Let’s face it. We all had some high hopes for the Scuderia this year, and like every year, I still do. Pre-season testing looked strong. Lewis Hamilton joined the Italian Formula One team in search of his eighth world driver’s championship title, and they still have the ever-so-consistent “Prince of Monaco,” Charles Leclerc. Ferrari fans are delusional, and I am one of them. Even after years like 2022, when the strategies were so bad we had the double-box mishap under the watch of team principal Mattia Binotto. I still hear, “Stay out! Stay out!” in my nightmares (I’ll explain further). The longest-running team in Formula One that has maintained its name and place in the pinnacle of motorsport hasn’t had a WDC since 2007 in which Kimi Raikkonen won, nor a World Constructor’s Championship since 2008. Having been in the racing business since 1929, debuting in F1 in 1950, and winning a whopping 16 Constructor’s Championships and 15 Driver’s Championships, Ferrari has to be foaming at the mouth for another chance at glory.
And they’ve had plenty of chances to succeed at making podiums, snatching wins, and making better strategies. The Scuderia is plagued with poor strategy, an unreliable car void of setting the pace, occasional driver errors, and being close to winning the championship but losing it anyway. One of the most “cursed” seasons was 2022.
Here’s a recap of mistakes, miscalls, and bad strategies to remind you of the Prancing Horse we all support (even if we say we don’t).
The 2022 season
In 2022, during the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Carlos Sainz was called in for a pit stop to replace the tires on the fifteenth lap. You would think this would be fine, but this is Ferrari, and they forgot one of the tires. This led to a long stop in the pits that cost him dearly. If you make the call too late, the crew only has so much time to get the tires ready. Luckily for Sainz, he made up enough places to land himself in fifth before coming back to the pits again for another set of tires. What did the team do? They released the car unsafely, leading to a near-miss collision with Estaban Ocon and awarding Sainz a 5-second grid place penalty.
In the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Charles Leclerc was sent out during the third leg of qualifying on inters (a type of tire meant for slightly wetter conditions or a drying track) while everyone else was using slicks (a category consisting of hard, medium, and soft tires). Realizing their strategy was proving a mistake, they called him in for a tire change when another car on track crashed and brought out a red flag. No more faster lap times could be completed, and Leclerc was stuck in 10th position to start the next day. Bad luck today, Ferrari.
The Silverstone Grand Prix: If you thought 2022 couldn’t get worse, just wait. During the British race, Sainz started the race in pole position (first), with Leclerc right behind him. If the Scuderia could pull it off, they would have a double podium of first and second place. As always, they messed it up. After one of their competitors’ cars broke down, a safety car was brought out and teams had the chance to pit their drivers for new tires. Sainz comes into the pits, and Leclerc is left out to push through. Realizing their mistake, they ask Carlos Sainz, the Smooth Operator, to slow down and come to his teammate and rival’s aid, giving up his position. With Lewis Hamilton, a Mercedes driver at the time, closing in, Sainz is asked to defend. In a dreadful radio message, we heard this: “Guys, I’m under pressure from Hamilton. Please don’t ask these things. Please, please. Stop inventing. Stop inventing.” Carlos ended up refusing the order and overtook his teammate, winning his first-ever F1 race and leaving Leclerc to fall behind while Hamilton overtook.
“The Monaco Curse”
After multiple years of losing his home race, Charles Leclerc was prepared to once again attempt to achieve his dream of winning in front of his home crowd on the streets he grew up on. During the 2022 edition, Charles grabbed pole position and lined up first for the start of the race in the rain. By the eighteenth lap, drivers were coming in for intermediate tires, including Leclerc, allowing a rival to overtake. Unfortunately, when Sainz came in three laps later, Ferrari called their other driver in as well, only realizing their mistake when he’d entered the pit. Charles lost two more positions to his teammate and Max Verstappen, the current world champion. Thankfully for Charles, he finally won in 2024.
What can Ferrari hope to achieve?
Now that we’ve recapped some of the wildest mistakes of the past few years (literally everything listed was from 2022), what can Ferrari achieve this year? During this past year, Ferrari showed significant pace. Despite Red Bull’s early-season dominance with Max Verstappen, after their car began showing issues multiple races in and second driver Checo Perez’s skill plateaued, McLaren took their chance immediately. Despite McLaren winning the Constructor’s Championship in 2024 (666 points), Ferrari was alarmingly close to them (652 points), a surprise considering how little hope they’ve had recently of winning it. This year could change that.
With Leclerc staying on for the foreseeable future and Lewis Hamilton changing teams, this is a phenomenal line-up for 2025. During pre-season testing, Hamilton said that overall, he found the car comfortable, and claimed he had a positive experience. He finished fifth in the first session of testing, being 0.406 seconds off the pace. In the second session, he was 0.031 seconds off. Both drivers admitted they felt Ferrari had work to do, but said they were comfortable in the car. They had been showing immense pace in the car, and fans were hoping that this could be foreshadowing a good year.
Ferrari’s biggest competition is Ferrari.
At 11 pm MST on the 15th, I sat down to watch the opening race in Melbourne, Australia. After a great 2024 season, McLaren was still showing to be the most dominant car on track, but Ferrari had made a great leap forward, as did other teams (I’m looking at you, Williams). For much of the race, Ferrari seemed to be holding up well. Hamilton was doing some much-needed adjusting to the car, so Leclerc was ahead of him. But because of unpredictable weather, there were many radio messages between teams in which engineers and drivers tried to decide which tire to use at different sections of the race. When the rain finally came, it became an issue. Most drivers pitted for intermediate tires, but both Ferraris stayed out on their slicks, leading the race for about a lap. At one point, Sky Sports commentators David Croft and Martin Brundle spoke back and forth about whether that could have been the right call.
In the end, it wasn’t. The rain didn’t stop, so they pitted a lap later than everyone else, losing their positions and ending up in the back of the top 10. If there was anything to be happy about, it would be that neither driver lost control of the car like many others had, and Leclerc had the fastest pit stop of 2.32 seconds. There are positives to take away from the race, but Ferrari has a bad habit of messing up their strategies more than anyone else. After the Aussie GP, Ferrari was 7th in the team standings, with mid-field teams racking up more points than them. Charles finished in 8th while Lewis finished in 10th place, gathering 5 points total. To put this into perfective, after that race, Sauber was further up the line than Ferrari.
Double podium? DOuble Disqualification.
After watching the start of the Chinese GP at 12 am MST on the 23rd, Ferrari was certainly having some notable issues. Charles’ front wing had sustained major damage and was at risk of falling off, but pitting to replace it as well as the tires would take at least 7 seconds, which is longer than they would like. While Hamilton and Leclerc finished in the points, they were ultimately disqualified after the post-race checks concluded. The cars of Leclerc and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly were found to be 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) under the legal weight requirement. Hamilton’s bottom plank had been worn out beyond what is allowed. Instead of taking a few points with them into the next GP, Ferrari is tied with Williams at 17 points so far.
This is a serious blow to the team, drivers, and fans.
Let’s just say that Lewis Hamiton is certainly being welcomed with the usual Ferrari antics. When Ferrari isn’t dominating, you can find me cheering on Oscar Piastri and the rest of the papaya-colored team, McLaren. What else can you do when your team isn’t ever in the safe zone?
Maybe it isn’t just Monaco that has a curse.