‘Very cagey’ Ferrari with ‘legal’ question over SF-25’s ride-height

Seven-tenths down on McLaren in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, former W Series racer Naomi Schiff says it is frustrating that “very cagey” Ferrari won’t admit the SF-25 has a ride-height issue.

Although pre-season predictions had Ferrari as one of the favourites to take the fight to Red Bull for the championship double, it’s McLaren who has pulled clear of the field as it cruises to not only the double, but a 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings.

Ferrari ‘seem to be very cagey about what’s going on’

14 races into the F1 2025 championship, and Ferrari is still chasing a first grand prix victory.

There were signs of encouragement early in the campaign when Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese GP Sprint from lights to flag only for the Briton to be disqualified from the grand prix 24 hours later when his Ferrari’s plank was found to have excessive wear.

And so began a season of widely reported speculation that Ferrari’s SF-25 has a ride-height issue.

Hamilton alluded to this in Japan when he revealed Ferrari were running the car “higher than we want to be”.

11 races later, it still appeared to be an issue for the Italian stable with Charles Leclerc venting about his “undrivable” car after losing two seconds per lap in the final stint of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

George Russell, who chased and overtook Leclerc for the final podium position, suspected the SF-25 was “close to being illegal”, adding: “The only thing we can think of is they were running the car too low to the ground and they had to increase the tyre pressures for the last stint.”

Despite the months of speculation, Ferrari has not publicly admitted that the car cannot legally be run at the preferred height.

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

But as Schiff put it, that hasn’t stopped the talk.

“Yeah, frustratingly Ferrari haven’t really clearly come out and said this is the issue we’re struggling with,” the former racer turned Sky F1 presenter said in Zandvoort.

“They seem to be very cagey about what’s going on behind the scenes.

“But there’s a lot of whispers in Formula One, everybody talks and whether that’s confirmed or not, it does sound like, unfortunately, the level at which they want to ride the car, as low as they want to go, isn’t necessarily legal, because they have too much ride on the plank.

“So they’re having to lift the car up to be legal by the end of the race, and therefore they’re dialing out performance from the car. And it’s not working for them.”

However, earlier this year, following Hamilton’s disqualification in China, team principal Vasseur was at pains to stress that there’s no fundamental issue with the SF-25 and that finding the optimal ride-height is an issue up and down the grid.

“We all want to run the car lower, we would all have more downforce in the situation, for everybody but there is a limit,” Vasseur explained. “The limit is bottoming and the limit is the regulations.

“We are all spending the weekend on where is the limit and where can we run the car a bit lower and then you are too low. It is the same for everybody and we all know with this type of car, performance is a lot linked to the ride height.

“It is true for us, it is true for everybody, it is true today but it was true for the last two years. We were disqualified in Austin in 2023 with Mercedes, because we were trying to reach the same point.

“It is not the characteristic of the car this year or the characteristic of the Ferrari, it is true for all the field.”

It should be noted that despite Ferrari’s suspected problems, the team is still sitting P2 in the Constructors’ Championship where it is 24 points up on Mercedes. McLaren, however, is the runaway championship leader with a 299-point advantage over Ferrari.

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