Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has underscored the critical role of qualifying in the 2025 Formula 1 season following Sunday’s processional Japanese Grand Prix in which overtaking was scarce.
Despite early-season drama in Australia, aided by unpredictable weather, the past two rounds in China and Japan have seen a sharp drop-off in on-track action.
At Suzuka, the top six finishers crossed the line in the exact order they qualified, further underlining the dominance of track position in the current era of F1.
“For sure, qualifying is always crucial in the performance,” Vasseur said after Sunday’s race.
“The more you are close, the more the gap is small between cars, it's even more true because you are in the group of cars.”
The issue is compounded by the increasingly narrow performance window among the top teams and the diminishing effect of F1’s 2022 regulation changes, originally aimed at promoting closer racing and overtaking opportunities.
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“It’s not that you are just one fighting with the guy in front of you,” Vasseur added. “Yes, it will probably be a quali championship.”
In Suzuka, Verstappen was never seriously challenged during his dominant display, with McLaren’s Lando Norris never able to get within one second of his rival to trigger a DRS opportunity.
“It was flat-out from start to finish but the pace was too similar to do anything,” commented the Briton after the race. “Max drove a good race with no mistakes, and it ultimately came down to qualifying positions.”
His McLaren teammate Piastri echoed the sentiment: “We got close for the overtake a few times, but track position around here is just so important. I think yesterday was the day where you effectively won the race.”
Ferrari has struggled early in 2025, sitting fourth behind McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes. Despite a sprint win in Shanghai by Lewis Hamilton, the team’s pace has lagged.
Suzuka offered a double-points finish, an improvement over the disqualifications in China, but Vasseur admitted more is needed.
“The result of today, we need to try to do a better job next week to improve the potential and also the extraction of the potential of the car,” he said.
“We have to improve everywhere. And at least we did a step forward compared to last week, at least on the operation [side] and we have to start from there.
“But it’s not ideal as the start of the season, for sure, but it’s still a long one to go - still 21 [races] to go.”
For Ferrari, capitalizing on qualifying will be key to turning their season around in this year’s increasingly position-dependent championship.
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