Ferrari executive Loic Serra has revealed “a lot of work” has gone into the team improving their qualifying pace, in a move which would be a big boost for Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton endured a torrid qualifying record in 2024, losing 19-5 to Mercedes teammate George Russell and setting him up for his worst-ever season by championship position of seventh. Hamilton himself admitted “I’m just slow” when asked about his one-lap displays in Qatar in December.
As for Ferrari, for the first time since 2017, the team had more race wins than pole positions and while ultimately that bore fruit in the standings, Charles Leclerc spoke repeatedly about the need to improve their one-lap speed.
As a result, Ferrari’s technical director (chassis) Serra – who moved from Mercedes in October 2024 – insists the 2025 SF-25 car has been built with improvements on a Saturday in mind.
“I think the long-run strength of the car… you want to retain and you want to improve,” Serra explained last week.
“It is true that if you can get a bit more of the first lap performance, you’ll take it, especially where 30 milliseconds is more or less one position.
“That 30 milliseconds is not much when you think about the tyres on one lap. It can give you way more than that.
“So there’s a lot of work that is going into that and hopefully it will help, but that’s a relative gain. It will also depend on what the other teams do.”
Hamilton admitted last week that his first laps in a Ferrari felt completely different to his previous cars at Mercedes and McLaren.
The 40-year-old Brit has joined Ferrari after 12 years and six world titles at Mercedes, but Ferrari have not claimed a drivers’ championship since Kimi Raikkonen’s success in 2007 – Hamilton’s rookie year.
Hamilton is eyeing a record-breaking eighth world championship this year, which would put him out in front of Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher in the all-time leaderboard.
Pre-season testing takes place this week in Bahrain, starting on Wednesday, with the first race of the 2024 season in Australia on 16 March.
