2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[Luscion]

How do you know it's the second best car?

They were the closest team to Merc in fp3, in quali Ham(on mediums) was the leading car behind the merc, 6 tenths away from Russell( on softs) in Q1, then their battery decided it didnt want to behave and they lost a ton of time. Despite all their issues Leclerc is still very close to Hadjar in p3 and Lewis is still close to both Mclarens. Are they definitively the 2nd fastest team? who knows, but they have a lot more pace than they were able to show in Q2 onwards

Also bear in mind: (1) they lost P3 (best non-Mercedes) due to the deployment issue (2) this isn’t a good track for the small turbo philosophy (not enough slow corners).

It depends how much better the optimal lap time would have been, presuming proper deployment. If it cost them 3-4 tenths, then I feel a bit better and have a bit of hope for other types of tracks. If it’s 1-2 tenths, it’ll be a long year…

Yea, i dont have the numbers but watching it live its like their performance fell off a cliff come Q2, went from second best to drivers having to bail out of the lap simply cause the battery wasnt giving them enough energy, Ham was also complaining recharging issues when trying to push. Leclerc thinks he could have gotten p3 and Ham without all the issues says p3-p4. The merc is still untouchable rn imo

[mkay]

I think Ferrari may have made a mistake going for a small turbo. It's absolutely going to haunt them at tracks like Suzuka, Spa, Silverstone, Monza, Baku, Jeddah, Qatar, Vegas.

[Sidiamal]

I am not buying the software optimization that Mercedes clients are missing though. It should count for 1-2 tenths, not a second like we have seen today. I suspect they are doing something shady with PU supplying too.
From Ferrari side I hope they will find the cause for miscalibration of deployment soon. I feel like we left at least 4 tenths between that and the reverse rear wing today.

The rear wing is going to be a compound benefit. Lets Ferrari get away with a bigger wing (so more downforce, enhancing our already natural downforce advantage) while having less drag, less drag means less energy consumption, means more of it available to deploy. Plus the gains from optimizing deployment will close the gap on the straights, or narrow it down enough that Ferrari's natural advantages will tip it over. And who knows what the new engine test will bring in June.

Again, this is a track where the SF-26 was supposed to be blown away. It plays to every single one of Mercedes' advantages and all of Ferrari's disadvantages. That the Ferrari platform nevertheless acquitted itself very well in every department save straightline deployment makes me optimistic that the title is still to play for.

[Luscion]

[AR3-GP]

The rear wing is going to be a compound benefit. Lets Ferrari get away with a bigger wing (so more downforce, enhancing our already natural downforce advantage) while having less drag, less drag means less energy consumption, means more of it available to deploy. Plus the gains from optimizing deployment will close the gap on the straights, or narrow it down enough that Ferrari's natural advantages will tip it over. And who knows what the new engine test will bring in June.

Everyone is going to have that rear wing within a couple of races.

[Sidiamal]

The rear wing is going to be a compound benefit. Lets Ferrari get away with a bigger wing (so more downforce, enhancing our already natural downforce advantage) while having less drag, less drag means less energy consumption, means more of it available to deploy. Plus the gains from optimizing deployment will close the gap on the straights, or narrow it down enough that Ferrari's natural advantages will tip it over. And who knows what the new engine test will bring in June.

Everyone is going to have that rear wing within a couple of races.

Real-life isn't F1 manager. If the team that came up with it and developed it over the winter can't bring it to the table until Japan at the minimum and that while having a working prototype then the ones who didn't even know it was possible until two weeks ago will absolutely not have it at the same time, especially in a season where development is already pre-arranged up to half a year in advance. The earliest the copies will arrive is June.

[AR3-GP]

The rear wing is going to be a compound benefit. Lets Ferrari get away with a bigger wing (so more downforce, enhancing our already natural downforce advantage) while having less drag, less drag means less energy consumption, means more of it available to deploy. Plus the gains from optimizing deployment will close the gap on the straights, or narrow it down enough that Ferrari's natural advantages will tip it over. And who knows what the new engine test will bring in June.

Everyone is going to have that rear wing within a couple of races.

Real-life isn't F1 manager. If the team that came up with it and developed it over the winter can't bring it to the table until Japan at the minimum and that while having a working prototype then the ones who didn't even know it was possible until two weeks ago will absolutely not have it at the same time, especially in a season where development is already pre-arranged up to half a year in advance. The earliest the copies will arrive is June.

It was said during testing that 4 other teams were developing this wing before they saw the Ferrari. Rd Bull is set to have it in Japan. Aston Martin is said to have it in Montreal.

[Frank73]

Everyone is going to have that rear wing within a couple of races.

Real-life isn't F1 manager. If the team that came up with it and developed it over the winter can't bring it to the table until Japan at the minimum and that while having a working prototype then the ones who didn't even know it was possible until two weeks ago will absolutely not have it at the same time, especially in a season where development is already pre-arranged up to half a year in advance. The earliest the copies will arrive is June.

