Ferrari still have one ‘big concern’ about the 2025 F1 season despite Lewis Hamilton’s brilliant Imola result

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Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur may have felt more relief than joy when leaving the Formula 1 circuit named after the team’s founder on Sunday.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix has been a happy hunting ground for Ferrari in the past, although they have failed to win the race since its return to the F1 calendar in 2020.

That opportunity may have now passed, with Imola set to fall off the calendar after this year, ahead of the introduction of the Madrid Grand Prix in 2026.

Michael Schumacher won at the track on seven occasions, six while racing for Ferrari, but Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc couldn’t even enjoy the adulation from the Scuderia from the podium.

Hamilton drove brilliantly to recover to fourth after failing to start in the top 10, while Leclerc had to settle for sixth after losing out to Alex Albon in the closing stages.

After reaching the chequered flag, Hamilton delivered a positive message to Ferrari about their chances of winning in the future.

However, the situation is still quite concerning, having only recorded one Grand Prix podium finish after seven race weekends.

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Ferrari’s ‘big concern’ is not understanding their 2025 Formula 1 car

Journalist Andrew Benson was reflecting on Hamilton’s positive post-race interview on the Chequered Flag Podcast after he drove through the field at Imola to finish fourth and explained: “It was great to watch him come through the field.

“Lots of spectacle involved in that, also some good overtaking moves at the end, but I think there’s a big concern for Ferrari out of this race weekend or rather out of the season so far.

“It’s that they’re never really quite sure what they’re going to get.

“In Miami, the qualifying wasn’t too bad, the race was pretty bad. In Imola, the qualifying was terrible and the race suddenly went quite well. Why? They don’t know.

“This is the point and it’s all to do with how they’re working the tyres.

“So, one possible explanation for what’s happened today, for example, is that maybe they were overheating their tyres in qualifying, but then as the rubber comes off the tyres in the race, overheating becomes less of an issue so you can push harder and therefore your pace becomes much more competitive.

“Now, they were the third-fastest team without question today behind Red Bull and McLaren who were pretty much neck and neck and no one else was anywhere near them, but they weren’t like that two weeks ago.”

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How Lewis Hamilton felt about Ferrari’s performance despite lack of clarity over 2025 F1 car’s issues

Ferrari are considering modifications to the rear of their car to try and understand why they’re so inconsistent across a race weekend.

Leclerc has been far from impressed with his Ferrari since pre-season especially considering he knew how strong their car was last season when they narrowly missed out on the constructors’ championship.

Benson explained how Hamilton reacted to his race in Imola and said: “Hamilton feels really positive now because he’s just had a race where he’s come back through the field, finished fourth after being 12th and he was on for a good result even before the safety car with that long run and then the VSC helped him a lot before the final safety car.

“But, until they can get to the bottom of why the car’s not behaving in a consistently predictable way, they’re going to keep having these weekends where their pace veers one way to another.”

The upcoming race in Monaco is likely to be largely determined by qualifying with overtaking so difficult on the streets of Monte Carlo.

That could prove to be devastating for Ferrari if they don’t find a way to improve their one-lap pace from Imola.