McLaren believes Ferrari’s pace has improved over the UK’s Grand Prix weekend. The rest of the 2025 Formula One season believes it could make it more “interesting” to identify Italian outfits as a reliable threat to advance.
Following the massive upgrade introduced in Austria last weekend, Ferrari has clearly made a step forward with Silverstone, appearing as McLaren’s closest rival in practice on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclair were even at the top of their second quarter timesheets, but they eventually qualified fifth and sixth after a tricky final segment in the third quarter.
While the Ferrari final results were in line with previous races, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella suggests that Scuderia’s overall performance over the weekend is being delivered as intended.
He believes this could complicate the McLaren title run-in.
“When I see the lap times that Ferrari was able to break away in every session, it looked like the strongest team. They are probably still the strongest team,” Stella said after qualifying.
“The gap was very small and the biggest (Verstappen) went on the final lap in Q3 a few minutes later.
“So it’s very tight and difficult to say that everything is the strongest team, but Ferrari definitely seemed the most competitive.
“Even if you look at Q2, it looks like an upgrade for Austria because I think the P1 – P2 is very convincing at the time. They seem to be working very well. The Silverstone Grand Prix makes it interesting because it’s not only in the front of the grid, but also interesting for the rest of the championship.”
It could rain during Sunday’s race at Silverstone. This could further shake up orders, especially this weekend, as the team hasn’t run in advance beforehand.
Stella admitted that it’s difficult to predict a clear winner regardless of conditions, but was particularly impressed by Ferrari’s actual long-term pace.
“It’s very difficult to say who is the best team in terms of dry conditions,” he said. “The lap times that Ferrari was able to actually produce was very impressive. There were lap times they did on high fuel and we couldn’t repeat them.
“So I definitely thought they were race favourites and qualifying favourites.
“But we see that the situation is very tight, and at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s a huge difference between Max, two McLarens, two Ferraris and potentially George (Russell).
“Up to that point in the third quarter, it seemed less competitive than the other positions in the top position of the grid, so we need to see if there was a one-off lap in qualifying.
“Weather is the factor. As we saw last year, it can be very interesting because if there’s weather, I don’t think it’s going to be like strong, sustained rain.
“If there’s (rain) then, like last year, there are a variety of conditions throughout the race, and it’s definitely another reason why the British Grand Prix was turbulent.”
McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Randnoris will be second and third in their team’s home races, respectively, after Red Bull Pole Sessitter Verstappen.