Ferrari upgraded floor catches eye of F1 rivals at Austrian GP

Ferrari’s new floor has caught the attention of their F1 rivals at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Italian outfit have brought a major floor update to the Red Bull Ring in a bid to help turnaround their fortunes after a disappointing start to the 2025 F1 season.

With the new floor attached to their cars, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton secured Ferrari’s best qualifying result of the season so far by taking second and fourth.

Although Leclerc ended up half a second adrift of polesitter Lando Norris, the upgrade has grabbed McLaren's attention.

"Ferrari were very close, I would say up until the last run in Q3. Not surprised at all," McLaren team principal Stella told media including Crash.net in Spielberg.

"We talk about Ferrari, we talk about a team with two very fast drivers. And also, when I look at the submission of new parts for this event, I think Ferrari, they have an entirely new floor.

“And it's a new floor. It's the side of the floor, the diffuser, the underneath, the fences, it's a completely new floor.

"So this means that they've been pushing hard from a development point of view, and I'm not surprised that they were in condition to improve their performance.”

Leclerc credited Ferrari’s upgrades for his return to the front row of the grid in Austria.

“The upgrades definitely helped us today. How much? It’s difficult to know,” Leclerc explained.

“Especially when you see how fine the margins are apart from Lando. It definitely helped us to get the front row today. So on that, we should be proud of the work we’ve done.

“Apart from that, I think we did a great job. We worked very well this weekend and I am looking forward to tomorrow because most of the time our race car is better than our qualifying car.”

Could Ferrari challenge McLaren for the win?

Stella is wary of the threat posed by an improved Ferrari.

"We know that they're always good, especially when there's a need of a long stint and when there's uncertainty between one and two stops," Stella said.

"They could be able to do a one stop, let's see. At the moment, we don’t know exactly what the right thing is going to be strategically.

"So Ferrari is there, and I would certainly not discount Verstappen as well. It looks here like Mercedes is probably struggling a bit more, but again, let's see in the race.”

Leclerc is unsure whether Ferrari’s performance will translate into the race but vowed to make McLaren’s life “as tough as possible”.

“We will see. I don’t have the answers for now,” Leclerc said when asked about Ferrari’s race day hopes. “The gap is very big today but tomorrow with tyre management, I think that we have a strong car.

“Whether it will be as good as the McLaren? I don’t know but I will do absolutely do everything I can to make the McLarens life as tough as possible.”