Italian Media: Ferrari crisis deepens as Leclerc looks around

Italian media are again questioning the direction and future of their team, as they did in late June when they were duly ignored. The big bosses stood fast with Fréd Vasseur. What was meant to be a rebuilding year under his leadership instead exposed deep-rooted flaws in Ferrari’s technical and management structure.

The Maranello team’s slide began immediately after the Frenchman’s contract was extended in July. Since the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari have scored just 50 points in five races, averaging ten per round, while McLaren have surged to 134, Mercedes 105, and Red Bull 98.

The influential Italian daily Corriere dello Sport reports, the regression coincided with a string of failed developments. The Ferrari SF-25’s performance worsened following the FIA’s clampdown on flexible front wings, a rule Mercedes managed to navigate successfully, and the introduction of a revised rear suspension that yielded no gains.

Reporter Fulvio Solms described the current atmosphere as “a dense cold descending on Ferrari people, as if in a long, slow, and seemingly hopeless eclipse.”

Solms wrote that the team’s once-linear approach of identifying and correcting issues has given way to a downpour of new problems. The anticipated progress from technical director Loïc Serra’s work has yet to materialise.

Ferrari’s latest troubles centre on overheating brakes that forced drivers to slow down repeatedly during the race. The SF-25, already lacking aerodynamic load, must run flat-out to stay competitive, a risky balance that leaves it vulnerable to both disqualification and mechanical stress.

The drivers’ post-race comments underline a fractured camp. Leclerc blamed the car’s lack of pace, while Lewis Hamilton, still winless in his first season at Maranello, questioned the team’s internal processes. Vasseur’s public defence: “Lewis was fantastic but he pushed so hard that he overheated the brakes,” did little to calm discontent among engineers.

Solms described Ferrari as a team “where nothing works anymore,” noting that Vasseur has spent months issuing familiar explanations about “untapped potential” and “execution issues.”

Tensions reportedly boiled over in Singapore qualifying, where Vasseur clashed with senior engineer Matteo Togninalli in what was described as a heated confrontation. Frustrations are also growing among technical staff over Leclerc’s uncompromising criticism of the car and its development direction.

Leclerc did not hold back after the race, saying: “Mercedes has made great strides forward, just like Red Bull had a few races ago, but we haven’t. In these conditions, it’s difficult to be optimistic and think that the situation can change in the final GPs.”

The Monegasque driver’s words have amplified the sense of urgency at Maranello, with team morale under pressure and divisions between the driver group and technical management becoming more visible.

According to Solms, Leclerc’s entourage is now reassessing his long-term future. With a new technical cycle approaching for 2027, discussions are said to be ongoing with other teams, including Mercedes and McLaren, both viewed as potential destinations.

His advisors reportedly want to make decisions “from the head, not the heart,” unwilling to see Leclerc commit his peak years to a project that continues to underdeliver. The group is believed to be watching closely how Ferrari’s 2026 car develops before finalising any future direction.

Amid the turmoil, Ferrari’s supporters are voicing growing frustration at the lack of progress. As lifelong Ferrari observer of the team, Leo Turrini puts it in his Profondo Rosso column: “Ferrari points from Holland: 40. Mercedes scored 89. Red Bull 96. McLaren 91. This is the present. Need anything else?

“Now Hamilton barely finishes an unremarkable race due to a brake problem, while Leclerc fights and struggles, floundering in the black hole of a crisis that seems to have no way out,” Turrini wrote. Clearly, the mood among tifosi has turned grim.

Ferrari’s plight feels particularly bitter in a Formula 1 era more popular than ever, yet the sport’s most iconic brand continues to fade: “This Ferrari not only fails to live up to tradition. The worst thing is that, just a few weeks after Fred Vasseur was confirmed at the helm, there’s no sense of a turning point, no sense of an imminent regaining of credibility on the track. Hamilton and Leclerc’s frustration is a terrible sign, that’s all.”

And with the team’s technical leadership already designing the car that will define Ferrari’s next five years, even fans are losing patience. “What Ferrari cannot and must not allow is resignation,” Turrini concludes. “It just can’t go on like this.”