2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[Jambier]

Article from Autoracer from a few days ago said Ferrari plan to introduce their new engine in July if they qualify for ADUO, but today Fred said they can't just focus on the engine. Also big upgrade package for Miami


https://autoracer.it/vasseur-ferrari-in ... -mercedes/

while Vasseur does not expect major changes to come from the technical directive. "We don't expect much from the directive, but we do expect a step with the ADUO." The mistake to avoid, however, is focusing solely on the engine. "We also need to improve the car. There is no magic wand. We need to work on tyres, aerodynamics, chassis, suspension as well. Everything. We are ahead of McLaren and Red Bull, but they will also push on developments."

but we don't know if they will be in the 3% of performance. Mercedes could be play in Japan, turning down a bit their PU, just to denied ADUO to the competitors.
Will they bring the "steel" engine or they will develop this one that they're currently use?

Missing Bahrain is a bit sad since the track is so good and should suit Ferrari so well. Missing Saudi is good though, given that it will be the worst track on the calendar for harvesting.

missing every race now is a blessing.

ADUO is an average measure of all engines (so 8 engines for Mercedes) on all the first 5 races.
There is no turning down, or it would be the 8 engines for 5 races.

[Xyz22]

Ferrari will bring a new package in Miami, apparently. The original plan was to bring a smaller one in Bahrain but considering it's scrapped for now they will bring what Vasseur calls a 1.5 package.
Vasseur says the only way to keep up with MB right now is to push the tyres lot with Overtake mode enabled. Without it, they are just too quick (0.5s more or less). They need to get the macarena wing working, it would help tremendously.

[Waz]

That doesn't seem right or correlate with every other source of information I have seen.

If it was measured as the average during the races, Mercedes could easily detune them to be only slightly better than the next best, but have much more in reserve, that can be unlocked after the deadline.

The FIA run the engine on the test bench and take measurements. They likely ask for more than one sample from each supplier.

[mstar]

Cheer up everyone -lets hope the upgrades in Miami bring us closer. if i understand correctly they are not just looking at power but deployment, battery and software.
Being a software engineer myself, i am sure the same is happening with the other merc teams they have the SAME engine but the whole software to save/deploy/recharge etc etc can be customised to suit. This is where i think merc are finding a little advantage -as they MAYBE have bespoke engine maps more optimized to the PU (lets be honest they had the engine in design so are aware of all the PUs capabilities). They developed these themselves as their own -just like the teams can if they want to.

We saw in Qualy they changed the engine maps for qualy/race to let more energy release on the long back straight to cut the time loss to merc. So i think the PU and the electronics, battery, software will be another focus.

[mstar]

Great Results for the team -best we can hope for merc are too good.

ANyone agree, Lewis's race craft, tactics and whole management of the race was top level?

How he managed his time to attack charles and leave him for dead. Over the 2 races he has been over a race distance quicker. I think his management of the hard tyre today was elite. He understood when to push, when to save and when to go for it and push to the max. His consistent laptimes was really good for 15laps all within 0.1/0.2 tenths.

[PlatinumZealot]

That doesn't seem right or correlate with every other source of information I have seen.

If it was measured as the average during the races, Mercedes could easily detune them to be only slightly better than the next best, but have much more in reserve, that can be unlocked after the deadline.

The FIA run the engine on the test bench and take measurements. They likely ask for more than one sample from each supplier.

You can't hide combustion efficiency. FIA can monitor the fuel flow, timing and boost to see if you are turning down anything.

[atanatizante]

We should probably draw a few conclusions from LEC’s statement, where he said that only now have they seen the true race pace, or at least something close to it, given that RUS was pushing hard to catch ANT and win the race.

So, if we do a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation, the gap between ANT and HAM after 56 laps was 27 seconds. But to that, we should add the time lost in the opening laps battle, roughly 6–7 seconds, when Mercedes were unable to get the tyres into the right operating window.

Then you also have to factor in the fight between HAM and LEC, where at least another 9–10 seconds were lost. So in real terms, you could argue that the actual gap was somewhere around 43–44 seconds. That works out at roughly 0.7s per lap and if you break it down by sector, the picture below shows that Ferrari was losing on average about 0.05s in S1, around 0.3s in S2, and roughly 0.35s in S3.



So the obvious question is: where is that advantage coming from?

