The first weekend of the 2025 season, held in Melbourne, was negative in every aspect for Ferrari.
A start to forget
The SF-25 only lived up to expectations on Friday, proving to be basically on par with McLaren, both in qualifying and race configuration.
From FP3 onwards, on the other hand, little or nothing positive happened for the Prancing Horse: the car's overall pace was no longer the same, both drivers spun (Hamilton on Saturday, Leclerc on Sunday) and the final result is definitely one to forget.
Amongst all of this, however, there is one thing that cannot go unnoticed; a clear step backwards, perhaps for the first time in Vasseur's management: strategy.
Ghosts from the past
When - at the end of the race - it began to rain again on the Albert Park circuit, the two Ferraris were the last cars to box for the intermediate tyre.
The decision to delay the pit stop turned out to be totally wrong and compromised the points haul, and not without a side effect: a scary return to the past for the Tifosi.
That's because such a blunder had already been seen at Monaco in 2022, when the Scuderia handed victory to Red Bull despite having locked out the front row on Saturday.
Since Frédéric Vasseur set foot in Maranello, progress had been seen from a strategic point of view, but it is undeniable that the mistake in Melbourne brings up ghosts and nightmares from the Binotto era.
The fans of the Scuderia hope is that what we saw in Australia will turn out to be an isolated episode, otherwise the flashbacks from three years ago will become more and more frequent...
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All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Australian GP 2025
