Ferrari

2025 Bahrain Grand Prix/2025 F1 season/Ferrari/Formula 1

First details of Ferrari’s Bahrain Grand Prix upgrade confirmed · F1 · RaceFans

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The first details have emerged of the upgrade Ferrari has brought for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix after the team under-performed over the opening races of the new season.

Having ended last year in competitive shape the team was disappointed to go without a podium finish over the opening three rounds of 2025, though Lewis Hamilton took a surprise victory in the sprint race in Shanghai.

Hamilton revealed last week the team has identified a problem with its SF-25 which it intends to address with a package of changes it has made to its floor for the fourth round of the world championship.

A document issued by the FIA confirmed Ferrari has modified several parts of the floor, including the fences where air passes beneath the car, the seldom-seen floor body and ‘tunnel’ formed by the shape above the ground, and the floor edge and diffuser where air exits from beneath the floor.

Ferrari confirmed the revision is intended as an overall performance upgrade, rather than a specific improvement for this circuit. “This floor package features updated front floor [and] fences targeting an improvement of the losses travelling downstream,” the team said in its submission. “The reshaped boat and tunnel expansion have been subsequently re-optimised, together with the floor edge loading and vorticity shedding into the diffuser.”

The team has also modified the pillar winglet on its rear wing, which is also intended to provide an overall improvement to the car’s aerodynamic efficiency.

Charles Leclerc will not test the changes in the first practice session today as his car will be driven by Dino Beganovic, as Ferrari makes progress towards completing its allocation of mandatory rookie practice runs.

The two other teams which have won races so far this year have also brought upgrades to their car for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Red Bull has brought a front wing with a longer chord flap which is intended to give them a further set-up option and new cooling louvres designed for the hotter conditions in Bahrain. McLaren has brought a new front brake duct winglet designed to increase aerodynamic load.

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2025 Bahrain Grand Prix

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2025 Bahrain Grand Prix/2025 F1 season/Ferrari/Formula 1/Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton expecting “a bit more downforce” from Ferrari’s upgrade · RaceFans

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Lewis Hamilton is confident the upgrade Ferrari has brought for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix will allow him to get more out of his SF-25.

Aside from his victory in the Shanghai sprint race three weeks ago, Hamilton has not looked as confident in the car as team mate Charles Leclerc. He revealed after last week’s race at Suzuka the team was bringing an upgrade to address a specific problem with their car.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s race in Bahrain, Hamilton confirmed he is seeking an improvement in his car’s rear-end balance.

“We’ve got an upgrade this weekend, so I’m excited,” he told the official F1 channel. “We’re going to hopefully have a bit more downforce.

“I’m not really feeling a huge amount of issues, it’s just we lack overall performance at the moment pace-wise, which we hopefully will take a step [with] this weekend. On my side, it’s rear end, it’s a little bit, and that’s about it.”

The series’ return to Bahrain after pre-season testing two months ago gives Ferrari the chance to compare the performance of its upgraded car with its original design.

“I’ve done quite a bit of driving since the test that we had here, so I should be a lot more comfortable in the car than I was through testing here,” said Hamilton. “We’ve got an upgrade, got a better understanding of the set-up, so hopefully should bode well for a better weekend.”

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However his team mate Charles Leclerc believes the team saw the full extent of its deficit to championship leaders McLaren at the last race in Suzuka and doubts the changes they have brought to their car for this weekend will be enough to overcome that.

“We’ve got some new bits on the car coming which I hope will help us to close that gap a little bit,” he said. “Whether it will be enough to close the complete gap, I don’t think so. I don’t think that there’s that [much] in what we are bringing here, but I hope it will help us at least to be closer.

“But it’s still quite a significant step. In Suzuka, I think that this was the [true] gap that there is between McLaren and ourselves, which is three tenths [of a second per lap] and we need to work very hard in order to catch that.

“So that’s what we are doing, and I’m confident that we can close that gap. What we’re bringing here, I don’t think will be enough, but hopefully short-term we’ll have other things that will help us to be closer.”