Let’s say CR is worth around 2 tenths per lap. That would leave about 0.45s per lap coming from harvesting optimisation, which lines up reasonably well with what LEC said, namely that at least five tenths per lap can be found there. Now, around 0.25s per lap can already be gained simply by underfuelling the car by 7–8 kg, if we assume a maximum fuel energy density of 41 MJ/kg. That would mean the actual gain coming from harvesting optimisation alone is closer to 0.35s per lap. LEC mentioned at least 0.5s, but that may only apply in the case of the Ferrari PU.
On top of that, there is another point that is not really being talked about enough: Ferrari built this new engine around last year’s architecture, which basically means they chose the conservative route. In practical terms, using a smaller turbine implies a lower maximum ICE power output, and that again costs lap time because it also reduces harvesting potential over the lap, since the car is running lower revs through the corners and spending more time in lower gears.

And there is also the superclipping aspect. In the qualy Merc PU harvesting map ends with a plateau phase that begins as soon as superclipping starts, as shown in the picture; you are then harvesting only 250 kW. By contrast, Ferrari’s approach, where LiCo is used to reach a maximum harvesting level of 350 kW, is clearly more efficient over a lap, at least here in China.



Then, in the race, there were various deployment tactics between the drivers as we could see here:



So Ferrari still has quite a lot to optimise, and it is possible that this PU output level was used deliberately in order to account for the new ADUO conditions and remain within the 2% window. But personally, I think they will only be able to reach real parity with the arrival of the new engine next year, both in terms of outright ICE power output and in terms of harvesting capability over a lap.

[atanatizante]

That doesn't seem right or correlate with every other source of information I have seen.

If it was measured as the average during the races, Mercedes could easily detune them to be only slightly better than the next best, but have much more in reserve, that can be unlocked after the deadline.

The FIA run the engine on the test bench and take measurements. They likely ask for more than one sample from each supplier.

You can't hide combustion efficiency. FIA can monitor the fuel flow, timing and boost to see if you are turning down anything.

Yes, but if you have a fuel with the maximum energy density allowed by the regulations, 41 MJ/kg, instead of one at the minimum of 38 MJ/kg, then you can underfuel the car by roughly 9 kg, which is worth around 3 tenths per lap. And that gain could be even bigger if one ICE has a higher combustion efficiency than another.

And to really appreciate the amount of work that has gone into these new engines, you have to keep in mind that, although they still share the same V6 architecture and 1.6-litre capacity, the fuel load has dropped from 110 kg last year to around 70 kg this year. I’d actually be very interested to know the real figure, because I haven’t found anywhere in the regulations, or in any official statement, what the actual maximum fuel quantity is for the fuel being used this year.

So in practice, we are talking about a reduction of roughly 36.5%, and on top of that, you also have the loss in calorific value caused by the drop in energy density, from 43 MJ/kg last year to 41 MJ/kg. That brings the total reduction in fuel consumption versus 2025 to around 40%, which is massive, in my humble opinion.

[Luscion]

On a somewhat related note, I hope Lewis keeps this up for the rest of the season. He looked completely defeated last year, it was almost sad to look at. This is more like the Lewis of old.

Yea, it's nice to see that so far lewis is able to give Charles a challenge this season

[upsidedowntoast]

They overpushed the car trying to keep up with the Mercs and the tires dropped off hard. I expected it to be closer, but I guess this was a reality check. It's highly unlikely anyone else takes it away from Mercedes this year.

Glad Lewis finally got the podium though.

Not to mention the complete lack of deg from Mercedes, even if they didn't battle as much as us, their lap times didn't drop at all.. they must have had way more power on reserve than expected.

The engineer in me wants to commend them, but Ferrari would need a miracle to compete...

They don’t have deg mainly because they have way more power, therefore they can afford to push less the corners. Also with more power you can afford more downforce. Same situation as 2014-2021 era.

George had more tyre deg compared to Kimi because of the battling but yeah, general car-related tyre deg is less for Merc. Probably *because* of their lower cornering speeds compared to Ferrari. I'm more convinced than ever that they made a conscious decision to slow down and charge more in the corners, all the while preserving tyres, to get more exit speed in straights. So that's what their chassis is built for. They have more charge *because* they go slower through the corners; they have less tyre deg because they have more downforce (which is related to both a stronger PU and their aero) and because they go through the corners.

Chicken and egg I guess. But Merc has a complete package with good aero. Maybe it's not as good as Ferrari in the traditional sense but still 9.5/10.

[f1316]

On a somewhat related note, I hope Lewis keeps this up for the rest of the season. He looked completely defeated last year, it was almost sad to look at. This is more like the Lewis of old.

