Yet again, it’s not been a season to write home about for the iconic Scuderia Ferrari team. Ferrari’s struggles in 2025 have spanned across the board, as the team failed to consistently challenge their competitors. From underperforming to personnel poaching to a lack of chemistry between the team and drivers, it has been a tumultuous season for the racing outlet.
Bringing aboard seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton hasn’t paid off in the way anyone was expecting—or hoping. Even star-driver Charles Leclerc has faced another year of struggles. A glimmer of hope appeared early on in the season at the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, where Hamilton picked up an astounding Sprint Race win, but it was only downhill from there. Leclerc has had a dose of podiums scattered across the season, even stealing a shock Pole position from under dominant McLaren’s nose at the Hungaroring, but when the lights went out for the Sunday race, he fell away and finished off the podium.
Ferrari’s struggles have brought a season of inconsistency from the get-go, and it seems like the team themselves don’t know what to expect from weekend to weekend. Leclerc’s journey backwards in Hungary left the Monegasque driver furious, and the team scratching their heads, whilst Hamilton spent the middle of the season uncomfortable and untrusting of the car, failing to break into the top ten in Qualifying. A double DNF in Zandvoort was a blow that the team didn’t need after the summer break, and the team have managed to stabilise with some solid top ten finishes in Monza and Baku, but they remain inconsistent and have now fallen behind Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship standings, now running third.
Ferrari’s Struggles Leave the Team in a League of Their Own
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal at Scuderia Ferrari, admitted early on in the season that the team “lost their way” in terms of performance and reliability after a series of quality issues. Over the course of the season, we have seen the team struggle with a weak rear end of the car, a deficit in straight-line speed, and a multitude of problems with their aero package. These issues highlight why they are so inconsistent and why performance fluctuates from track to track. The weakness of the rear has snowballed into weaknesses with the car’s balance, traction and suspension, all jarring factors to consider.
The team have also been less than optimal when it comes to tyre temperatures, affecting their qualifying performance as they struggle to bring their tyres up to the ideal temperatures in the essential windows. Rival team McLaren have excelled in this area this season, demonstrated by their stellar Qualifying record, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris claiming nine of the 17 Pole Position Awards this season so far. Ferrari have only picked up a single Pole position this year, with Leclerc in Hungary.
Miscommunication and a Lack of Chemistry
Fans knew that things would not immediately fall into place for Hamilton, with the British driver joining Ferrari after a 12-year stint at Mercedes. This meant relearning everything, from how the team operates to how the steering wheel is designed. Even former Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, whom Hamilton replaced, urged fans and pundits to give the World Champion time to settle into the team before criticising performance. However, after 17 races, Hamilton still appears to be struggling to make meaningful progress with the team — while Sainz secured his first podium with Williams in Baku.
Hamilton was vocal before the summer break about the efforts he has been putting in to communicate across all departments and come to a clearer understanding of how the SF-25 operates, telling media that he wants the teams 2026 challenger to have his “DNA”. After a rocky mid-season, Hamilton seems to be closing in on Leclerc’s performance, finishing ahead of Leclerc in Baku last weekend. Despite the performance gap starting to close, what has really shocked fans and pundits alike is the lack of gelling between Hamilton and the team.
Radio Check… Do You Copy?!
There have been a series of notable radio exchanges between Hamilton and his race engineer Riccardo Adami – “Are you guys mad at me?”, “Plan B?” “Si.” “Plan C?!” – that have left fans scratching their heads. It seems that Hamilton is yet to get used to Ferrari’s sometimes puzzling team radio code, but he is not the only driver struggling over the radio. Even Leclerc, after driving for the historic team for six years, has been left audibly confused and frustrated by the team’s communication during races, from poor strategy calls to butting heads over common sense issues. It raises the question: why can’t they get the chemistry right? They seem to have all of the personnel in place and all of the structure to make something happen, but Ferrari’s struggles are more than apparent and the results remain just out of reach.
The Politics of It All
Top F1 pundits and ex-drivers, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve, have suggested why it’s not working, and all roads lead back to one thing in particular: the politics of it all.
Since their debut all the way back in 1950, the team structure at Ferrari has been in a league of its own, but in recent years we have seen how disjointed it has become. Team optics take precedent, and it feels as though that has finally caught up with them. Montoya and Villeneuve have both speculated that the reason Hamilton is struggling at the team is because at Mercedes, they did whatever it took to win, whereas at Ferrari there is far more consideration for internal politics that may be more reminiscent of the seven-time World Champions time at McLaren under Ron Dennis.
There is still hope in the 2025 season for the team to finish ahead of closest Constructors’ rivals Mercedes, and Hamilton will surely be hoping to finish in front of his former team. There are only four points between the two teams heading into Round 18 in Singapore, and with Hamilton seemingly closing the performance gap to Leclerc, will the Scuderia be able to capitalise?
Featured Image Credit: Scuderia Ferrari