It was said during testing that 4 other teams were developing this wing before they saw the Ferrari. Rd Bull is set to have it in Japan. Aston Martin is said to have it in Montreal.

Even if it is true, they have not tested it yet. Likely information leaked from Ferrari, so they are significantly late, considering that Ferrari built its first version at least one month ago, and is set to have fully functional in one month at least.

[AR3-GP]

Real-life isn't F1 manager. If the team that came up with it and developed it over the winter can't bring it to the table until Japan at the minimum and that while having a working prototype then the ones who didn't even know it was possible until two weeks ago will absolutely not have it at the same time, especially in a season where development is already pre-arranged up to half a year in advance. The earliest the copies will arrive is June.

It was said during testing that 4 other teams were developing this wing before they saw the Ferrari. Rd Bull is set to have it in Japan. Aston Martin is said to have it in Montreal.

Even if it is true, they have not tested it yet. Likely information leaked from Ferrari, so they are significantly late, considering that Ferrari built its first version at least one month ago, and is set to have fully functional in one month at least.

Not everyone is bringing their wing as a "test item". Ferrari has their own reasons for doing that.

[Frank73]

It was said during testing that 4 other teams were developing this wing before they saw the Ferrari. Rd Bull is set to have it in Japan. Aston Martin is said to have it in Montreal.

Even if it is true, they have not tested it yet. Likely information leaked from Ferrari, so they are significantly late, considering that Ferrari built its first version at least one month ago, and is set to have fully functional in one month at least.

Not everyone is bringing their wing as a "test item". Ferrari has their own reasons for doing that.

Reason being having one.

[AR3-GP]

Reason being having one.

They brought one that didn't get signed off to run on the car in Melbourne because there were still issues. Other teams may get it right on the first try, or not.

[Frank73]

Reason being having one.

They brought one that didn't get signed off to run on the car in Melbourne because there were still issues. Other teams may get it right on the first try, or not.

Other teams had not a prototype one month ago. They likely had at most only CAD models after intercepting some rumors leaked from Ferrari. We have seen them testing several wings that were different for details that could hardly spotted by the naked eye, let alone a completely new concept. Ferrari has two months advantage at the very least. They said they already had it in the pipeline cause they always refuse to admit they copied an idea.

[PlatinumZealot]

Seems a bit soon to already calling for heads roll. The car looks good, they did a good job during the winter. Doesn't look to be a matter of chassis problems. Somehow the Mercedes team seems to have more power that even the other customers don't have.

They have better energy management and more downforce. So it's like this, the hybrid component is so big now that there is not just a torque demand map, you have deployment map. It's like I sell you an oven and some ingredients and it is up to you to bake the cake. The energy management maps are not a standard thing Mercedes sells to the customers. The customer has to figure that part on their own. And they are waay behind because Mercedes has had years of dyno runs on virtual tracks to fine tune them. It's literally a one year baked in advatage for Mercedes.

[Frank73]

Seems a bit soon to already calling for heads roll. The car looks good, they did a good job during the winter. Doesn't look to be a matter of chassis problems. Somehow the Mercedes team seems to have more power that even the other customers don't have.

They have better energy management and more downforce. So it's like this, the hybrid component is so big now that there is not just a torque demand map, you have deployment map. It's like I sell you an oven and some ingredients and it is up to you to bake the cake. The energy management maps are not a standard thing Mercedes sells to the customers. The customer has to figure that part on their own. And they are waay behind because Mercedes has had years of dyno runs on virtual tracks to fine tune them. It's literally a one year baked in advatage for Mercedes.

Indeed, I was saying the same. Hardware and software must be handed to customers in their most up-to-date versions, but deployment strategy is up each an every team. It has been stressed by many that there are many degrre of freedom that have to be exploited in the most proper manner. Concerning Ferrari, a reason for hope is that reportedly Bearman was second best at the speedtrap and the one that lost less speed of them all due to clipping.

[sucof]

Seems a bit soon to already calling for heads roll. The car looks good, they did a good job during the winter. Doesn't look to be a matter of chassis problems. Somehow the Mercedes team seems to have more power that even the other customers don't have.

They have better energy management and more downforce. So it's like this, the hybrid component is so big now that there is not just a torque demand map, you have deployment map. It's like I sell you an oven and some ingredients and it is up to you to bake the cake. The energy management maps are not a standard thing Mercedes sells to the customers. The customer has to figure that part on their own. And they are waay behind because Mercedes has had years of dyno runs on virtual tracks to fine tune them. It's literally a one year baked in advatage for Mercedes.

I highly doubt they have better downforce. On similar laps Ferrari was quicker in most corners.
And I also highly doubt energy management has a one year merc advantage... you have nothing to prove this statement.
I go even further: energy management will be something the easiest to copy between teams. They have the GPS data, speed, rpm... if they lack in some knowledge or philosophy how to create the best, they will find it out quickly from others data.
Merc has either 1 month of advantage in this regard, or something in the engine hardware that is their real advantage which is hard to copy.
We will see.