Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur is confident they have taken the right approach to help Lewis Hamilton adjust to his new environment as quickly as possible.
Hamilton had just one-and-a-half days of testing in the team’s new car before the first event of the season this weekend. He was unable to drive for them in the post-season test at Yas Marina last year, unlike several other drivers who changed teams.
However Ferrari used the opportunity to run Hamilton in one of their older chassis, known as Testing of Previous Cars under F1’s regulations, at the beginning of the season. Vasseur said that gave him a useful chance to get used to the team’s internal processes.
“It’s not [the goal] to be at the limit on one session, it’s not a matter of speed,” said Vasseur in the FIA press conference after the first practice session.
“The target is for him to know everybody in the team, to discover the software, the process, the system. I’m convinced that we have something very similar to Mercedes, but at the end of the day, perhaps not with the same name, or the same way to use them.
“It’s just a learning process. We did one or two test days with the TPC one or two months ago. It was a good way to approach it but nothing compares to the race weekend. We have to go through and we have to do it, but I’m not worried at all about this.”
Hamilton placed 12th in the first practice session at Albert Park, six-tenths of a second slower than team mate Charles Leclerc, but Vasseur said this was no cause for concern.
| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
“He’s on this process, honestly, you can’t draw a conclusion after a first session,” he said. “I have absolutely no doubt that he will be able to perform and to perform soon. Last year I think that Carlos [Sainz Jnr] was P8 or P9 in free practice and he won the race.”
Hamilton said yesterday he is still getting accustomed to the differences between Ferrari’s car and the Mercedes he drove last year.
“Joining a new team, the sooner you can reach a high level and get results, the better. But inevitably, there’s a transition period, and there is a foundation that’s needed to be built, […] that’s what we have been doing over the past couple of months.
“The first half of the season, it is about that foundation. Building those relationships, the trust, you’re building with absolutely every everyone in the team. Trust isn’t something you just walk in the door and have, it’s built over time.
“For me, the goal is to win, of course, and to take the team forward. I’ve had some not-so-spectacular years and I’m trying to see if I can have a better year than I have the last three. There are a lot of factors that can add to that.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took Ferrari’s new SF-25 out for a shakedown at the team’s Fiorano track yesterday. While it doesn’t look radically different from last year’s car, the 2025 machine wears some major upgrades under the (not entirely exciting) livery, because the SF-24 had no more room to grow.
Complicating matters, team principal Fred Vasseur is keeping an eye on how aggressively the team develops the 2025 car over the course of the season. When engineers will shift over to preparing for the major 2026 rules overhaul will depend in part on whether the SF-25 puts Ferrari in a position to win.
The headline update from the SF-24 to the SF-25 is a change in front suspension, from push-rod to pull-rod. That’s just the “tip of the iceberg,” though, according to relatively new technical director Loic Serra.
“Most of the car is new, and it’s not necessarily noticeable to the eye from the outside, but it’s those parts that have the biggest influence,” he explained to Automoto.it. “We have changed many of the internal components, but the philosophy is the same. “
Lewis Hamilton shaking down the SF-25 at Fiorano
Photo by: Davide Cavazza
As Serra explains, last year’s SF-24 had no more room for improvement. The suspension shift, along with what seeming allusions to a revamped floor, should give the Scuderia space to battle McLaren (which unveiled its own ambitious development approach last week with its MCL39).
“The main target with the SF-25 was to find room to push on aerodynamic development, and in what will be the upgrades that will come later in the season,” he explained. “As the technical regulations are in their final year, with these cars it’s all about the details. “
Those details can make a big difference, as Ferrari learned when it suffered a performance dip after a poor-performing midseason upgrade last year. The team bounced back to overtake Red Bull and sneak within 14 points of stealing the constructor’s championship from McLaren. Serra calculated the average deficit last year at 30 milliseconds, prompting an all-in approach with the SF-25, with hopes of taking a constructor’s trophy back to Maranello for the first time since 2008.
Of course, 2026’s massive rule changes loom, and team principal Fred Vasseur knows the team needs to focus on the bigger picture. He’s already thinking about when work on the SF-25 will need to give way to next year’s car.
Charles Leclerc in the SF-25
Photo by: Ferrari
“At some point in the season a choice will have to be made between the 2026 project and the development of the 2025 car, a choice that will be dictated by where we are in the championship standings,” said Vasseur. “After the first four or five races we will evaluate the situation and choices will be made on how to distribute the available resources…Probably in the summer we will all be focused on 2026.”
Vasseur’s decision will be harder if Ferrari’s in the middle of a heated contest for the constructor’s title.
“I expect a season like the previous one, with four teams capable of winning races and aiming for the championship,” said Vasseur. “It will be a good battle.”
In this article
Filip Cleeren
Formula 1
Frederic Vasseur
Ferrari
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Ferrari has made a significant change to its new Formula 1 car for 2025 as it strives to find more performance in the fourth year of the current technical regulations.
In order to increase the potential for development gains with the new SF-25, the team decided to switch its front suspension from a push-rod to a pull-rod configuration. They committed to this change – which matches the approach used by Red Bull, among others – early last year, before its new technical director for chassis Loic Serra arrived.
Like all teams, Ferrari faces a compressed time-scale to get its new machine ready for racing. It hit the track for the first time yesterday at Fiorano and they will have just three days of track testing at Bahrain International Circuit next week.
