Ferrari's 'Standout' SF-25 Catches Attention Of Red Bull

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has made a bold claim about Ferrari’s 2025 title challenger, the SF-25, suggesting that the team has taken a more radical approach compared to the rest of the grid. He claims that most cars on the grid have begun to look similar in design as regulations stabilize in the final year of the current era. Citing McLaren CEO Zak Brown, Horner stressed that the 2025 season could see up to eight different teams securing race wins.

Key Takeaways:

Ferrari’s Approach: Christian Horner suggests that Ferrari’s SF-25 is a standout in design, taking a more radical approach compared to the increasingly similar-looking cars across the grid.
Tighter Competition in 2025: With teams refining their cars under stable regulations, the 2025 season could see up to eight different teams securing race wins, making the championship highly competitive.
Red Bull’s Strategy: Despite minor visible changes, Red Bull’s RB21 follows the same design philosophy as its predecessor, focusing on improving key characteristics to stay ahead in a closely matched field.

While Red Bull dominated most Grands Prix through the end of 2023, the 2024 season saw three other teams claim victories on various circuits. As teams adapted to the ground effect regulations introduced in 2022, lap time gaps between competitors narrowed by a great margin. With Formula 1 entering a new era of regulations next year, several teams had to choose between focusing on the development of the 2025 challenger and allocating resources to the 2026 car.

When Red Bull's RB21 took to the Bahrain International Circuit for pre-season testing, many noted its striking resemblance to last year’s RB20, sparking speculation that most of the changes were beneath the surface. However, when asked what Red Bull must do to reclaim the top spot after losing the top two positions in the Constructors' Championship to McLaren and Ferrari, Horner explained that the car’s design remained largely unchanged since it follows a similar philosophy to the RB20. He said:

“I think we’ve just got to improve across some of the characteristics of last year’s car.

“And I think the team have worked very hard on that over the off-season.

“Let’s not forget, we still won nine races and four sprint races with that car last year. So we had a reasonable basis from which to develop.

“But the competition is very tight. And of course, in the last year of this set of regulations, you can see the conversions. I mean, the cars all look incredibly similar today, and I think it’s going to be very, very competitive throughout the season, from the first race all the way through the season.”

He added:

“I think that into this cycle of regulations, it’s clear that the cars have converged and they look very, very similar.

“I think probably Ferrari is a standout as probably being a differentiator.

“But, you know, that’s inevitable, that marginal gains are going to be there. Every surface on our car is different to last year, it just looks similar because it’s a similar philosophy.

“And you can see other cars have converged with that. So that’s what is going to make the racing so tight this year, that some cars might suit some circuits better than others, and it’s all going to be about extracting the maximum amount of your platform out of your package, and getting it right on the day.

“So I think the biggest winner out of that would be the fans and the followers of the sport. Because as Zak [Brown, McLaren Racing CEO] says, you could quite easily have eight winners this year, and you know, some curveballs in there as well. It could really be pretty open.”