Ferrari fail to silence critics in Montreal

Written by Arran Lunt, Edited by Meghana Sree

Fred Vasseur convinced Lewis Hamilton to join Ferrari from Mercedes | Credit: Ferrari

Round 10 of the 2025 Formula One season proved to be a turbulent one for the Scuderia as rumours took centre stage before a rather flat performance compounded the speculation. 

Before the weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve had even begun, the rumour mill coming out of Italy was in overdrive with the notion that Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur was to be replaced, possibly by Christian Horner of Red Bull. More surprisingly, word on the street was that Charles Leclerc was looking for a way out of the Italian outfit. 

Lewis Hamilton too had been under constant fire after an underwhelming maiden season with Ferrari so far, leading to comments bordering on a personal attack aimed towards the seven-time world champion. 

Vasseur came out in staunch defence of both his position and the Maranello based team as a whole on Friday in Canada. Vasseur defended not only both drivers but also those behind the scenes working tirelessly to bring performance to the SF-25.

Despite the strong front, the Frenchman did concede the media were having an effect saying: “It hurts the team,” and went on as far as to say it can derail a challenge for a championship.

Hamilton has struggled to perform in the SF-25 | Credit: Ferrari

Vasseur said: “From the beginning of the weekend we have just been speaking about this. If it’s [the media’s] target to put the team in this situation, they have reached their goal.

“It’s not like this that we can win a championship, at least not with this kind of journalist around us.

“To decide one day ‘this one will be replaced, this one is useless’. Honestly, it’s very harsh.

“These journalists need to consider that these people have families. This is completely disrespectful.”

Pressed further on comments regarding Leclerc’s future at Ferrari amid rumours of an exit, Vasseur was equally as defiant.

He said: “Charles [Leclerc] has a long-term contract with us. Every single interview from the beginning of the season, he’s saying that he wants to stay with Ferrari, he wants to win with Ferrari, his future is with Ferrari.

“But every single Monday, we have an article saying ‘Charles will go next year.’

“The mood in the team is very good. I think we have a good relationship together. We have a clear target. We know that we have to work and we know that we have to push. But everything is there. Everything is on the table to do a good job.”

Charles Leclerc has been in the Ferrari family since 2016 | Credit: Ferrari

However, despite a rallying cry from the Ferrari Team Principal, the team failed to impress on track. A multitude of errors and some bad luck contributed towards another underperforming round of racing on a weekend many expected Ferrari to feature strongly.

Hamilton was over six-tenths off George Russell’s pole time on Saturday resulting in a best effort of P5. Leclerc recovered well from a crash on Friday and looked to be in the fight for a front row start on his final run in Q3, until snaps of oversteer forced the Monegasque driver to abort and settle for P8. 

Neither driver fared any better in the race. Hamilton hit a groundhog on Lap 13 which damaged the floor of his Ferrari resulting in the loss of 20 points of downforce, equivalent to around half a second a lap. 

The damage was coupled with brake issues for half the race distance meaning that by the time the Safety Car was deployed after the McLarens clashed on Lap 67, Hamilton was 22 seconds behind teammate Leclerc and finished the race in P6.

Leclerc initially had a more positive afternoon as he opted to start the Canadian Grand Prix on hard compound tyres, hinting at a one-stop strategy. 

Solid tyre management kept Leclerc in touch with the front runners until Ferrari opted to pit before half race distance, meaning a one-stop race was no longer possible despite Leclerc’s protests insisting the tyres were still competitive. 

A second stop on Lap 53 whilst leading the race left Leclerc ruing what could have been as he took the chequered flag in P5.

Leclerc disagreed with Ferrari’s strategy call in Canada | Credit: Ferrari

The final result in Montreal leaves Ferrari still searching for their first Grand Prix win of the 2025 season and with both Russell and Kimi Antonelli finishing on the podium, Mercedes have jumped the Italians into second place in the Constructors’ Championship by 16 points, with Red Bull just 21 points behind. 

More frustrating is that McLaren are a distant 191 points away in first place even before the halfway stage of the season. For a team that missed out on being crowned champions by 14 points to McLaren only six months ago, this is an unacceptable drop off in performance for Ferrari.

Hamilton suggested post race that Ferrari may bring an upgrade to the next round in Austria on June 27th, although could not elaborate further as to how significant a package it will be.

Ferrari now have everything to prove in Round 11 at Austria, a place they scored a podium in during their previous visit, if they wish to combat speculation and get a derailed season back on track.