2025 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Highlights

Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves the 2025 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix with 30 points, the second-highest team score of the weekend, although well aware there is plenty of work to close the gap to the leaders. After a win for Lewis Hamilton and a fifth place for Charles Leclerc in yesterday’s Sprint race, the Monegasque finished in the same position today, one spot ahead of his team-mate.

They both did their best, but the SF-25’s pace slowed with a damaged front wing in Leclerc’s and could not deliver more. However, it is just the start of the season, and the gaps are all very close, so an improvement of just a few tenths could result in significant gains. It’s a Formula 1 truism that if you can’t win, try to bring home as many points as possible, and the team managed that today. It splits the strategy between the drivers to give them the best possible chance.

The race. Both Ferraris got off the line well, getting the jump on Max Verstappen to move up to fourth and fifth. Lewis and Charles were on two different lines going into the first corner, and they came dangerously close to the following left-hander, touching slightly. It left Charles without a left front wing endplate, but the team did not pit him for a new nose as car performance was still good, and they did not want to waste the eight or so seconds required for the change. Lewis was the first of the pair to struggle on the Medium tyres, so he pitted on lap 13 to switch to Hards. Charles came in two laps later, after which the decision was taken to swap their positions, a choice Hamilton suggested given that Leclerc had better pace, which allowed him to finish fourth. Having pitted earlier, Lewis needed to pit again for another set of Hards, whereas Charles could go all the way to the flag. In the closing stages, Hamilton set off in pursuit of Verstappen, showing excellent pace. But the Dutchman defended brilliantly before overtaking Leclerc with three laps remaining. Therefore, the Ferraris finished fifth and sixth, bringing home 18 points.

A break before the first triple-header. The team heads home to analyse all the data from the first two races. So far, the SF-25 has only shown its true potential occasionally, and it will be vital to ensure that it can do that consistently in the future. Racing resumes in a fortnight in Japan, the first of a triple-header, followed by Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Charles Leclerc, Driver, Scuderia Ferrari

We had a really good race car today and the pace to fight with the guys in the front. Unfortunately, my front wing was damaged at the start. I took the inside line at turn 1, while Lewis was more to the outside. I didn’t know I was there, and I didn’t expect him to return to the inside, so it was just an unfortunate incident.

I lost quite a lot of downforce from the damage, and we did a good job of making it to the end in that shape. We decided not to change the front wing during the pitstop since that would mean losing 8 seconds and overtaking a few cars to recover positions. I gave it my all to overtake George (Russell), but we struggled quite a bit in Turn 12 compared to him, which made it impossible to pass him.

It could have been a better day for our team, but seeing that our race pace is there is positive. The enormous amount of support from the grandstands this weekend was great to see and put a smile on my face.

Lewis Hamilton, Driver, Scuderia Ferrari

It was a tough day but a positive weekend overall, and we’ve made some good progress since Melbourne. We tried some new setup changes for qualifying, and the race didn’t work out, but that’s a learning we can take forward.

I got a good start off the line but struggled with pace as the race continued, so I suggested swapping with Charles to maximise our opportunities as a team. The two-stop strategy helped find some good pace towards the final few laps, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to gain places.

We’ll go through everything, take what we learn, and return stronger. It’s a long road to the championship, and we’ll keep pushing.

Frédéric Vasseur – Team Principal, Scuderia Ferrari

It was tough today with strange situations. On one side of the garage, there was damage to the front wing for Charles, and on the other side, it was more difficult for Lewis after yesterday, when his tyre management was excellent, while today, he struggled more. For him, the two-stop was the right choice as tyre degradation was quite significant, and if the others had to pit, it would have made sense. Now, we will have to look into it to understand why we struggled more than expected. Tyre management was complex for everyone, with tyres struggling and then coming back. It’s hard to read, but we can take some positives, such as Charles’s excellent pace despite the damage to his front wing. In these conditions, we finished 20 seconds behind McLaren and 10 seconds behind Mercedes. We need to do a better job to ensure we always exploit the car’s potential, and we will focus on this immediately.

Team statement after Leclerc and Hamilton are disqualified in China

Following the FIA post-race scrutineering, both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons.
Car 16 was found to be underweight by 1 kg, and car 44’s rearward skid wear was found to be 0.5mm below the limit.

Charles was on a one-stop strategy today, and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight.
With regard to Lewis’ skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin.

There was no intention to gain any advantage.
We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again. Clearly, it’s not the way we wanted to end our Chinese GP weekend, neither for ourselves nor for our fans, whose support for us is unwavering.

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