Gary Anderson is ‘not seeing’ one thing from Ferrari’s Belgian Grand Prix update after private test

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Ferrari are not resting on their laurels before the summer break, as the Scuderia intend to hand Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc upgrades in Belgium and also in Hungary.

The Maranello crew have even utilised the three-week break between the British Grand Prix and Belgian Grand Prix to run a filming day at Mugello. Ferrari took advantage of the 200km allowed to test the rear suspension upgrade that they intend to debut at Spa next weekend.

Leclerc and Hamilton both took the SF-25 out for 100km each at Mugello this Thursday with Ferrari’s upgrade fitted on the car. But while cautious optimism spread in the garage, Leclerc did not feel a big difference from Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade during his time on track.

Technical director Loic Serra, who led the design of Ferrari’s update, and team principal Fred Vasseur attended the filming day at Mugello to follow its performance. The Scuderia are the only one of F1’s top four teams still yet to win a Grand Prix or score a pole position this year.

Gary Anderson is ‘not seeing’ as much as he expected from Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade

While their filming day at Mugello was a private test for Ferrari to trial their rear suspension upgrade ahead of the Belgian GP, where they will only have one practice session thanks to it also being an F1 Sprint event, images of the update quickly surfaced from the Tuscan circuit.

READ MORE: The most successful F1 teams and engine manufacturers at the Belgian GP

And Gary Anderson is ‘not seeing’ as much as he ‘expected’ from the changes Ferrari made, having changed the mounting point for the front wishbone of their pull-rod rear suspension to the gearbox. Ferrari hope it makes their car more stable and can run lower to the ground.

He told The Race: “We have heard on many occasions that Ferrari have had to compromise the rear ride height in an attempt to reduce plank wear. The damper doesn’t really control the height of the rear of the car.

“What it will do is control the rate of change of the rear of the car, especially if it gets into an aerodynamic porpoising frequency. The damper can change the frequency of that ride height change to get it away from the frequency of the aerodynamic separation and re-attachment problems.

“What we can see is that Ferrari have also increased the anti-lift on the rear suspension top wishbone forward leg. For the effort involved in doing this, I’m not seeing as much of a change as I would have expected.”

Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade is not as advanced as Mercedes’ new design, which Gary Anderson admired

It has also been said that Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade is not as advanced as Mercedes’ new design, which the Silver Arrows initially introduced at Imola before bringing back at the Canadian Grand Prix. George Russell used their update to win from pole position in Canada.

READ MORE: The most successful F1 drivers at the Belgian GP of all time and at Spa

Anderson admired Mercedes’ recent rear suspension upgrade, too, as the former Jordan F1 technical director considered it a ‘win-win’ solution. The upgrade helped Russell to manage his rear wheelspin and tyre temperatures, along with running his W16 lower to the ground.

Ferrari will hope that, while their new design is not advanced as Mercedes’ update, it can fix the problems that have affected them this season. Hamilton was disqualified from the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix due to excessive wear to his skid block as Ferrari ran his SF-25 too low.

Ferrari plan to run a power steering upgrade in Hungary, as well, to help improve the feeling that Hamilton and Leclerc get from the SF-25 at high speeds. It may be especially helpful for the former, as Hamilton has struggled under braking due to Ferrari’s power steering, as well.