Major Ferrari F1 2025 shortcoming laid bare in damning verdict

Ferrari’s execution has been pinpointed as their major shortcoming this season, according to ex-F1 driver Jolyon Palmer.

Hopes were high that Ferrari could be in contention for pole position and victory last time out in Azerbaijan after Lewis Hamilton led teammate Charles Leclerc in a 1-2 during Friday practice.

But Ferrari’s weekend spectacularly unraveled as Leclerc crashed in qualifying and Hamilton suffered a shock Q2 elimination, leaving the pair only 10th and 12th on the grid. Hamilton and Leclerc would go on to finish an underwhelming eighth and ninth in Baku.

And former Renault driver Palmer believes it is Ferrari’s execution that is currently letting them down.

“For a few weeks now, I've been going big on Ferrari and now I'm going to scope a bit smaller on Ferrari after a couple of false dawns,” Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast.

“I still think they have the better car than Mercedes, but their execution is not there. Monza was roughly okay, they probably finished where they roughly deserved, just outside of the podium.

“But Baku, you've got Hamilton on a used soft tyre trying to get around in Q2 and he goes out, then Leclerc hits the barriers in Q3 and they end up 10th and 12th on the grid.

“That’s so far away from what that car should have been capable of. That seems to be a little bit the story of Ferrari’s season.

“Before Singapore, I think they should beat Mercedes, but I went back and looked at the results from last year and I looked at qualifying, Ferrari were 10th and ninth on the grid.

“Carlos Sainz had a crash and Charles Leclerc didn’t get a lap time in for going over track limits at Turn 2. That just feels like the most Ferrari thing possible on a circuit where they should be quick.

“The amount of times they have these catastrophic no points out of a race weekend that you've got to be at least getting a top five.

“Logic would say they're going to be good again, low speed, better than Mercedes, but they've got to put it on the board.”

Could Singapore be better for Ferrari? 

Ferrari have been tipped to perform strongly at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, given the low-speed nature of the street circuit.

But Palmer is cautious about making any bold predictions about Ferrari given how their 2025 campaign is going.

“There’s a certain level of irony to Sainz getting a podium this year and Hamilton not, yet Sainz is in the Williams and Hamilton’s taken his seat at Ferrari,” he added.

“I really thought Baku was going to be the one. They ended Friday 1-2 and I thought ‘this is going to be my genius prediction coming in, finally Ferrari are going to get their win’ but there’s always something going wrong for them.

“It seems to be going wrong, firstly for Lewis at some point, being on the wrong tyre at the wrong time, finding traffic, going over track limits, having a big rear lock. There’s always something that seems to be going wrong for him and he’s very dejected and the other car can be hit or miss.

“Both drivers have great form in Singapore. The circuit is as close as you can get to Monaco, which is low speed and they qualified second and fourth - Lewis had his penalty. Charles was very nearly on pole. The car has actually made some steps over the summer as well, with suspension upgrades, floor upgrades. Obviously everyone else is moving forwards as well.

“They can be quick, I’m just a little bit scared to predict they’ll be really good after the last couple of weekends.”