Heading to Melbourne for the Australian GP, Ferrari had high hopes for their performance. They had a positive pre-season testing where they seemed close to McLaren and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. But then, reality hit them during the qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix.
During the free practice sessions at Melbourne, Ferrari seemed to have the pace to challenge the McLarens for pole position and the race win. But as the qualifying session came, the Scuderia disappointed by only qualifying 7th and 8th on the grid for Sunday.
Albon and Tsunoda qualify ahead of both Ferraris
During the session, they didn’t just fall behind the McLarens and Verstappen but also behind Alex Albon in the Williams, Yuki Tsunoda in the VCARB and George Russell in the Mercedes. But what led to Ferrari losing so much ground to the leaders?
As the qualifying session started, the sandbags came off for all the teams. They all started to unveil their true pace. Evidently, Williams and Red Bull had a lot of pace they were hiding. Ferrari was simply caught off guard as the other teams out-performed them.
The drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, also made several errors during their hot laps that cost valuable time. It is clear that there is still a lot to the SF-25 that the drivers will have to understand.
Lewis Hamilton is facing the wrong way after having a spin! 😦#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/5Ig5WgATKl
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 15, 2025
Despite being excited to make his Ferrari debut, Hamilton suffered a lot with the SF-25 during qualifying. He even had a spin during Q2 that affected his confidence as he entered Q3.
Here’s what Leclerc had to say after the qualifying session ended:
“Ever since this morning, the performance wasn’t the same as yesterday. I think I know where it comes from, but we have to analyse the data. Unfortunately, we did the right thing for the weekend; we had to lose a bit of performance, and I won’t go into details. 7th and 8th is disappointing. I wouldn’t have imagined this even in the worst scenario.”
Ferrari seemingly made some changes to the car between the 2nd Free practice session and qualifying. These changes have made a drastic impact on the performance and have disallowed the Scuderia to compete at the top. While Leclerc didn’t get into too much detail, he did mention that he was expecting a change but did not imagine that the car would be this bad.
What can we expect from Ferrari during the Australian Grand Prix?
Ferrari entered the weekend with hopes to fight for victory against McLaren and Max Verstappen. But that seems unlikely now that they are far off the front of the grid. However, wet weather conditions are predicted for Sunday’s race, so anything can happen.
🏁| The results of the first Qualifying session of 2025:
Lando Norris on pole with Oscar Piastri making it a 1-2.
Max Verstappen in 3rd with Williams looking like they mean business this year#F1 #AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/n6oVk1qFCN
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) March 15, 2025
In the recent past, we have seen McLaren struggle during wet conditions. This could open the door for the Ferraris to make their way onto the podium. With Hamilton in 8th and Leclerc in 7th, they would have to get past Albon, Tsunoda, and Russell before they battle for podium positions.
There is no doubt that this is going to be an uphill battle for Ferrari on Sunday. But can they still recover from this poor result? We’ll have to wait till tomorrow to get an answer to that question.
