“A difficult start to the season”: Ferrari in trouble before the Japanese GP

With 14 points, Ferrari languishes in fifth position in the Constructors' standings, tied with Williams and with only three more units than Haas. Yet, if she were rewarded only on her pure performance, the Team would have 35 points, one less than Red Bull, before arriving in Japan.

But the Formula 1 is a precision sport in which every detail counts, right down to the bowels of the single-seaters, where the technical regulations precisely set out countless parameters that must be respected under penalty of sanctions. For Ferrari, it was half a millimeter and a kilogram that led to an unfortunate double disqualification in China.

La car de Lewis Hamilton, winner of the Sprint on Saturday, had a worn skid plate due to a car set too low. The other SF-25, bearing the number 16 of Charles Leclerc, was one kilogram short of the legal limit after the finish, an infraction which also cost theAlpine de Pierre Gasly.

But this double downgrade in itself is not the most worrying thing for the Scuderia, which made an error that is easy to erase: what is more worrying is the lack of performance of the single-seater, which, during the Grand Prix, was not capable of fighting for the podium, let alone for victory.

"I am confident, because obviously, with every mistake, you learn, especially when they cost so much, downplays Charles Leclerc at Suzuka. Everyone plays with the limit and tries to get as close as possible, but having both cars below that limit was a real pain, and we didn't need that. In the end, it was a very complicated period. The start of the season, the first two races were difficult. The pace wasn't exactly where we expected it to be. And to lose even more points than we had already lost with that… It's a lot for the team, but I'm confident we'll learn from it. When this kind of event happens, you always try to understand and analyze where it went wrong and change our process a little bit. It was a set of small things that added up, and the margin we had taken wasn't enough.

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Ferrari can still have an "exceptional" season, assures Leclerc

In China, Ferrari showed two faces: that of the Sprint segment, where Lewis Hamilton chained pole position and victory, and that of the Grand Prix, where the Reds were more discreet. “We saw a lot of progress on Saturday, especially in the sprint race with Lewis. notes Charles Leclerc. On Sunday, I think it's back to normal. So yes, I expect us to be more or less at the same level as we were in China on Sunday and in Melbourne."

So it won't be at Japan Ferrari will return to winning ways, according to the Monegasque, who, before the start of the season, was aiming to bring home at least one of the two titles at the end of the year. There is no question of lowering his ambitions already, despite the difficulties encountered: Leclerc believes in his team's ability to turn things around, just like in 2024. "I think if you look back at last year, after the first two races, the situation in terms of performance was much worse than where we are now, assures the winner of three races last year. We more or less expected Red Bull to dominate the entire season and, by taking the points that were within our grasp at the beginning of the year with the performance we had, we ended up fighting for the championship at the end of the season, which was way beyond our initial expectations. So, no, there's definitely not that feeling in the team right now. However, there's still the feeling that we haven't maximized our potential in these first two races, and that's frustrating. But that doesn't mean we can't make up for it. We know the season is still very, very long and, as I said earlier, by taking it one step at a time, we can still have an exceptional season."

With the highly publicized arrival of Lewis Hamilton this winter, expectations are even higher for Ferrari, which hopes to return to success thanks to the arrival of the most successful driver in the history of the sport. The Italians have been chasing the Drivers' title since 2007 and the Constructors' title since 2008.

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