2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[ali623]

Leclerc was great in the first stint to keep coming back at Russell (not quite sure what he was doing, was clearly faster but making a mess of energy deployment?)

Don't think Ferrari coming in during the VSC would have made much difference to the final result to be honest. Once Mercedes had clear air on the hards, their race pace was mighty, Leclerc couldn't make any inroads on much fresher tyres and I think Russell was massively managing up front since Antonelli closed him down quite a bit at the end.

[Xyz22]

Our only hope is if the FIA decide to reduce the electricity output available.
If on the other hand decide to increase how much is possible to recover, for example through superclipping, than we are even more finished.

This will make the deficit even bigger since the ice is the monster in MB case.

MB advantage is that they are able to recharge the battery much "better" than Ferrari, especially through "super clipping". By limiting the amount of electricity available for a lap, recharging the battery would be less important.

This is also why China, in theory, looks like a much better track for Ferrari. Drivers will spend significantly more time under braking compared to Melbourne, which will make it easier to recharge the battery.

[bananapeel23]

Our only hope is if the FIA decide to reduce the electricity output available.
If on the other hand decide to increase how much is possible to recover, for example through superclipping, than we are even more finished.

Keep 350 kW for overtake mode and drop to 250 kW for everyone else.

Still requires battery management and clipping, but would make the overtake mode genuinely useful, since it can be used under traction, where deployment is most efficient.

[aberracus]

Great job form the Team, I’m very proud of Ferrari, without Mercedes chicanery we could be leading the championship, let’s hope the teams keep pressing the FIA for other ways to test the Merc engine, that patent for inside cylinder sensor compressor meter sounds interesting.
Let’s hope the team that we love gets great updates and brings the battle to the front. Great job Lewis and Charles. What a difference from Lewis 25; and Charles is a monster.

BTW Toto don’t want to lower the energy delivery to less than 300 so 250 should be the target and it will nerf its engine.

[Vinlarr89]

Is the issue more of an energy recovery issue than an energy deployment?

China on paper looks stronger, but will the fact that there’s more opportunity for energy recovery not hand even more power to the other PUs? I guess it’s hard to tell at this stage, because I’m not sure anyone is still too sure
RB and Merc both better at recovery phases?

[Xyz22]

Is the issue more of an energy recovery issue than an energy deployment?

China on paper looks stronger, but will the fact that there’s more opportunity for energy recovery not hand even more power to the other PUs? I guess it’s hard to tell at this stage, because I’m not sure anyone is still too sure
RB and Merc both better at recovery phases?

Merc is better at recovering energy through super clipping, quite evident from the telemetry and speed trace. Ferrari struggled massively in S2 because they had no way of recharging the battery (no big braking zones).

[bananapeel23]

Merc definitely playing games, McLaren nowhere the same power level!
Hopefully ADUO kicks in so that an in season upgrade can somewhat close the gap

I don't know if Ferrari can do something with their very small turbo (according to reports). It will help in some tracks but overall it's likely that MB concept is superior.

The Mercedes advantage appears to be primarily MGU-K related. It seems to reduce parasitic losses from harvesting through LiCo and super clipping much better than the others. (And deployment maps seem better)

Both of these advantages have little to nothing to do with the turbo. Ferrari has also historically run a smaller turbo in the previous regulation set, which didn’t seem to impact them very negatively. I can’t see why it would be any different now, especially when the lag reducing effect of a smaller turbo is even more advantageous than it used to be.

ADUO should help a lot.

[Xyz22]

Merc definitely playing games, McLaren nowhere the same power level!
Hopefully ADUO kicks in so that an in season upgrade can somewhat close the gap

I don't know if Ferrari can do something with their very small turbo (according to reports). It will help in some tracks but overall it's likely that MB concept is superior.

The Mercedes advantage appears to be primarily MGU-K related. It seems to reduce parasitic losses from harvesting through LiCo and super clipping much better than the others. (And deployment maps seem better)

Both of these advantages have little to nothing to do with the turbo. Ferrari has also historically run a smaller turbo in the previous regulation set, which didn’t seem to impact them very negatively. I can’t see why it would be any different now, especially when the lag reducing effect of a smaller turbo is even more advantageous than it used to be.

ADUO should help a lot.

Thanks for the explanation.
The "macarena" wing should also help quite a bit in tracks where Ferrari could struggle with energy, by providing 5-7 km/h more at high speed.

[AR3-GP]

Thanks for the explanation.
The "macarena" wing should also help quite a bit in tracks where Ferrari could struggle with energy, by providing 5-7 km/h more at high speed.

