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Ferrari’s Upgrades Show Promise, But McLaren Remains Elusive

Ferrari’s recent upgrade package rolled out for the Bahrain race weekend seems to be making a positive impact on their performance. However, the team’s efforts still fall short of giving them a realistic chance to compete with the seemingly unbeatable McLaren.

Heading into the fourth race of the 2025 season, most teams have opted for caution with upgrades, resulting in a limited number of changes across the grid. Ferrari took a different approach, leading the upgrade efforts with a significant overhaul that included modifications to the car’s floor, extending from the front edge all the way to the rear diffuser.

These enhancements helped Charles Leclerc secure a solid fourth place during the second practice session, matching the pace of George Russell in his Mercedes and edging out reigning champion Max Verstappen from Red Bull. Yet, Leclerc found himself trailing Oscar Piastri of McLaren by a considerable half a second. Lewis Hamilton, despite finishing eighth, expressed optimism regarding the impact of his own new floor design.

“The upgrades are definitely working,” Hamilton affirmed. “A big thank you to everyone back home for their hard work in bringing these upgrades. It’s a complex process involving a lot of work in the wind tunnel and in creating the car components. It’s encouraging to see us moving forward, and I hope we can capitalize on this progress overnight.”

While Friday practice results often come with uncertainty, one thing is clear: McLaren stands out as the team to beat, even if they downplay their advantage on the challenging Bahrain circuit.

“We just aren’t fast enough compared to the McLaren; they are operating on a different level at the moment,” Leclerc remarked. “It’s frustrating, but it drives me to work hard to close that gap. They are showing incredible speed.”

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

He continued, “[The upgrades] are definitely positive, but the gap to McLaren remains significant. We need to maximize the performance of our car as it stands. If that results in a third, fourth, or fifth finish, that’s all we can aim for at the moment.”

Leclerc remains hopeful that Ferrari can eventually return to being the fastest on track, expressing that future races should be about battling for victories, not settling for lower podium positions.

Looking ahead, Leclerc anticipates that Verstappen could still be the closest rival to the McLarens, while he believes Ferrari and Mercedes will likely find themselves evenly matched. “It appears we are fairly close to Mercedes. With Red Bull, the situation is trickier,” he said. “Max had slightly fewer tire sets than we did during FP2, which might give him an edge. However, I feel there is still room for us to find more performance through optimizing our upgrades, and we will see where that leads us.”

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