How Monza brought Ferrari’s fundamental boundaries with his 2025 F1 car

For many fans who used to come to Grandstands, were ready to support Ping Horse, the real surprise of Monza Weekend was not unfortunately FerrariBut red bull. For Ferrari, it was a bitter shock; Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix represented one of his best opportunities to defeat the chief McLaren,

This was not the case. Monza, where aerodynamic efficiency often ruled on day, underlines the boundaries of Ferrari that remains through most parts of the season, even on a favorable track. The first winning hopes of the season were effectively extinguished on Saturday, in a qualifying session in which the SF -25 ladened line -leading speed.

To expect anything more than the fourth and sixth place, it will require a stunning turn of luck on Sunday. The drivers attacked the first part of the race, but, but with some variables, to take advantage of, soon faded.

The Grand Prix surprisingly turned out to be linear and devoid of twist and turn, even higher than teams. The factors that promoted uncertainty last year, and who could help Ferrari disappeared. This eventually highlighted areas that SF -25 is decreased compared to its rivals, especially on aerodynamic loads.

This is an area that has re -accused Ferrari for the role of ‘additional’ in a grand prix that it would prefer to compete as a hero. The signs had already emerged in merit, but in the race, without the support of the additional grip provided by the new soft tires, the shortcomings of the SF -25 became even more pronounced.

Certainly, in the early stages of the race, both drivers contributed to heating tires at a delicate time in their life cycle. It required some laps to re -establish the balance, but it was a relative, as it did not affect consumption too much, and the decline proved to be minimal.

In his post-race analysis, Fred Vasasur spoke of the disappearance “final tenth” with McLaren. In a dry lap, this analysis is valid, although the new soft tire really masked some shortcomings to offer a highly unloaded car. However, in the race, the scenario became much more complex and away from the picture. This ended in a situation where, in the temple of motion, the bus near Ferrari was not enough.

After the most important phase related to tire thermal management, analyzing the race from lap 20, it becomes clear that SF -25 lost the ground in the corners. In particular, the fastest and most technical classes such as Askari and Parbolica, where stability is important, Ferrari several times lagged behind as 10–11 km/h (6–7mph).

The advantage of large speed on strats, 6-7 km/h at MCL39 and 3-4 km/h on RB21, was not enough to make up for the lost time in the corners, translating in about two and a half tenth per lap and more than four from Vestapane, at least earlier, up to the pitstop.

It was not all bad; It was a slow corner speed that allowed SF -25 to put less stress on tires, which was in favor of a gradual approach in the last term, until it reached comparative performance with its rivals.

After carrying low speed in the corners, SF -25 caused less stress on tires, a factor that worked in its favor in the middle stages of the race. It was at that point, as Verustapen admitted that Dutchman began to feel the effects of some fall after pushing for more than 30 laps. Ferrari experienced a similar situation in Jeddah: lost time in traffic reduced the consumption of tire, again on a track characterized by low decline and extremely smooth asphalt.

Ferrari’s choice to focus on an extremely unloaded set-up makes sense: it represents a technical ‘all-in’, which also ended to make a difference by following the same direction as the Red Bull Ferrari. Betting everything on a certain area was the only real way to beat an all -rounder such as McLeran’s MCL39. But at that point, the important issue remained an aerodynamic load generated by the underbody and body.

Turning back in the season, RB21 has shown frequent superiority in very high -speed corners, thanks to a stability and load level that SF -25 has never been able to match and the drivers have reported so many times. It is a limit that had already emerged in other rounds, and became even more clear and harmful in Monza – and could not be compensated by loading the wings, looking at the risk of losing efficiency and its greatest strength.

Of course, it is true that each single-seater has its own aerodynamic mapping, with characteristics that determine its efficiency based on load and cornering. McLaren becomes more efficient and performs better with loaded wings, while for red bull it is the opposite.

There were valid hopes that the backward low load sliding more and, as a result, could cause more tire falls. In fact, low consumption has greatly reduced the problem, neutralizing one of the rear-end handling of MCL39. It was an unexpected side effects that eliminated the performance and made one of their best weapons less decisive.

This scenario allowed the rivals to be pushed without any fear, especially in the initial stage, showing all the superiority of their aerodynamic weight. Ferrari wanted Monza to become a platform for redemption, but instead it turned into a loyal mirror of the design boundaries of SF -25.