'We are passengers to the car' - How difficult will Ferrari's end to 2025 prove?

"At the moment it just feels like we are passengers to the car."

That was the frank assessment of a downbeat Charles Leclerc after the Singapore Grand Prix, where he finished 46 seconds behind George Russell's race-winning Mercedes in sixth place.

It came after a race amid hot and humid conditions under the Marina Bay floodlights in which both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton experienced brake problems, woes which became desperate for the latter in the race's closing laps and ultimately led to the Briton being classified in eighth behind Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.

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Their Singapore struggles came as constructors' championship rivals Mercedes and Red Bull finished first and second respectively, two weeks after finishing in the reverse order in Azerbaijan, amid front-running returns to form for both teams into the closing phase of the 2025 campaign.

The forthcoming USA-Mexico double header sees Ferrari return to the venues of their most recent Grand Prix wins from last year so, as an unwanted winless anniversary looms as F1 heads back to North America, just where are the Scuderia at with six race weekends of their already-disappointing season to go?

Leclerc sounds warning about season's final races

Approaching the end of his seventh season at Ferrari in which world title glory has again eluded them, Leclerc has pulled no punches in recent weeks when dissecting where he feels their season is headed.

"Unfortunately, we are now the fourth team and solidly the fourth team," Leclerc told Sky Sports F1 after fresh frustration in Singapore.

"Quite far behind the top three. Mercedes managed to do the step Red Bull did in Monza.

"We didn't manage to do that so it's going to be a long end to the season."

The "step" made by Mercedes and Red Bull to which Leclerc refers concerns the upgrades Ferrari's two rivals brought to their cars in recent races.

Despite expectations that the events after the August summer break would see little in the way of true performance updates - the traditional low-downforce packages for Monza (now also useful for November's Las Vegas GP) aside - given the focus on the massive regulation change incoming for 2026, Red Bull and Mercedes have managed to find crucial gains where Ferrari have not.

Boosted by a floor upgrade at Monza that McLaren certainly believes was key to Max Verstappen winning the Italian Grand Prix and turning around their RB21 car, Red Bull introduced further low-downforce rear-wing changes in Baku, where Verstappen won again, and then a new front wing for improved downforce in Singapore.

Mercedes have revised their front wing at each of the last two events.

That has placed pressure at the front of the field on even the previously-dominant McLaren, although they have long had the luxury of a huge points lead in the Constructors' Championship, a title they duly wrapped up in Singapore, and remain favourites for the drivers' title too.

Ferrari had no such performance buffer to fall back on.

"It's not easy obviously because you want to fight for better positions but at the moment it just feels like we are passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more," admitted Leclerc.

From second to third... to fourth?

Given it was clear from early on in 2025 that McLaren would not be challenged for the constructors' title, the focus for Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull has been about winning races where they can and securing second place in the teams' standings.

After a difficult start to the season, compounded by an embarrassing double disqualification in the Chinese Grand Prix which cost them 18 points, Ferrari first moved ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull at the season's ninth round, the Spanish Grand Prix, when Leclerc finished on the podium for the second successive race.

While they dropped back behind Mercedes to third when Russell won a fortnight later in Canada, Ferrari were back ahead from the Austrian Grand Prix and held second place through the summer during a period when changes to the rear of the SF-25 were introduced aimed at addressing the car's ride-height weakness.

But while a third for Leclerc behind the McLarens in Belgium was followed by an unexpected pole position ahead of the papaya cars in Hungary, the management of car issues in the second half of the Budapest race saw the Monegasque ultimately fade to finish fourth there.

Ferrari have been outscored by all their main rivals since the summer break, with Mercedes reclaiming second in the standings in Baku. Mercedes then opened up a handy 27-point advantage over the Italian team after Russell won and Kimi Antonelli finished fifth in Singapore.

Red Bull too are suddenly back in the mix.

From 66 points behind Scuderia at the summer break, they are now just eight adrift after four consecutive top-two finishes for Verstappen.

With no further upgrades seemingly set to arrive for the SF-25, the drivers are aware that the challenge of fighting back at Mercedes and fending off resurgent Red Bull, while also avoiding their first winless season since 2021, is clearly not going to be easy.

"The car we have is not unfortunately of the level of the guys up ahead of us, particularly as they have had some upgrades, and we can't match them," said Hamilton, still awaiting the first podium finish of his Ferrari career.

"So we're on a knife-edge trying to get as close as we can."

Can Ferrari salvage podiums over rest of 2025?

Team boss Frederic Vasseur has spent most of the season emphasising in his interviews with the media that optimising their car's package and getting on top of tyre performance on each race weekend, rather than simply relying on upgrades, was key to achieving stronger results.

It is an area Ferrari have certainly struggled to execute consistently, but could prove key if they are to soon end what currently stands as a five-race podium drought and ultimately hit their overall target of beating their rivals to second in the Constructors' Championship.

Hamilton, who has questioned the team's tactics in qualifying in each of the last two events after promising starts in practice gave way to disappointing grid slots, said after Singapore: "There was potential for us to be further ahead.

"I think in qualifying we are still not extracting the full potential of the car.

"If we can get our qualifying fixed, which is very, very hard to do against these quick cars, then maybe we can get slightly better results.

"But I mean, ultimately, we are still fighting for fourth, fifth, sixth at best."

Hamilton added: "It's all about how we extract in qualifying and if we're going to get the most out of the car.

"But, at the moment, we need to get 105 per cent out of the car to be able to compete with the guys ahead - so that's going to be tough."

Leclerc, who has at least appeared on the podium five times this year, was certainly not holding too much hope for the six race weekends that remain.

"I don't think there will be anything special," he warned.

"I think the picture we have seen [in Singapore] is going to be what the rest of this season looks like for us."

The reality is that, for Ferrari, anything but first is never truly considered good enough, irrespective of whether they end up finishing second, third or fourth this year.

Posting on social media the days after Singapore, Hamilton wrote: "I see the progress we are making, and the hard work that goes into every race, but this is Ferrari. Progress alone is not enough.

"To achieve greatness we need to go further, be better. There is so much we can achieve together, and if we can build on our successes, and change the things we need to, I fully believe we will get there."

And while the struggles of this season will surely be quickly forgotten if they adapt quickly to F1's new era of rules in 2026 and start winning races and looking like contending for a first world title since 2008, the famous Scuderia will certainly be carrying more scrutiny and pressure on their shoulders thanks to 2025's woes than they would have ideally liked.

Sky Sports F1's United States GP schedule

Thursday October 16
8pm: Drivers' Press Conference
11pm: Paddock Uncut

Friday October 17
6pm: United States GP Practice One (practice starts at 6.30pm)*
8.30pm: Team Principals' Press Conference
10pm: United States GP Sprint Qualifying (qualifying starts at 10.30pm*)

Saturday October 18
5pm: United States GP Sprint build-up
6pm: UNITED STATES GP SPRINT
7pm: Ted's Sprint Notebook
9pm: United States GP Qualifying build-up*
10pm: UNITED STATES GP QUALIFYING*
12am (Sunday morning): Ted's Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday October 19
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted's Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

F1's title race now heads back to North America, with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first as the Sprint format returns this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime