Ferrari’s new floor is attracting attention from F1 rivals at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Italian outfit brought a major floor update to the Red Bull Ring to help them take over their fate after the disappointing start of the 2025 F1 season.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton secured the best Ferrari qualifying results for the season by winning the second and fourth with the car fitted with new floors.
Leclerc became a 0.5-second drift on the Polesitter Lando Norris, but the upgrade attracted McLaren’s attention.
“Ferrari was so close I’ll say it until the last run of the third quarter. It’s not a surprise at all,” McLaren team principal Stella told media, including crush.net in Spielberg.
“We’re talking about Ferrari, we’re talking about a team with two very fast drivers. And looking at the new parts submissions for this event, I think Ferrari has a whole new floor.
“And that’s a new floor, it’s the sides of the floor, the diffuser, the fence below, the whole new floor.
“This means they’re pushing hard from a development perspective. We can’t be surprised that they’re in the condition to improve performance.”
Leclerc appreciated the Ferrari upgrade as returning to the front row of the Austrian grid.
“Today’s upgrade definitely helped us. How much is it? It’s hard to know,” explained Leclerc.
“It definitely helped us get to get the front row today, especially when we see how great the margin is from the Rand, and so we should be proud of the work we have done.
“Apart from that, I think we did an amazing job. We did a very good job this weekend. Most of the time, our race cars are better than our qualifying cars, so we look forward to tomorrow.”
Can Ferrari try to beat McLaren?
Stella is wary of the threat posed by Ferrari’s improvements.
“We always know that it’s good, especially when we need a long stint, and when there’s uncertainty between one and two stops,” Stella said.
“They may be able to do a one-stop, let’s take a look. At this point, they don’t know exactly what the right thing is strategically.
“So Ferrari is there. I certainly won’t discount Verstappen either. Here it looks like Mercedes is probably going to be a little more struggling, but let’s take a look at it again in the race.”
Leclerc doesn’t know if Ferrari’s performance will be converted to races, but he vows to make McLaren’s life “as tough as possible.”
“We’ll see. I don’t have the answer for now,” Leclerc said when asked about Ferrari’s hopes for race day. “The gap is huge today, but tomorrow is tire management and I think we have a strong car.
“Is that as good as McLaren? I don’t know, but I’ll definitely do everything I can to make McLaren as tough as possible.”