Formula 1 Ferrari launch

Ferrari explains why it had to make big changes to its 2025 F1 car

Ferrari unveiled its SF-25 with major upgrades focusing on aerodynamic development — but the team's already looking down the line to the 2026 rule changes

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.”