2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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AR3-GP
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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ScuderiaLeo wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 01:59
Given that the current engine isn't even the one they wanted to put in.. it's surprisingly quite good no? From the story, I would've expected it to be a lot worse.
It depends on how you look at it. Ferrari could be Red Bull-Renault in terms of chassis doing more work than the PU.
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SoulPancake13
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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AR3-GP wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 02:15
ScuderiaLeo wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 01:59
Given that the current engine isn't even the one they wanted to put in.. it's surprisingly quite good no? From the story, I would've expected it to be a lot worse.
It depends on how you look at it. Ferrari could be Red Bull-Renault in terms of chassis doing more work than the PU.
I would argue it is a net positive, although disappointing that a chassis born like this is being wasted by Zimmerman's failed steel cylinder. I guess Gualtieri's promotion was likely because he came in and saved the engine (so to speak)

Seanspeed
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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Space-heat wrote:
10 Mar 2026, 15:37
Every year, we get a glimmer of hope for later in the season fix that probably won't materialise
Why should this year be any different!?

We're all gonna put a bunch of hope into it no matter what. lol What else can we do?

johnnycesup
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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People were crazy here a few days ago saying that Autoracer was hyping Ferrari up before the season, they knew something was up with the engine and could have been a complete shitshow. That's why there were the "last minute changes" reports, that might have been when Ferrari ditched the Zimmermann engine and had to find a way to put the other one on the car. Now that it appears to have worked out fine after Bahrain and Melbourne, AR are certainly more confident.

I wonder if we are in the "diminishing returns" phase of ICE development if a rushed version of the 2025 engine can perform fine, not only with Ferrari but with Haas as well.

Space-heat
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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Seanspeed wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 02:47
Space-heat wrote:
10 Mar 2026, 15:37
Every year, we get a glimmer of hope for later in the season fix that probably won't materialise
Why should this year be any different!?

We're all gonna put a bunch of hope into it no matter what. lol What else can we do?
Nothing. It’s just tough. “It’s the hope that kills”.

Emag
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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ScuderiaLeo wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 01:59
Given that the current engine isn't even the one they wanted to put in.. it's surprisingly quite good no? From the story, I would've expected it to be a lot worse.
The engine is not bad, but there's that sense of "why isn't it better?" with Ferrari. Like this is what they're historically known for, you would expect it to be the benchmark engine at some point in F1 right. But it hasn't been the case for a while. The script has been flipped from Enzo's time. Engine is for the people who can't build aerodynamics :lol:
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Badger
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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Out of the 5 PU manufacturers only Mercedes and Ferrari had an uncompromised lead up into this PU regulation. Fully assembled teams from the start, all the facilities from the start, previous experience and IP, and the ability to start working on it before the introduction of the PU cost cap in 2023. It's disappointing that Ferrari have not been able to bring something more competitive when the chassis team has clearly been busy doing great work.

johnnycesup
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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Badger wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 10:04

It's disappointing that Ferrari have not been able to bring something more competitive when the chassis team has clearly been busy doing great work.
I think we should wait a few races before judging the real competitiveness of the PU, most of the difference seems to be with the battery charginig and deployment and there could be optimization to be made there. It's the same with the biggest advantage the unit has right now, the starts (maybe acceleration out of low speed as well), where the other pu suppliers might find some gains.

Xyz22
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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It's been around 24ish hours from the article so we can discuss its content a bit.
According to Autoracer the original engine that should have been the one used for this season failed during development as it didn't meet the required performance/reliability targets. This pushed Ferrari to find a "quick" solution and they decided to update and adapt the 2025 engine.
In parallel they have started working on a new concept which will the one used for the next season or, if possible, the second half of this season (ADUO, internal targets met, etc.)

Ferrari has to do everything they can to expose Mercedes and push them to use the engine, in order to get inside the Aduo. It's almost paramount as it would provide a colossal, colossal benefit.
A very good thing is that the FIA can decide the Aduo rules and considering Mercedes clearly cheated and (hopefully) they want to see a great fight for the WDCs they will try to get every one else inside the Aduo.

wowgr8
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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Xyz22 wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 19:24
It's been around 24ish hours from the article so we can discuss its content a bit.
According to Autoracer the original engine that should have been the one used for this season failed during development as it didn't meet the required performance/reliability targets. This pushed Ferrari to find a "quick" solution and they decided to update and adapt the 2025 engine.
In parallel they have started working on a new concept which will the one used for the next season or, if possible, the second half of this season (ADUO, internal targets met, etc.)

