Ferrari mechanic privately gave bleak four-word verdict on Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s 2025

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Ferrari paid the price for focusing on F1’s 2026 regulations early into the 2025 season, as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton did not win a single Grand Prix from 24 rounds.

Team principal Fred Vasseur decided to sacrifice designing any aerodynamic updates for the SF-25 back in April after realising how far adrift of McLaren the Scuderia truly were. Vasseur felt Ferrari focusing on the 2026 regulations was a better use of their wind tunnel allowance.

It also did not help the Maranello outfit’s efforts in the 2025 season that Ferrari prioritised a rear suspension upgrade over aerodynamic updates before closing all development options. The updated suspension did not solve the SF-25’s chronic ride height problems this season.

In the end, Ferrari finished the year just fourth in the constructors’ standings and 435 points behind champions McLaren, who beat the Scuderia to the 2024 title by only 14 points. Also, Leclerc and Hamilton came fifth and sixth in the F1 drivers’ standings on 242 and 156 points.

A Ferrari mechanic conceded ‘we never celebrate’ after their dire 2025 F1 season

Hamilton joined Ferrari from Mercedes at the start of 2025 believing that the Scuderia had “every ingredient” to win a title this year. But Hamilton’s F1 Sprint victory in China in round two back in March would be the only time that the seven-time champion would celebrate.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2026 F1 engine and aero regulations

The 40-year-old failed to take a single Grand Prix podium in a season for the first time in his 19-year F1 career during 2025. And while Leclerc got on seven rostrums, a Ferrari mechanic stunned ex-Minardi F1 driver Paolo Barilla with his bleak assessment of the team’s season.

Barilla told Quotidiano Sportivo: “At the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, I greeted a small group of Ferrari mechanics and told them we support them and suffer with them.

“One of them said to me, ‘Hey, we never celebrate’. I was so sorry to see so much bitterness in someone who deserves so much more.”

Fred Vasseur cannot blame Ferrari focusing on the 2026 F1 regulations for their miserable 2025

How many Grand Prix wins would Charles Leclerc have if he drove for McLaren in the ground-effect era?

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Ferrari were the only one of the big four F1 teams to fail to win at least one Grand Prix in the 2025 season, with McLaren securing 14, Red Bull eight and Mercedes two. Leclerc even took the Scuderia’s sole pole position, while McLaren took 13, Red Bull eight and Mercedes two.

The 2025 season marks the first campaign since 2021 in which Ferrari have failed to win any Grands Prix. Vasseur cannot use Ferrari focusing on F1’s 2026 regulations as an excuse for all of their plight, as McLaren switched their focus in July due to their work over the winter.

Ferrari expected to fight McLaren in 2025 after finishing 14 points shy of the title last term. But while McLaren reaped the rewards from changing their suspension set-up over the off-season, Ferrari’s new suspension set-up in 2025 created their chronic ride height problems.

So, Ferrari will copy McLaren’s suspension philosophy in 2026, as the Scuderia will return to using push-rods on both axles instead of pull-rods for the new regulations cycle. It is a huge change, but Ferrari will hope it pays off and also allows their mechanics to celebrate again.