Ferrari stands by decision to stop 2025 F1 car development in April

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has defended the Scuderia’s decision to focus its resources on Formula 1’s new regulations for 2026, despite its slump in performance.

All teams have had tough decisions to make ahead of F1’s new technical era, with their resources limited by the budget cap and aerodynamic testing restrictions.

Vasseur said on Friday that Ferrari switched all of its resources to 2026 as early as the end of April – a decision that may have cost the runner-up spot it held just a month ago in the constructors’ championship. The Maranello-based outfit faltered in the last three grands prix and is now mathematically assured to finish fourth, following a dismal Qatar Grand Prix showing.

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Asked if Ferrari could have extracted more from the SF-25 with further development, Vasseur admitted: “Something was missing, probably yes, because at the end of the day when we decided to move on ‘26, it means that we were not confident to be able to catch McLaren before the end. It was the rationale behind the decision, and I think honestly today it was a good decision.

“What I underestimate probably personally is the fact that when you know that you won't develop the car, it's more difficult to keep everybody... motivated is not the right word when you are doing this job, but ‘with expectation’ I would say, and this is important.”

This also applies to Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who appeared even more downbeat than usual in the Losail media pen as they struggled to wring performance out of an extremely unpredictable SF-25.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Were the drivers discouraged by Ferrari’s decision not to develop the 2025 car any longer? “I would say that when you are taking the decision around the table – ‘we have this plan and we can do this, the gradient of development is this one for the new car, this one for the old car’, ‘if you continue to develop the old car, you will catch up McLaren in 10 races or whatever’ – it's a rational decision,” Vasseur responded.

“When you are going to the TV pen, it's an emotional comment. That's life. I perfectly understand the emotion. It's when they are speaking in the radio that they are putting so much energy into the weekend.

“Honestly, they are pushing Charles in the radio at the end of the race. He said, ‘I push like hell from lap one of Friday morning or Friday afternoon to the last lap of the race’, and I think he was probably pushing more than on some weekends when he won races. I understand the frustration because you are pushing like hell to finish P8 or P9, as a driver, you can't deal with this. But if you ask them today if you can redo the choice, I think they would be OK.”

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As far as Ferrari’s recent struggles are concerned, Vasseur insisted it was “a matter of set-up”.

“It's part of the game, part of the life of the team, that sometimes you are struggling a bit more to find the right window,” the Frenchman added. “I think the window is quite narrow. And the fact that the field is much tighter, [if] you lose two or three tenths you are at the back, it's [been] like this from mid-season and it will be like this also in Abu Dhabi.

“If we don't do a good job, it was true for Max [Verstappen] in Sao Paulo that you can be out in Q1 for a set-up issue. It was not true in the past – you had so much difference between the teams that even if you were two or three seconds out of the potential of the car, it was not a big drama. And today it is.”

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