McLaren is dominating the 2025 Formula 1 season, Ferrari is struggling to keep up – and team boss Vasseur remains cautious
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella expects Ferrari to win Formula 1 races this year. However, Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur does not believe such a prediction is possible.
Vasseur said: “Something like that is extremely difficult to predict. Because what is true one day may not necessarily be true the next weekend.”
But Vasseur agrees with Stella on one point: Ferrari has improved. “At Spa and the Hungaroring, we found our rhythm again,” explained Vasseur. “We are strong and consistent, even if not in the last stint of the race.”
Leclerc leads in Hungary, but then …
Vasseur is referring to the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc dominated the race from pole position but fell back to fourth place after his tire change.
This result was particularly disappointing for Leclerc, but Vasseur sees an upward trend: “When we’re up front in qualifying, we can fight with McLaren.”
However, McLaren has a decisive advantage halfway through the 2025 Formula 1 season: “They are simply always fast, in all conditions – we are not. But if you want to win, you have to be consistent – in practice, in qualifying and in the race on all tire compounds,“ said Vasseur. ”McLaren is currently a little stronger than us in that respect.”
How dominant McLaren is at the moment
A glance at the current World Championship standings shows just how strong McLaren really is: the traditional British team has only failed to win five of the 14 Grands Prix and three sprints so far. Three victories went to Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, one to George Russell in the Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton secured Ferrari’s only win of the 2025 season so far in the China sprint.
While Leclerc has already achieved five Grand Prix podium finishes, Hamilton is still waiting for his first Ferrari podium in a main race. Hamilton recently stated that he considers himself “useless” because his performance is so poor compared to Leclerc.
