How Monza brought out Ferrari’s fundamental limitations with its 2025 F1 car

For the many fans who flocked to the grandstands, ready to support the Prancing Horse, the real surprise of the Monza weekend was unfortunately not Ferrari, but Red Bull. For Ferrari, it was a bitter blow; the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix represented one of its best opportunities to beat the dominant McLaren.

This was not the case. Monza, where aerodynamic efficiency often rules the day, underlined Ferrari’s limitations that have persisted through much of the season, even on a favourable track. Hopes of a first win of the season were effectively extinguished on Saturday, in a qualifying session in which the SF-25 lacked the line-leading pace.

To hope for anything more than fourth and sixth place, it would need a surprise twist of fate on Sunday. The drivers attacked in the first part of the race to facilitate that but, with few  variables of which to take advantage, hopes soon faded.

The grand prix turned out to be surprisingly linear and devoid of twists and turns, even more so than the teams themselves had anticipated. Those factors that had fuelled uncertainty last year, and which could have helped Ferrari, vanished. It ultimately exposed the areas on which the SF-25 is lacking compared to its rivals, particularly on aerodynamic load.

This is an area that has relegated Ferrari to the role of ‘extra’ in a grand prix that it would dearly have loved to compete in as a protagonist. The signs had already emerged in qualifying, but in the race, without the support of the extra grip provided by the new soft tyre, the shortcomings of the SF-25 became even more evident. 

Certainly, in the early stages of the race the two drivers pushed on, contributing to the tyres overheating at a delicate time in their life cycle. This required a few laps to re-establish the balance, but this was relative, as it did not affect consumption too much, and degradation proved minimal.

In his post-race analysis, Fred Vasseur spoke of a “last tenth” missing in the direct comparison with the McLaren. On a dry lap, this analysis is valid, although the new soft tyre did in fact mask some shortcomings to offer grip to an extremely unloaded car. In the race, however, the scenario turned out to be much more complex and far removed from the picture. It culminated in a situation where, at the Temple of Speed, Ferrari just didn’t have enough of it.

Analysing the race from lap 20 onwards, after the most critical phase related to tyre thermal management, it becomes clear where the SF-25 lost ground to McLaren and Red Bull: in the corners. In particular, in the fastest and most technical sections such as Ascari and Parabolica, where stability is crucial, the Ferrari lagged at times by as much as 10-11km/h (6-7mph).

The large speed advantage on the straights, up to 6-7 km/h on the MCL39 and 3-4 km/h on the RB21, was not enough to compensate for the time lost in the corners, translating into an average gap of around two and a half tenths per lap compared to Piastri and over four from Verstappen, at least until the first pitstop.

It wasn’t all bad; it was this slower cornering speed that allowed the SF-25 to put less stress on the tyres, favouring a gradual approach in pace in the final stint, until reaching performance comparable with its rivals.

Carrying less speed into corners, the SF-25 generated less strain on the tyres, a factor that worked in its favour in the middle stages of the race. It was at that point, as Verstappen admitted, that the Dutchman began to feel the effects of some degradation after pushing for over 30 laps. Ferrari experienced a similar situation in Jeddah: time lost in traffic had mitigated the tyre consumption, again on a track characterised by low degradation and extremely smooth asphalt.

The choice of Ferrari to focus on an extremely unloaded set-up is understandable: it represents a technical ‘all-in’, to which even Red Bull ended up adapting to make the difference by following the same direction as Ferrari. Betting everything on a certain area was the only real way to beat an all-rounder like McLaren’s MCL39. But at that point, the crucial issue remained the aerodynamic load generated by the underbody and body.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images

Looking back over the season, the RB21 has shown consistent superiority in very high-speed corners, thanks to a stability and load level that the SF-25 has never been able to match and what the drivers have reported so often on. This is a limitation that had already emerged in other rounds, and at Monza became even more evident and detrimental – and could not be compensated for by loading the wings, given the risk of losing efficiency and its greatest strength. 

Of course, it’s true that each single-seater has its own aerodynamic mapping, with characteristics that determine its efficiency based on load and cornering. McLaren tends to be more efficient and perform better with the wings loaded, while for Red Bull it’s the opposite.

There were legitimate expectations that the lower load at the rear could generate more sliding and, consequently, more tyre degradation. In reality, the low consumption recorded greatly mitigated the problem, neutralising one of the MCL39’s strengths, rear-end handling. This was an unexpected side effect, which levelled out performance and made one of its best weapons less decisive.

This scenario allowed the rivals to push without fear, especially in the initial phase, showing all the superiority of their aerodynamic load. Ferrari wanted Monza to be the stage for redemption, but instead it turned into a faithful mirror of the limits of the SF-25’s design.