Second and fourth on the Austrian Grand Prix grid marks Ferrari's joint-strongest qualifying result of the 2025 Formula 1 season - and that hasn't gone unnoticed by its frontrunning rivals.
One-lap speed hasn't been a strength of the Ferrari SF-25, with Monaco providing the only other front row start of the year.
Charles Leclerc was still over half a second adrift of Lando Norris's polesitting McLaren in Austria - and benefitted from the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri being denied a chance to complete his final run - but it was still a strong debut for the suite of Ferrari floor upgrades brought to this weekend.
These upgrades are the start of Ferrari's plan to fix its biggest weakness of 2025, being able to run the car low enough to the ground to generate the downforce required.
The tentative early evidence is strong.
"I think it was Monaco the last time we started on the front row, and it's been a difficult season overall, but the team have kept pushing," Leclerc said after qualifying second.
"We brought some new parts this weekend, which for sure made a difference because if you look at the gaps, everybody's super close."
What's encouraging Leclerc is that Ferrari's usually been weaker in qualifying than the race, so having a strong qualifying could mean it's in for an even stronger Sunday.
"At least we have a little bit less road to make before fighting with the guys in front," Leclerc said after qualifying.
"We're there. However, obviously, the gap is pretty big to Lando's lap, which must have been very special for sure. But I don't know if we've got the tools to fight for a victory tomorrow.
"However we are normally very strong on Sunday compared to the qualifying pace, and this gives me hope."
Leclerc said the floor upgrades "definitely helped" and "are working in the right direction". Such a declaration on only the second day of running them has to be taken as a positive, given drivers are usually reluctant to declare the success of an upgrade too early, especially for a car as capricious as the SF-25 has been.
"We are losing mostly on the high speed [corners] this weekend, which was expected," Leclerc explained.
"We expected to lose a little bit compared to McLaren in the high speed, but probably we expected to lose even more in the low speed, which was a little bit less the case. So, we'll analyse that."
And what is encouraging for Ferrari is that the Austrian GP floor upgrade was only part one of its plan to fix its big ride height weakness, with another step coming - "there are upgrades in waiting" Leclerc confirmed - likely before the summer break.
'Ferrari has been quite a surprise'
Ferrari's strong Austrian GP so far has caught the attention of its rivals with Mercedes' fifth place qualifier George Russell commenting that "Ferrari have been quite a surprise". This is only the third time this season that Russell is starting behind the lead Ferrari.
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is wary of the threat Ferrari poses for the grand prix too, but it's one he anticipated given Ferrari's big development push.
"Ferrari were very close, I would say up until the last run in Q3. Not surprised at all," Stella said after qualifying.
"We talk about Ferrari, we talk about a team with two very fast drivers. And also, when I look at the submission of new parts for this event, I think Ferrari, they have an entirely new floor. And it's a new floor. It's the side of the floor, the diffuser, the underneath, the fences, it's a completely new floor.
"So this means that they've been pushing hard from a development point of view, and I'm not surprised that they were in condition to improve their performance."
With temperatures high on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring there's likely to be a choice between one and two stops.
While McLaren has hardly been lacking in this department, particularly in hotter races, Ferrari has tended to have strong tyre management that's opened up different strategic options.
"We know that they're always good, especially when there's a need of a long stint and when there's uncertainty between one and two stops," Stella said of Ferrari.
"They could be able to do a one stop, let's see. At the moment, we don't know exactly what the right thing is going to be strategically.
"So Ferrari is there, and I would certainly not discount [Max] Verstappen as well. It looks here like Mercedes is probably struggling a bit more, but again, let's see in the race."
