Why Hamilton and Leclerc are already counting down to…

Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are pinning their hopes on upgrades in Ferrari's pipeline. The Scuderia's Formula 1 drivers feel that the SF-25 in its current specification is lacking performance in comparison to the Mercedes and Red Bull cars.

Ferrari made a significant change to its car concept over the off-season in switching to a pull-rod front suspension layout, as technical director Loic Serra stated that the team had taken the prior push-rod operated format to its maximum.

However, the drivers have felt that the car is also missing overall aerodynamic load, and that upgrades planned for the season should help to improve its standing as the Prancing Horse aims to close in on Mercedes. Although Leclerc qualified fourth for the Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton praised his team-mate for "outperforming the car" and revealed that the two drivers had diverged for the first time on set-up.

Leclerc reckoned he had made progress with his set-up changes over the Japan weekend. These have helped him feel more comfortable in the car, but he believes that the ultimate performance gains that have emerged as a result have only been small.

"I think we are even a bit behind Mercedes in terms of actual pace, so we'll see," Leclerc explained. "But on race pace, I've done quite a lot of changes over the weekend.

"I'm in a very different place compared to the beginning of the season and I feel a lot more at ease with the car, so I hope it can surprise us in a good way. I'm finding answers on what I need, which is good already, but that's not unlocking so much performance.

"I can be at 100% of the car more often, that's for sure - this will give me the confidence that I need going forward in the season.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari (Photo by: Jayce Illman - Getty Images)

"Hopefully with the upgrades that we have during the season, it will help us to close the gaps to the guys in front."

Hamilton added: "I think Charles did a great lap today, so really, really well done to him. I think maybe he outperformed the car a little bit, but it was a great lap. From my side, I didn't get everything that was needed in the car but, yeah, we need to upgrade for sure."

Although Leclerc reckoned he'd put together a set-up that was conducive to a good race, Hamilton thought his choices might have hampered his qualifying potential with a view to getting more out of the race - leading to a snap in Q3 as he lacked feeling with the front end.

It has been suggested that Ferrari has needed to be more conservative with ride heights at Suzuka - partly in response to Hamilton's plank wear-enforced disqualification in China. But it is also believed that the team suffers from increased aero sensitivity when it runs the car closer to the ground.

Leclerc appeared to refute the suggestions that the car was particularly ride-height sensitive, instead offering the more simple explanation that the car was simply lacking aerodynamic load.

GPS analysis of Leclerc's fastest qualifying lap versus Verstappen's ultimate pole time suggests that the Ferrari tends to struggle with stabilising the rear end out of corners, which leads to a loss of exit traction.

Compared to the laps set by the McLarens, the SF-25 lost time on the exit of Spoon. And Leclerc's largest areas of time loss to Verstappen came at the exits from the hairpin and Casio Triangle corners, having been briefly up on time earlier in the lap through the Esses.

"We just need to work a little bit further to gain overall load, it's not really how sensitive the ride heights are or where we are standing with the ride heights," Leclerc added.

"It's just that we are not fast enough and we don't have enough grip to match what McLaren and Red Bull are doing in corners."

Ferrari will likely look to the races beyond this current triple header to add downforce to the car - with the intention of making similar progress to what it achieved through the final stages of 2024.