With the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix done and dusted, there are some concerns for Ferrari. Although their results may look decent on paper, their pace is not yet good enough to compete against the top 2 teams on the grid.
During the Bahrain Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc started 2nd on the grid and finished 4th. Hamilton, on the other hand, started 9th and finished 5th. While Hamilton’s gain in positions is a positive, Ferrari’s pace was nowhere near the front runners in Bahrain.
Fred Vasseur calls for stability and consistency after Bahrain Grand Prix
Ferrari has had a bittersweet start to the 2025 season. Their performance in Australia was well below expectations. In China, Hamilton won the Sprint Race but was not able to replicate for the main Grand Prix. In Japan, both Ferrari cars were disqualified from the race for different reasons.
Looking at the results so far, there is no doubt that there are some inconsistencies in Ferrari’s pace. Their team principal, Fred Vasseur, gave his thoughts after the race in Sakhir.
“After [the sprint race] in China, we were speaking about the prize-giving ceremony, and after the race in China, it was a total disaster,” Vasseur told the media.
“In terms of management, we have to take it easy, to calm down as the issue is that, probably for us, the ups are a bit higher and the downs are a bit lower.
Charles Leclerc Indicates Key Ferrari Upgrades Set for Bahrain Grand Prix
“It means that if we want to keep a consistent approach, which we did very well in the last two years, we have to stay calm to improve hundredths of seconds by hundredths of seconds.
“I understand the frustration of [Saturday] evening because if you have a look from FP1 to Q2, he (Hamilton) was a tenth, plus or minus with Charles.
“Then you arrive into Q3 and the first lap is deleted and on the second one, he made a mistake and then you pay the price because the grid is not made up of the average, but on the last lap.
“For sure there is a bit of frustration for him, but also for us. He had a very strong recovery, had a solid race and came back in P5.”
Although Hamilton came up to P5, he was much slower than his teammate, Charles Leclerc. Hamilton finished over 6 seconds behind his teammate despite being on the same strategy throughout the race.
Where does Ferrari stand compared to McLaren and Mercedes
After the Bahrain Grand Prix, it seems like McLaren are the top runners, followed by Mercedes and Ferrari. While McLaren is still too far ahead for Ferrari, Mercedes is not. The Maranello-based team now needs to focus on getting more consistent and getting their drivers on the podium for the Grand Prix.
In Sakhir, Mercedes driver George Russell faced a lot of issues in his car during the final few laps. But despite these problems, Leclerc was not able to catch up to him.
🚨| Charles Leclerc spoke with Sky Sports post race, comparing the pace of the Ferrari to the Mercedes:
“We don’t have that pace in the car. Mercedes were quite a bit faster in terms of, quite a bit better in terms of degradation compared to us. The soft, we couldn’t keep them… pic.twitter.com/uIiGBYf74L
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) April 13, 2025
Coming into the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari expected to be a bit more competitive as they had brought the biggest upgrade package for the weekend. However, the effect of the upgrade package was not visible during the race.
Heading to Jeddah for the next race, the Prancing Horse team needs to learn from their mistakes and data and move on. But let’s not rule out Ferrari for the Championship just yet. Last year, we saw Red Bull dominate the first quarter of the season, only to finish 3rd, surpassed by McLaren and Ferrari. So we could see something similar happen if the red team bring an effective upgrade in the coming races.
What do you think Ferrari needs to do to improve their pace? Let us know in the comments section below.
