Ferrari plotting bonus SF-25 upgrade after Hamilton and Leclerc complaint emerges – report
Lewis Hamilton climbs out of his Ferrari SF-25 in parc ferme at the 2025 British Grand Prix
Ferrari is working on an upgrade to the SF-25’s power steering for next month’s Hungarian Grand Prix, it has been claimed.
It comes after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc reportedly complained about the car’s handling in the high-speed corners over the British Grand Prix weekend.
Ferrari planning further SF-25 upgrade after Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc concerns
As reported by PlanetF1.com, Ferrari staged a filming day at the Mugello circuit earlier this week with Hamilton and Leclerc both behind the wheel at the former Tuscan Grand Prix venue.
The outing saw Ferrari’s highly anticipated rear-suspension upgrade appear on track for the first time.
It is hoped that the tweak will finally cure the SF-25’s longstanding ride-height issues, allowing Ferrari to access more of the car’s underlying potential – and potentially compete for race victories – in the second half of the F1 2025 season.
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
As reported at the time by PlanetF1.com, it emerged at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix that the floor of the car was running too close to the ground.
The situation reached a nadir at the following race in China, where Hamilton was disqualified due to excessive skid-block wear 24 hours after winning the sprint race in Shanghai.
Hamilton confirmed at the next race in Japan that Ferrari had been forced to run the car higher than it was designed for at the cost of performance to prevent a repeat.
It has since emerged that the team has been instructing both drivers to lift and coast at the end of straights to protect the skid blocks during the race, as opposed to making costly setup compromises, to help manage the issue.
If successful, the new rear suspension – combined with the upgraded floor the team introduced in Austria (below) – will allow Ferrari to deploy more aggressive setup configurations in the second half of the season.
With Hamilton leading calls for Ferrari to switch focus to its F1 2026 car – codenamed Project 678 – it is thought that the suspension tweak will represent the team’s last major upgrade of the current season.
However, it has emerged that Ferrari is plotting an extra tweak before the summer break related to the SF-25’s power steering.
A report by Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport has claimed that the team is working on a small adjustment to the power steering, which should be completed in time for the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend on August 1-3.
The plans have come into effect after both Hamilton and Leclerc raised concerns over the precision of the steering, and their confidence in the stability of the car’s front end, in the fast corners at Silverstone earlier this month.
The tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring could see the Budapest weekend emerge as Ferrari’s best chance of winning a race so far in F1 2025.
Leclerc claimed his best result of the season by finishing second in Monaco – a layout often likened to the Hungarian Grand Prix venue – in May, 24 hours after he fell narrowly short of beating Lando Norris’s McLaren to pole position.
More on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com
Hamilton stands as the most successful driver in the history of the Hungarian Grand Prix, having won the race on eight occasions since his rookie season in 2007.
He famously collected his maiden victory for the Mercedes team in Budapest in 2013.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at Silverstone, Hamilton described the SF-25 as “the most difficult car” he has ever driven at his home circuit.
And he insisted that Ferrari cannot afford to carry the current car’s weaknesses into next season.
He said: “It was the most difficult car I’ve driven here.
“It’s only my second time driving in the wet in this car and I can’t even express to you how hard it is.
“It’s not a car that likes those conditions, but lots of data to take from this.
“I might have to sit down with the people that are designing the car for next year because there’s elements of this car that cannot go into the following year.”
Hamilton is yet to stand on the podium in Ferrari colours with the seven-time World Champion finishing no higher than fourth across the opening 12 races of the F1 2025 season.
Next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa will mark a year since his final victory for Mercedes in 2024, when Hamilton inherited the win following the disqualification of team-mate George Russell.
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