2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[edu2703]

I doubt that Mercedes' advantage lies solely on the compression trick specifically. That alone doesn't justify an 8-tenths difference. There's certainly an advantage in how the Mercedes PU delivers power through the power mapping the Mercedes team uses, which explains why other teams with Mercedes PUs didn't have exceptional performances as well. It's not just a difference in chassis performance either.

I have no hope the new engine testing rules will significantly nerf Mercedes this season.

[venkyhere]

Why isn't McLaren using these extra HP that Mercedes seems to enjoy?

The FIA is in the pocket of Toto Wolff.
I dont believe that the chassis-advantage of Mercedes is 0.6-0.7s (realistic number, if both NOR and PIA had optimized their laps) ahead on a power-critical track like Albert Park.
I have to go back to my favourite theory that Mercedes is sending all the right CAD files and other documents to all their customers and FIA, yet are still using 'a special soup' illegal version ICE for themselves.

[Fakepivot]

I don't think they will be nerfed, merc will carry this power... Well sad part for me is Fred will likely be fired and Charles might go as well

[edu2703]

Charles might go as well

Where to? At the moment, it would only make sense for Leclerc to leave for Mercedes, and Toto would only fire one of his drivers to have Verstappen on the team.

Aston Martin is already officially ruled out for obvious reasons. A switch to McLaren or Red Bull wouldn't make sense either.

[Luscion]

Lewis said he had deployment issues since q2 with the power so yea

[j_ste]

The fear has been realised.

Credit to Mercedes for building what they have built…it will be interesting to see how McLaren develop around that Power Unit.

Hopefully it’s like 2018 when Lewis put it on pole here by a large margin but it wasnt indicative of how the season would largely be

[Emag]

It's kind of funny how Leclerc says he was expecting 6 tenths not 8. I know that's a bit better, but it's not like it makes a huge difference, it's still a disaster lmao.

There's this last bit of hope I have that Melbourne will be a bit of a special case and we get some more "reasonable" gaps elsewhere, but it's not a strong hope.

[CRazyLemon]

It's kind of funny how Leclerc says he was expecting 6 tenths not 8. I know that's a bit better, but it's not like it makes a huge difference, it's still a disaster lmao.

There's this last bit of hope I have that Melbourne will be a bit of a special case and we get some more "reasonable" gaps elsewhere, but it's not a strong hope.

You're not alone in hanging onto that last bit of hope.

If all of the advantage is engine it is a long road, we can't out develop the deficit. If it's from the chassis etc, then there's always hope to unlock more the Mercedes does.

[Artur Craft]

I feel cheated… Ferrari car and PU are good. Merc is cheating but why Merc clients are not benefiting so much ?

Engine suppliers can provide inferior engines to their clients, there is no way to know as engines are not drawn. I´m sure Mercedes have a special engine just for them

[ScuderiaLeo]

Leclerc said he didn't have fun in today's session, Hamilton saying he doesn't understand the FIA's decisions about these regulations, not to mention Verstappen and Norris's comments too though this isn't the thread for them.. not inspiring much confidence overall

[AR3-GP]

Lewis : « Mercedes ? I think the obvious thing is that they haven't shown their engine power through any of the practices because there's talk about the compression ratio, and obviously they've done a really strong job on their engine, which we have too, but it will be interesting... I'm trying to understand why the gap is up to two-tenths or more just through power in each sector. And if it is to do with the compression, then I want to understand why the FIA hasn't done anything and what is being done to rectify that, but if not and it's just pure power, then we have to do a better job. »

[Artur Craft]

Ferrari have build an amazing chassis if they are able to beat all the other team that use Mercedes PUs with extra horsepower, including McLaren.

They built a good chassis, no doubt. But I wouldn´t call it amazing, at least not as amazing as AM (imagine Newey´s car with Ferrari´s engine!)

[Luscion]

[Fakepivot]

They built a good chassis, no doubt. But I wouldn´t call it amazing, at least not as amazing as AM (imagine Newey´s car with Ferrari´s engine!)

well Newey's car with Ferrari engine would have imploded the team, he would have made it extremely skinny and then when engine issue shows up he points finger at Ferrari department and of course the british bais media would have came up with all kind of rumours and oh its the "Italian politics" blablabla and this would have created so much problem with in the team.. In a way glad he didn't join Ferrari.. Ferrari need to find there own newey/ brown etc.. they should have similar program to FDA to train young engineers do they have such programs??

[ScuderiaLeo]

Leclerc said he expects Mercedes to be a full second faster tomorrow