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2025 F1 season/2025 Japanese Grand Prix/Ferrari/Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton waiting for new part to fix “something underperforming” · F1 · RaceFans

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Ferrari has identified a problem with its car which has been present since the start of the season, Lewis Hamilton revealed after the Japanese Grand Prix.

Hamilton raced from eighth to seventh at Suzuka while team mate Charles Leclerc finished third. The team ended last year in more competitive shape than it has started the new season.

Ferrari believes it has identified a fault on the car which has contributed to their poor form, said Hamilton.

I think I did the best I could today,” he told Sky. “[I was], generally lacking performance compared to all the cars that are up ahead of me, particularly Mercedes and McLaren and obviously the Red Bull.

“We’ve found something on the car that’s been underperforming for the last three races. So I’m really hoping when that’s fixed I’ll start getting a bit better results.

“But I’m losing just over a tenth [of a second] a lap with this issue we have. So I’m hoping in the next race it’s fixed.

Hamilton indicated the team doesn’t fully understand the cause of the problem but hopes to remedy it with a new part which it will introduce soon.

“They’re aware of it and they don’t know why [it’s happening],” he said. “So, as I said, when the new component comes, hopefully it’ll be gone and it’ll be the same across cars.

“Considering that, I’m relatively happy with the race pace that I did have, given what I had. But otherwise, good performance from the team. Myself and Riccardo I think did a really good job, the engineers and mechanics also did a great job.”

However Hamilton said he also needs to improve his performance in qualifying. “Clearly it’s really important to get a good qualifying and I’m not extracting the best out of the tyres so that’s something I’ll work on.”

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F1/F1 news/Ferrari/Formula 1/Lewis Hamilton

Clarkson understands nothing about Hamilton and Ferrari: 'From hero to zero in one day!'

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An outspoken Lewis Hamilton fan Jeremy Clarkson is  not by any means. The British TV personality has regularly criticised his comthe seven-time world champion in the past. After the Grand Prix weekend in China – in which Hamilton won the sprint race and played a less relevant role in the Grand Prix – Clarkson does so again in his column in The Sun.

2025 Bahrain Grand Prix/2025 F1 season/Dino Beganovic/Ferrari/Formula 1

Beganovic to make Ferrari debut in practice at Bahrain Grand Prix · RaceFans

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Ferrari Driver Academy member Dino Beganovic will make his debut in an official Formula 1 practice session next month.

The team confirmed its 21-year-old junior driver will appear in first practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix. He will take over Charles Leclerc’s car for the 60-minute session at the Bahrain International Circuit.

F1 teams are required to give twice as many practice opportunities to inexperienced drivers this year compared to last. They must run a driver who has started no more than two grands prix during a first practice session in each of their cars over the course of the season.

Each team will therefore run junior drivers on at least four occasions. They may be F1 drivers who are currently active in the series, which applies to Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Jack Doohan.

Beganovic has been a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2022. He won the Formula Regional European championship that year, then moved up to Formula 3 and graduated to Formula 2 at the end of last year. He began his first full season in F2 with Hitech in Australia and will also race in the support event in Bahrain.

Last year Ferrari ran Oliver Bearman and Arthur Leclerc – younger brother of Charles – as its junior drivers in practice sessions. Bearman is now racing full-time in F1 for Haas.

Robert Shwartzman, Ferrari’s former junior driver who made two appearances in practice for Ferrari power unit customer Sauber, now races in IndyCar.

The Bahrain round is likely to prove a popular venue for teams to conduct practice driver runs as it takes place on a permanent circuit with ample run-off, reducing the likelihood of the cars incurring damage. The event is a regular round with a full complement of three practice sessions and running is unlikely to be disrupted by rain. Teams also have ample testing data from the track as it was the venue for pre-season testing last month.

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charles leclerc/F1 news/Ferrari/Formula 1/Lewis Hamilton/McLaren

Leclerc sees Hamilton outperforming the car: 'We are missing too much'

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Ferrari’s pace in the Chinese Grand Prix was a good ding for the team in light of their F1 hopes, albeit marred by their double disqualification from the Sunday race. However, Charles Leclerc claims teammate Lewis Hamilton’s pole in the sprint was an outlier result and urges the Scuderia to pick up their one lap pace to take the fight to McLaren.