Ferrari hope ‘quickly evaporated’ after failed Lewis Hamilton experiment at the Singapore Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton once again failed to record his first Grand Prix podium as a Ferrari F1 driver in Singapore as the Scuderia battled problems long before his late brake issue.

The 40-year-old is now 18 rounds through his first season at Ferrari, but the only highlight of his campaign remains winning the F1 Sprint in China back in round two this March. Hamilton has also not finished higher than P6 over the past six Grands Prix, including P8 in Singapore.

Hamilton took the chequered flag in the Singapore Grand Prix in P7, yet a post-race penalty demoted him behind Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin. Ferrari saw Hamilton receive a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits in Singapore whilst he managed a late brake issue.

His brake issue denied Hamilton a chance to fight Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli for P5, before falling back behind Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc whilst he tried to get home. Leclerc had a brake issue from Lap 7 in Singapore, but he did not push as much as Hamilton.

Ferrari hoped Singapore’s smooth corners would mitigate their car’s understeer problems

But the brake problems that Hamilton and Leclerc met in Sunday’s race were only the tip of the iceberg of woe that Ferrari faced at the Singapore GP. Motorsport.com reports that their woes started in practice on Friday, as the Scuderia frantically tried to realise their only hope.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Ferrari thought Marina Bay’s smooth corners might ‘mitigate’ the SF-25’s limitations in slow-speed turns, which causes ‘chronic understeer’ that Leclerc and Hamilton struggle to drive around. Yet their hope ‘quickly evaporated’ after a raft of failed experiments during practice.

The pride of Italy essentially treated the first and second practice sessions last Friday as test sessions, with Hamilton and Leclerc conducting several cross-tests. Ferrari even made a raft of changes during and between the sessions, only to then have to increase their ride height.

But running the SF-25 higher off the ground in Singapore than Ferrari need to optimise their car’s performance was just a part of their problems, having tried an array of mechanical and aerodynamic experiments without finding a balance that could remove the car’s understeer.

So, while Leclerc saw the Singapore GP as one of Ferrari’s three final chances to win a race in 2025, with the Scuderia the only one of F1’s top four teams without a Grand Prix win this year, ‘no one’ wanted to raise expectations following the team’s failures in Monza and Baku.

Charles Leclerc’s hope that Ferrari could win in Singapore failed to materialise

Ferrari chairman John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna are expected to hold serious talks in Maranello about the F1 team’s want of results this season, which even saw Leclerc have the look of total resignation in Singapore, too. He also qualified 0.626s from pole position in P7.

The Monegasque looked beaten after finishing the Singapore GP 45.996 seconds shy of the leader, as George Russell won from pole for Mercedes. It was far from the result that Leclerc envisaged when he suggested after the Italian Grand Prix that Ferrari could win in Singapore.

Leclerc also identified the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Las Vegas Grand Prix as two races that Ferrari could win to ensure they do not finish the 2025 F1 season without a race victory. Yet Hamilton finished the Azerbaijan GP as the lead Ferrari driver in P8 and 36.310s off the lead.