Ferrari slump deepens as Villeneuve questions team harmony

Ferrari’s frustrating 2025 campaign showed no signs of easing at Zandvoort, despite the team still holding second in the constructors’ standings.

Lewis Hamilton, who only days ago claimed he felt recharged after calling himself “useless” before the summer break, spun through 360 degrees in practice. “Not much has changed,” the seven time champion admitted afterwards.

Charles Leclerc was equally downbeat. “We’ll have to come up with something brilliant overnight,” he said. “A very, very, very, very difficult Friday. It was probably the worst Friday of the season. And we’re experiencing this right after the summer break – so it’s a wake-up call for us.”

Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes Ferrari’s problems are more fundamental than just another poor weekend.

“Something isn’t clicking, and it’s not just Lewis, which is obvious. But Charles too. A lot of what I’m hearing from them is very strange,” he said.

Leclerc has been accused of losing drive after years of false dawns at Maranello, but insists that his passion for the Scuderia is still intact. “How do I remotivate myself?" he told RTBF. 

"My biggest motivation, when I’m not fighting for the title, is to drive for Ferrari,” he explained. “It’s a team I’ve always loved. I want to bring them back to the top. Whether it’s for the championship or, in the short term, to win a race as soon as possible.”

The Monegasque had started from pole in Hungary, but Ferrari’s race unravelled amid rumours of panic over plank wear. Mercedes rival George Russell claimed the team adjusted the setup mid-race, but Leclerc rejected that.

“Of course, it is very unpleasant to encounter problems like this when you are fighting for victory,” he admitted. “But unfortunately, this was not the first time, and probably not the last.” Villeneuve thinks the deeper issue is a lack of cohesion inside the red garage.

“Lewis isn’t getting the feeling that the team is behind him," he said. "The team doesn’t feel like Lewis is behind them. It all just doesn’t add up, and you can hear that when he communicates with his engineer. There’s no chemistry between them at all.

“There’s something really strange happening in this team that’s not going in the right direction. When you listen to Lewis’s interviews, it seems like he doesn’t want to go to work. It’s all really, really strange. “Now 2026 is just around the corner. Hamilton is already focused on the coming season, but to do that, you have to make sure that this really is your team and your car.”