Ferrari will switch to towbar front suspension for its 2025 F1 car as the team prepares to welcome Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, it has been reported.
Hamilton sent shockwaves through the F1 world in February when it was announced that he would join Ferrari on a multi-year deal from the 2025 F1 season, ending his long and successful relationship with Mercedes.
Will Ferrari adopt the new suspension before Lewis Hamilton joins F1 in 2025?
The Briton has won six of Mercedes’ seven world championships – as well as becoming the first man to win more than 100 grand prix victories and pole positions – since moving from McLaren in 2013, with Mercedes sponsoring every one of Hamilton’s 346 F1 appearances since 2007.
Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes comes less than six months after he signed a two-year contract extension on the eve of the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, when the 39-year-old triggered a revised break clause to force a move to Ferrari.
After going two consecutive seasons without a win for the first time in his illustrious career in 2022/23, Hamilton returned to winning ways in F1 in 2024, ending a 945-day wait for a win with victory at his home race at Silverstone.
Analysis: Lewis Hamilton to join Ferrari
Hamilton continued his winning ways with his second win of the season at the recent Belgian Grand Prix, where he claimed a record 105th career win after Mercedes team-mate George Russell was disqualified for being underweight.
As Hamilton’s Mercedes career draws to a close, Italian publication Formu1a.uno has revealed that Ferrari have made the “first firm decisions” on the design of the team’s 2025 F1 car.
A revised wheelbase, with a more advanced centre of gravity, is being considered, but arguably the most significant change is the switch to trailing arm front suspension.
The move is inspired by Hamilton’s driving style being closer to Charles Leclerc than Leclerc’s current team-mate Carlos Sainz, who recently announced he will join Williams for F1 2025.
Ferrari’s suspension choices have come under scrutiny in the current ground effects era, with the Scuderia and customer team Haas the only teams still sticking with towbar rear suspension. Every other team on the grid uses a pushbar layout.
Red Bull and McLaren currently compete with towbar front suspension, which is understood to offer a clear aerodynamic advantage by improving airflow at the front of the car – particularly the complex underfloor, which generates significant downforce under current regulations.
A move to towbar front suspension would almost certainly require Ferrari to develop an entirely new chassis for F1 2025, with new suspension components.
The move could also involve changing the driver’s cockpit position to better distribute weight.
Hamilton has complained that his seating position is too close to the front wheels at Mercedes in 2023, describing the feeling of “sitting on the front wheels” as “one of the worst feelings you can have in a car”.