If that wing is worth what they say, Mercedes will have it soon. So it's not going to be a season long advantage for Ferrari. At best it may be 1-2 races advantage before the rest use their own.

[Xyz22]

Thanks for the explanation.
The "macarena" wing should also help quite a bit in tracks where Ferrari could struggle with energy, by providing 5-7 km/h more at high speed.

If that wing is worth what they say, Mercedes will have it soon. So it's not going to be a season long advantage for Ferrari. At best it may be 1-2 races advantage before the rest use their own.

Ferrari has been working on it since the summer according to Autoracer. Apparently, is not that easy to build and implement. Also, some said that it works in conjunction with their aero concept, especially at the rear.

[bluechris]

Our only hope is if the FIA decide to reduce the electricity output available.
If on the other hand decide to increase how much is possible to recover, for example through superclipping, than we are even more finished.

This will make the deficit even bigger since the ice is the monster in MB case.

I don't think so. Electrical is a multiplier of ICE power. The fastest one comes at the end of the straight, the larger the kinetic energy difference before and after braking, and the larger the accumulation of electrical enegy, than can be successively deployed on top of ICE power.

Ok, let's go 1 step further then and imagine completely off the electric part. Who will dominate everything.
Ice is the king here and everything else are tight to it.
Better ICE means better everything.

[sucof]

I am very optimistic:
- there might be a LOT to improve via software if we assume Mclaren did an average or good job with theirs. Because there, by rule, the only difference shall be the software. And Mclarens were way off... So if Ferrari can learn a lot quickly and optimise their recovery, deployment from the software side, there could be a lot to gain and catch up to Mercedes!
- I find it strange that no one talks about the first few laps between Leclerc and Russel. I did not see much speed difference, and what was most telling that I saw Russell doing extra cooling on their car. Overall my impression is that Merc either have a cooling deficit or only able to ask that extra power from their engine for short times. Like qualifying. I am not so sure they had a lot more in race trim engine wise! I know they could have just dialed them back, but I am not convinced yet. And without the loss from the bad pit strategy, Ferrari would have been 5-10 sec away in race trim, which is very little. Mclaren were like 50 sec away with their Merc engine! So I think if Lecrelc would have kept battling Russel, the Mercs would have been slower and the race a lot closer even.

[woocasz]

Race pace:

ANT 1.23.3
RUS +0.11
HAM +0.13
LEC +0.21
VER +0.53
NOR +0.56

Mercedes is probably hiding more pace, but still Ferrari doesnt looking that bad, (without VSC it would look closer) considering +0.8 in Quali.

[basti313]

I am very optimistic:
- there might be a LOT to improve via software if we assume Mclaren did an average or good job with theirs.
....
- ... Russell doing extra cooling on their car.....

I do not share your optimism for this season.
I always said (and many, especially McLaren fans strongly opposed...) that the issue is the cooling. Merc has the upper hand on the integration and especially the idea and feedback on the cooling requirements. THIS is what makes the difference. The Merc chassis and engine are wholely designed on matching the cooling.
This is also what you see on the track, that the Merc is really on the edge already with cooling.
For the McLaren...it looks a bit like other cars after changing the engine...

McLaren will be there in two years.

[bananapeel23]

I don't know if Ferrari can do something with their very small turbo (according to reports). It will help in some tracks but overall it's likely that MB concept is superior.

The Mercedes advantage appears to be primarily MGU-K related. It seems to reduce parasitic losses from harvesting through LiCo and super clipping much better than the others. (And deployment maps seem better)

Both of these advantages have little to nothing to do with the turbo. Ferrari has also historically run a smaller turbo in the previous regulation set, which didn’t seem to impact them very negatively. I can’t see why it would be any different now, especially when the lag reducing effect of a smaller turbo is even more advantageous than it used to be.

ADUO should help a lot.

Thanks for the explanation.
The "macarena" wing should also help quite a bit in tracks where Ferrari could struggle with energy, by providing 5-7 km/h more at high speed.

Admittedly the benefit of a more powerful ICE is multiplied when super clipping, since the engines are essentially cut down to ~180 kW when doing it (assuming perfectly efficient super clipping). A 10 kW (~15 horsepower) advantage will thus mean roughly a 10% advantage in retained ICE power while super clipping, even if 10 kW usually only works out to about a 2% advantage over the rest of the lap. This means that they sustain speed better while super clipping.

So the relatively minor ICE power advantage of the Mercedes is definitely amplified by the use of super clipping, but the majority of their advantage should still lay in the MGU-K. ADUO should also help the teams catch up a bit on the ICE side, even if they don’t copy the Mercedes compression trick.