Yea, it's nice to see that so far lewis is able to give Charles a challenge this season

They need to have some better rules of engagement so they don’t end up costing each other so much time. I don’t care who’s in front but battling back and forth lost them huge amount of time and took the pressure completely off Kimi. You could say it makes no difference because the Mercedes are too fast - and maybe that’s true - but no point making it easy for them; we’ve seen lots of reliability issues with lots of cars including Mercedes so Ferrari needs to optimise race time and not let the Mercedes off the hook so they can turn everything down.

I’m happy to see both drivers performing at a high level but let’s be sensible and work as a team.

[matt_b]

On a somewhat related note, I hope Lewis keeps this up for the rest of the season. He looked completely defeated last year, it was almost sad to look at. This is more like the Lewis of old.

Yea, it's nice to see that so far lewis is able to give Charles a challenge this season

They need to have some better rules of engagement so they don’t end up costing each other so much time. I don’t care who’s in front but battling back and forth lost them huge amount of time and took the pressure completely off Kimi. You could say it makes no difference because the Mercedes are too fast - and maybe that’s true - but no point making it easy for them; we’ve seen lots of reliability issues with lots of cars including Mercedes so Ferrari needs to optimise race time and not let the Mercedes off the hook so they can turn everything down.

I’m happy to see both drivers performing at a high level but let’s be sensible and work as a team.

Holding up George was the problem letting Kimi open up a 7 second lead. Would have been better having the two Mercedes figthing each other, losing time, destroying tyres or even having contact. They wont change the rules of engagement though if they're this close on race pace, it will only be if one is being significantly held up by the other or if on an alternative strategy.

[Fakepivot]

bit of tech question, today while onboard camera was facing back at lewis or charles car we could see lot of smoke coming from the back i think its called oil breather? where were they hiding them before in previous reg? or it din't exit back then? i notice they dump it similar way in 499p LMH

[venkyhere]

They overpushed the car trying to keep up with the Mercs and the tires dropped off hard. I expected it to be closer, but I guess this was a reality check. It's highly unlikely anyone else takes it away from Mercedes this year.

Glad Lewis finally got the podium though.

Not to mention the complete lack of deg from Mercedes, even if they didn't battle as much as us, their lap times didn't drop at all.. they must have had way more power on reserve than expected.

The engineer in me wants to commend them, but Ferrari would need a miracle to compete...

They don’t have deg mainly because they have way more power, therefore they can afford to push less the corners. Also with more power you can afford more downforce. Same situation as 2014-2021 era.

George had more tyre deg compared to Kimi because of the battling but yeah, general car-related tyre deg is less for Merc. Probably *because* of their lower cornering speeds compared to Ferrari. I'm more convinced than ever that they made a conscious decision to slow down and charge more in the corners, all the while preserving tyres, to get more exit speed in straights. So that's what their chassis is built for. They have more charge *because* they go slower through the corners; they have less tyre deg because they have more downforce (which is related to both a stronger PU and their aero) and because they go through the corners.

Chicken and egg I guess. But Merc has a complete package with good aero. Maybe it's not as good as Ferrari in the traditional sense but still 9.5/10.

I doubt this is a locked-in chassis choice, because come tracks like Monaco/Baku/Singapore etc where a larger % of laptime is buried in the slow corners than 'flowing tracks' like the ones we've seen so far, this will be bad strategy.
Let's see.

[Jozsusz]

They overpushed the car trying to keep up with the Mercs and the tires dropped off hard. I expected it to be closer, but I guess this was a reality check. It's highly unlikely anyone else takes it away from Mercedes this year.

Glad Lewis finally got the podium though.

Not to mention the complete lack of deg from Mercedes, even if they didn't battle as much as us, their lap times didn't drop at all.. they must have had way more power on reserve than expected.

The engineer in me wants to commend them, but Ferrari would need a miracle to compete...

They don’t have deg mainly because they have way more power, therefore they can afford to push less the corners. Also with more power you can afford more downforce. Same situation as 2014-2021 era.

George had more tyre deg compared to Kimi because of the battling but yeah, general car-related tyre deg is less for Merc. Probably *because* of their lower cornering speeds compared to Ferrari. I'm more convinced than ever that they made a conscious decision to slow down and charge more in the corners, all the while preserving tyres, to get more exit speed in straights. So that's what their chassis is built for. They have more charge *because* they go slower through the corners; they have less tyre deg because they have more downforce (which is related to both a stronger PU and their aero) and because they go through the corners.

Chicken and egg I guess. But Merc has a complete package with good aero. Maybe it's not as good as Ferrari in the traditional sense but still 9.5/10.

Of course their car is designed like this, because this is how you can be the fastest in the new formula. Lot of people don't or don't want to understand this here and just don't wanna accept that Merc is the fastest fair and square.