18/10/2025 13:20
Ferrari is to accelerate its search for fixes to its systems to
ensure it does not suffer a repeat of Lewis Hamilton's brake
failure, ahead of the "critical" Mexico City GP. In Singapore,
Hamilton was running seventh, but with more than a pit-stop gap
behind him, Ferrari elected to stop him for a second time for a set
of soft tyres to try to catch and pass the Mercedes of Kimi
Antonelli as the two teams battle Red Bull for runners-up in the
constructors'. Ultimately, just as Hamilton caught Antonelli, his
front-left brake failed, with team-mate Charles Leclerc spending
most of the race in 'LiCo' mode - lift and coast - to protect the
brakes from such failures. After his brakes failed, Hamilton was
rapidly caught by Fernando Alonso, who carved 42.6s of the 43s lead
out of the ailing SF-25 in the final three laps, with Hamilton
crossing the line ahead, but ultimately received a five-second time
penalty for corner cutting, finishing eighth. The Ferrari machine
has been subject to the need for lifting and coasting throughout
the season, but the upcoming Mexico City GP poses a huge headache
for all F1 teams with cooling. With Mexico City 2,240m above sea
level, the air density is considerably lower at that altitude than
at sea level, meaning there is less air available for brake and
engine cooling - with teams often having to resort to extreme
measures to ensure important areas of the car do not overheat. As
such, Ferrari has explained that it is initiating an accelerated
search at Maranello to ensure its systems are robust enough to
predict any such failures, such as Hamilton's. "Singapore is very
demanding for the car with the brakes, and Formula 1 is always a
trade-off between risk and pushing it to the limit," Matteo
Togninalli, the head of track engineering, explained to media,
including RacingNews365. "In Singapore, we consciously approached
qualifying and the race with a car that we knew was on the limit,
because the car had been designed like that, and we were aware that
in the race, we would need some management for the brakes. "Then,
due to the situation, due to the level of management we did, we ran
out of brakes with four laps remaining, we were a bit too
aggressive. That was a mistake, and you have to admit when you make
mistakes. "We are reviewing the data, our methods, because
everything is based on the process, and we are trying to understand
how we can improve the ability to predict how we would finish the
race, the ability to predict that we would be short by four laps.
"The next critical race will be Mexico, and because of the air
density, we are speeding up the process. "It was a mistake in
hindsight; the result was not what we wanted, so by definition it
is a mistake. "Our tools and methods were not able to predict that
the choice was too aggressive, so we have to improve the tools to
be able to predict what is going to happen. "You want to finish
the race when you have finished the fuel, the tyres and the brakes,
and if you are wrong by four laps, you are gone. "So we are
speeding up the process of improving the tools. We have good
samples because most of the time, you learn from critical cases.
"If everything is smooth and easy, it is difficult, so when you are
at the limit, you learn, and in Mexico, we will have to be more
conscious - that is just a reasonable approach."
