Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has dismissed rumours that the Scuderia is grappling with a fundamental issue on its 2025 Formula 1 car that prevents it from being run at an ideal ride height.
The theory was sparked by Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification in China for excessive plank wear on his SF-25, and pundits are insisting that Ferrari's rocky start – zero Sunday podiums and just 35 points against McLaren’s 111 – is rooted in a floor issue impacting its car.
But Vasseur has firmly dismissed this, calling ride-height optimization a challenge common to every F1 team in the current ground-effect era.
Not a Ferrari Flaw
The ground-effect era, now in its fourth and final year, has made ride height a performance obsession. Too low, and a car risks a China-style DQ; too high, and it slides around, chewing tyres and kissing goodbye to lap times.
Ferrari’s woes hit hard in Shanghai – Hamilton’s plank violation wiped out the Briton's race, a setback compounded by Charles Leclerc’s own weight-rule breach that also threw the Monegasque out of the event's final results.
©X/AlbertFabrega
“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, quoted by Formula1.com. "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.”
A Tough Start, But Familiar Territory
Ferrari’s form so far in 2025 has been underwhelming, with the Italian outfit currently sitting fourth in F1's Constructors' standings, well adrift of McLaren.
Vasseur, however, remains unshaken, pointing to similarities with Ferrari’s trajectory in 2023.
©Ferrari
“I’m used [to it] because the last two years we started like this,” he said. “For sure it is not ideal and I would prefer to win the first one.
"But we don’t need to change the approach from last year as we are almost in the same situation, perhaps a bit worse in terms of pace, and the reaction of the team was very, very strong.
“We worked as a team, made small step by small step and we have to keep exactly the same approach, but for sure it is not ideal.”
Read also: Vasseur fears F1 'quali championship' as overtaking woes persist
While Vasseur admits the team needs to improve its car’s drivability to maximise performance, he believes the solution won’t come from any single breakthrough.
“If last year we did a good step forward from the beginning of the season to the mid-season or whatever, it is not because we found a magic bullet, we would never find something on the car worth three or four tenths," he said.
“It’s because you are putting together an area with two or three others, the balance, the driver getting the best from the car. I think on Saturday we were not very far away, but it was very difficult for us, but the same could be said for McLaren, it was very hard to put a lap together.
“If you look at Charles, he lost a tenth and a half in the last chicane, and then he lost one tenth in the first corner [in Qualifying]. It is not an excuse and I’m not trying to say we had the best car, but it is exactly the same for Piastri, and exactly the same for everybody.
"It was difficult to get the best from the car and we need to improve on the driveability we call it, to get the best from the package.”
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Ferrari rejects SF-25 ride-height rumors: 'It's the same for everyone' F1i.com.
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