Ferrari has to do everything they can to expose Mercedes and push them to use the engine, in order to get inside the Aduo. It's almost paramount as it would provide a colossal, colossal benefit.
A very good thing is that the FIA can decide the Aduo rules and considering Mercedes clearly cheated and (hopefully) they want to see a great fight for the WDCs they will try to get every one else inside the Aduo.
Surely it can't be that easy to adapt the 25 ICE to the 26 rules? If that's what they did then it makes total sense why it's so reliable. You're right about pushing Mercedes to expose their advantage, but how do they do that? Mercedes will only push as much as they need to to keep everyone else an arm's width away. The key to getting Merc to expose their advantage is likely McLaren, if those two go at it for the championship I don't think either will be bothered about sandbagging, unless they draw up some shady pact to maintain their advantage

Xyz22
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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wowgr8 wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 20:12
Xyz22 wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 19:24
It's been around 24ish hours from the article so we can discuss its content a bit.
According to Autoracer the original engine that should have been the one used for this season failed during development as it didn't meet the required performance/reliability targets. This pushed Ferrari to find a "quick" solution and they decided to update and adapt the 2025 engine.
In parallel they have started working on a new concept which will the one used for the next season or, if possible, the second half of this season (ADUO, internal targets met, etc.)

Ferrari has to do everything they can to expose Mercedes and push them to use the engine, in order to get inside the Aduo. It's almost paramount as it would provide a colossal, colossal benefit.
A very good thing is that the FIA can decide the Aduo rules and considering Mercedes clearly cheated and (hopefully) they want to see a great fight for the WDCs they will try to get every one else inside the Aduo.
Surely it can't be that easy to adapt the 25 ICE to the 26 rules? If that's what they did then it makes total sense why it's so reliable. You're right about pushing Mercedes to expose their advantage, but how do they do that? Mercedes will only push as much as they need to to keep everyone else an arm's width away. The key to getting Merc to expose their advantage is likely McLaren, if those two go at it for the championship I don't think either will be bothered about sandbagging, unless they draw up some shady pact to maintain their advantage
Of course it wasn't easy.

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AR3-GP
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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wowgr8 wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 20:12
Surely it can't be that easy to adapt the 25 ICE to the 26 rules? If that's what they did then it makes total sense why it's so reliable.
Ferrari was the only team that never used a split turbo, so the architecture that is associated with their combustion engine would be more easily carried over for a 2026 PU.
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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If the FIA allow ADUO to occur - and I would argue that perhaps they should be flexible with the relative performance targets required to activate ADUO, out of fairness to the other manufacturers, given the way Mercedes has exploited the compression ratio trick - I am cautiously optimistic Ferrari may be able to mount a legitimate WDC/WCC battle this season.

A lot yet to be determined, like how much of a power advantage Mercedes is actually sitting on, if Ferrari will be able to push Mercedes enough to force them to show their hand, how the FIA will approach ADUO, what the relative balance of performance will look like at different tracks (having only seen one race weekend, which occurred at a track which is a known outlier), etc, etc.

Totally speculating, but assuming it's true Ferrari is using a modified version of the 2025 PU, a silver-lining in the meantime may be that they have relatively stronger reliability than teams running brand new PU designs. Maybe that will allow them to consolidate more points in the meantime, up until (we hope) they can debut a new PU this season.

SoulPancake13
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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Keep in mind that the claims Mercedes are holding back in the racers to prevent ADUO makes little sense. The FIA runs the engines on their dyno at full power. 2% performance deficit is ~10HP, which I think Ferrari would likely fall under

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AR3-GP
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Re: 2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

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SoulPancake13 wrote:
11 Mar 2026, 21:53
Keep in mind that the claims Mercedes are holding back in the racers to prevent ADUO makes little sense. The FIA runs the engines on their dyno at full power. 2% performance deficit is ~10HP, which I think Ferrari would likely fall under
I don't buy those stories either. It doesn't work like that now. They are running at the power level which they think is "safe" for reliability. That's it. They might unlock more later in the season once they are confident in the reliability, but it's the same for the other manufacturers.
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