As team principal Frederic Vasseur explained, the team must consider multiple factors when deciding its development plan for the SF-25. Not only will F1 introduce drastically new regulations for the chassis and power unit next year, but changes to the front wing rules will arrive at the Spanish Grand Prix this season.
All team bosses therefore need to think carefully about how long they focus on developing their 2025 cars, and how soon they focus wholly on next season. Those unlikely to be in championship contention this year face an easier decision. But Ferrari, who were close runners-up in the constructors’ title fight last year, may find themselves tempted to continue development of their current car for longer.
“If we have to create [something], we can’t react after June, for example,” Vasseur told media including RaceFans yesterday. “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,” he noted.
| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Ferrari will wait to see how the opening races unfold before deciding their priorities. “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,” said Vasseur.
The SF-25 hit the track for the first time yesterday
“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.”
“For sure if we have to develop the current car, it would be the first couple of races,” he added. “And then I think everybody will – I don’t want to say that we will stop the current car, but we’ll be more focussed 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.”
Vasseur is pleased the FIA confirmed coming changes to its wing flexibility tests before the season began. Rear wings will be subject to new tests from the first round and front wings will face tougher tests from the Spanish Grand Prix – a round where teams often bring new upgrade packages.
“It’s good to have clarity,” he said. “The most important [point] for me is to know that we have to change something on the front wing by Barcelona, for example.
| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
“You can discuss about the timing because it’s the week after Monaco and we need to come to Monaco with a full package of front wings. But at the end of the day it’s good for us, it’s good for the development and the [preparation] to know when we have to bring something.
Feature: “This step is huge”: How Hamilton is adjusting to the biggest change of his career
“The worst case scenario [is] we would have to start the season like we are today and in two or three races to come with a TD [FIA technical directive] to change something because it’s much more difficult to [react] in this case, it would have been a mess. But honestly, we all know the situation, we were all planning to bring an upgrade on the front wing during the season, and like this we know that we’d have to do it by Barcelona.”
Ferrari’s 2024 campaign suffered after it discovered that a mid-season upgrade did not perform as expected. The team has invested in upgrading its facilities to improve the accuracy of its developments. However Vasseur said they are chasing smaller gains in the fourth year of F1’s current rules, and they must ensure theoretical improvements do not compromise their drivers’ ability to get the most out of the car.
“The competition is getting closer and closer and we are more and more speaking about details,” he said. “When we are bringing an upgrade now we are speaking about a small [gain]. For sure, we need to have good tools to be able to quantify it and to do good choices. It means that tools are more and more crucial.
“Also, because the driveability [matters more for] performance than in the past with the current regulations, it means that the simulator is important, also. I think we did a good step on all our tools. It’s not a secret that we did a step on the wind tunnel last year, that we are in continuous improvement on every single tool and department.
“But it’s not just about the operation, it’s also the tools that we have in the entire structure. This is a continuous improvement approach. It’s not that one day you are happy and you will have something good forever. If you don’t change every single year and try to improve every single year at one stage you will be behind the others.”
He sees no reason to believe the close contest between F1’s leading teams will have changed during the off-season. “I think it’s going to be the continuity of last year with four teams able to win races, able to win the championship, and it will be a good fight.”
| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says he has no doubt Lewis Hamilton is as competitive as he’s ever been, as he joins the team for his 19th season in Formula 1.
The seven-times world champion turned 40 last month and is now the second-oldest driver on the grid. He ended a two-and-a-half year winning drought last season, but placed behind team mate George Russell in the championship.
However Vasseur brushed off concerns that Hamilton’s form has dipped since his last world championship win in 2020.
“I think he showed in Abu Dhabi, starting from the back and coming back to P4, overtaking Russell in the last lap, the pace is there,” Vasseur told media including RaceFans during Ferrari’s launch event today. “And I had no doubt before.”
Hamilton previously drove for Vasseur in 2006, when he won the GP2 (now Formula 2) title. Vasseur said the much-changed driver makes an ideal combination with Charles Leclerc, who also drove for him in F1’s junior series.
“He’s 20 years older than when we were together,” said Vasseur. “Everybody is changing, moving, developing. For sure he is much more mature, much more experienced.
“He’s the perfect fit with the team today. That’s exactly what I was looking for, for the team, for me, for Charles, I think it’s the perfect combination.”
| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Vasseur believes combining two of F1’s top drivers will pay off for the team as both will learn from the other – as he says Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr did last year.
“It’s always an opportunity and one of the skills of the drivers is trying to always improve,” he said. “And a good way to improve is to [observe] the experience and the performance of your team mate, because it’s the driver who is the closest to you. You have access to the [lap time] deltas that you can work with and if you are clever that you can do a step with the potential of your team mate.
“I’m fully, fully sure I’m right because we already did two TPCs [testing of past cars] and a shakedown today [and saw] that it will be the case. And honestly I’m not scared at all with this because we need to have this kind of evolution.
“I spoke about it last year between Charles and Carlos, it was already the case. As a team, if we want to perform, we need to have two drivers performing. We need to have two drivers in a kind of competition, a positive competition and a positive evolution. And I’m sure that will be the case.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Cookies
To make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. This enables us to improve our website to provide a better user experience. No personal data is collected.
