Ferrari “lost its way” after “quality issues”, Fred Vasseur admits

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has admitted that the Italian squad “lost its way” after encountering “quality issues” at the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Ferrari was expected to make major headway this year after a strong end to 2024, with Lewis Hamilton’s shock victory in the Shanghai sprint race in March showing it was capable of taking the fight to McLaren.

However, disaster struck just a day later in China when Hamilton was disqualified from the grand prix for excessive plank wear, while teammate Charles Leclerc was also excluded from the results for driving an underweight car.

The double blow forced Ferrari to increase the ride height of the SF-25, putting the car outside its optimum performance window.

Fred Vasseur admits Ferrari problems

Vasseur explained that the issue not only compromised the speed of the car directly, but it also meant that the team couldn’t focus on other key areas.

“McLaren is outstanding at tyre management, especially in wet or hot conditions,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.

“The disqualifications threw us off track a bit. We had to leave ourselves a safety margin in terms of ground clearance.

“As we all know, these cars are extremely sensitive when it comes to ground clearance. Every millimetre is a position on the starting grid.

“If you don’t have full control over the vehicle height, it affects the car’s competitiveness.

“To solve the problem, you lose focus on other things. Preparing the tyres for qualifying, the warm-up laps, you name it.”

Ferrari has bounced back in the European leg of the season, with Leclerc finishing on the podium in four out of the last seven events and also claiming pole position in Hungary last time out.

Vasseur explained how Ferrari lost its way early in the year, but feels the Scuderia is now in a much better position relative to the competition.

“Over the last three or four weekends, we have been able to close the gap to two tenths,” Vasseur explained.

“We had a lot of problems with the handling at the race track at the beginning of the season. There were quality issues, then the disqualifications. We lost our way a bit there.

“So much depends on the details - and qualifying in Budapest was a good example. If you focus on the wrong things, you immediately lose a lot of ground.

“If Charles had been two tenths slower, he would have been sixth instead of first.

“It’s very difficult to know what’s important at any given moment in order to be fast.”