win his eighth title with Ferrari, and that if he did it would feel like his first. These are the right noises, but it’s not just lip service.
Whether it’s this year or not he wouldn’t say, because it’s too early, but the certainty he has in this project is telling. How quickly he can take advantage of that, though, is another unknown.
One of the points Hamilton was very keen to stress is how “completely different” he has found Ferrari’s cars.
Contrasting it to when he moved from McLaren to Mercedes, Hamilton said he found similarities back then that were probably explained by the engine being the same. Switching to Ferrari has been a shock to the senses as all that Hamilton was so familiar with has gone out the window across the board.
And when one of the questions mentioned to Hamilton that Fernando Alonso had won on his first Ferrari start, and Sebastian Vettel on his second, Hamilton replied quickly to acknowledge the respect he has for both drivers for that achievement - as he’s now seeing first-hand just what they were dealing with in terms of adaptation.
Engines will play a bigger role than you think
Last year proved to Ferrari that reliability is never a given in F1, even during a homologation freeze.
Leclerc suffered a high-profile problem during the Canadian Grand Prix, and both he and Carlos Sainz had grid penalties in the season related to power unit component changes. McLaren, which narrowly beat Ferrari to the championship, didn’t have any.
And now, the engines are right at the end of their life in the final year of the rules cycle. While it’s not spoken about much, how patched-up and broken they can be physically is a real issue to manage.
On top of that, engine chief Enrico Gualtieri has suggested that what Ferrari’s doing this year will be a bigger stress-test of its engines than before.
Gualteri expects there will be a small step in the engine usage severity this year compared to 2024. Greater aerodynamic performance will have an impact on how hard the engines have to work - but he's also suggested that within what teams are allowed to refine without changing the engine’s hardware, Ferrari has finally been able to extract a last bit of performance potential it may have missed in recent seasons.
So, there are two factors to consider. The first is putting the engines through a bigger challenge than before. The second is that Ferrari wants to spend the lowest amount of dyno hours possible on the current engines, so it puts as much as it can on the development work being done for 2026.
That’s all connected. Ferrari, like other manufacturers, must cope with its components being used more severely, while knowing they have less capacity in terms of dyno hours to react to unexpected problems.
Gualtieri described it as a need to be sensible and prepared, to avoid falling into such “criticalities”.
An underestimated part of Hamilton’s move
Much has been made of Hamilton pre-existing relationship with his old F3/GP2 team boss Vasseur, but a lower-profile arrival has played an important role in helping the team to adapt to its superstar signing – Jerome d’Ambrosio.
He joined last October as deputy team principal after working with Hamilton at Mercedes. As he says, Hamilton doesn’t need any help from him when it comes to driving or getting to know people in the team, but he has played a role in providing a familiar face.
“The areas where it’s been perhaps quite useful is already knowing his team - a driver doesn’t come alone to a team, they have their own team, their own management, people around them,” was d’Ambrosio’s summary.
Having a familiar face, or rather faces given the aforementioned Serra is also a recruit from McLaren, can’t fail to make a difference. And with such limited opportunity for adaptation between the start of the year and testing, that has an important role in ensuring Hamilton can hit the ground running.
How Leclerc’s handling explosion of Hamilton interest
Of course, there’s not just one Ferrari driver to consider. But in terms of public attention, Leclerc’s started 2025 under the radar. That’s just what happens when your team signs the most successful driver in history, with the biggest profile to boot…
“It’s normal that there’s even more attention than their normally is,” Leclerc smiled. “With Lewis, everything is exploding.”
But Leclerc should - not could, should - be Ferrari’s leading man at the start of 2025. And if the car’s up to it, he will expect to be world champion. He believes he can be.
“If we’ve got the car capable of fighting on a regular basis at the front, I think so, yes,” he said.
That’s probably why Leclerc looked and sounded so comfortable being under-the-radar, for now. He knows that off-track doesn’t really matter. He knows Hamilton’s arrival is good for the team. And there’s no way he’s not still feeling the love inside Ferrari himself.
His focus can just be on preparing properly for the new season. And remember, Leclerc is better-placed than Hamilton to judge what progress Ferrari’s made in certain areas. His report of the shakedown of the car boiled down to there being no nasty surprises, which is a good thing when the priority has been to make small gains in every area rather than solve a big problem.
“It’s very difficult to feel that on a first day on a track like Fiorano,” he said.
“Nothing is standing out for now. That means it’s a positive first day.”
Leclerc has expressed his desire is to win the constructors’ title for Ferrari after coming so close last year, but the drivers’ championship is obviously his personal goal.
And while rivals believe Hamilton’s title chances come down to whether the car is good enough, the same goes for Leclerc.
He might have had a very low-key part in Ferrari’s pre-season narrative so far but, if anything, Leclerc’s starting 2025 as the part there’s the least amount to doubt.
