Ferrari’s opening act in the 2025 Formula 1 season was marred by a significant issue with the SF-25 vehicle, which came to light following the practice session of the Australian Grand Prix. The Scuderia had a challenging weekend in Melbourne, with drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finishing in underwhelming eighth and tenth places in a race marked by rainy conditions.
The SF-25’s performance in qualifying was equally disappointing, with the Ferrari duo ending up slower than Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bull and Alex Albon’s Williams, who finished fifth and sixth respectively.
The weekend had initially shown promise at Albert Park, with Leclerc leading the way in the second Friday practice session. His fastest lap in FP2 left him ahead of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The latter, however, managed a front-row lockout for McLaren and eventually won the race.
Norris’s triumph propelled him to the top of the Drivers’ standings for the first time in his career, entering the Chinese Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen of Red Bull relinquished his near three-year hold on the World Championship lead.
As per a report by Motorsport.com’s Italian edition, the SF-25 was operated in a compromised state on Saturday and Sunday, marking a downward turn for Ferrari’s weekend. The team’s simulator-suggested setup for Melbourne proved faulty, as the car ran too close to the track’s surface during Friday’s practice.
To prevent excessive wear to the skid blocks and potential disqualification, Ferrari increased the ride height for the rest of the weekend. However, this adjustment compromised the car’s aerodynamic performance. The SF-25, which showcases numerous concept changes for the final year of the current regulations, was engineered with a bold aerodynamic map, making this issue a ‘serious problem’.
In the current ground-effect era, teams must balance running the car’s ride height as low as possible for optimal performance, without causing excessive skid block wear or triggering a bouncing phenomenon known as ‘porpoising’. Both Leclerc and Hamilton, then with Mercedes, were disqualified from the 2023 United States Grand Prix when their cars’ skid blocks were deemed excessively worn at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.
Coincidentally, that same season, Red Bull’s dominant duo, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, were advised to ease off the throttle through the Eau Rouge compression at the Belgian Grand Prix to prevent excessive skid block wear.
The report also suggests that Ferrari’s decision to use a medium-downforce rear wing, derogatorily termed a ‘parachute’, for Australia only exacerbated the car’s performance issues. This choice stood in contrast to the other leading teams, who all opted for a smaller rear wing.