2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[Seanspeed]

At the very least, I think we can conclude at this point that Ferrari's starting advantage is no 'myth'.

[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.

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.

Without thinking too deeply about this, you can either save weight with a calorific fuel advantage, or you can use it for a power advantage. Doing both seems unlikely.

Ie. Underfueling the car by 9kg means driving more conservatively than you can if filled up full

[Waz]

At the very least, I think we can conclude at this point that Ferrari's starting advantage is no 'myth'.

Watching the red cars rocket into the race lead won't get old on me. I still haven't seen anything confirming a smaller turbo though, other than the usual fan fiction.

[catent]

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.

Hamilton most certainly did not leave Leclerc "for dead", seeing as Leclerc finished 3.5s behind him, and was closing the gap over the final few laps.

And I guarantee you, if the roles were reversed and someone claimed Leclerc left Hamilton "for dead", you'd find such a description of the race utterly ridiculous, because it is.

In both races this season, Leclerc was slightly quicker during the first stint, and Hamilton slightly quicker during the final stint.

Nevermind that this is Leclerc's worst track, and arguably Hamilton's best.

Good for Hamilton, because he looks quite strong at the moment. But those trying to frame this as a negative outcome for Leclerc are letting their tribal bias show, and it's a bad look. By tearing down Leclerc, you're effectively diminishing Hamilton's accomplishment. And beyond that, Leclerc has shown himself to be a quality race driver; there is no doubt about his ability and consistency.

The praise for Hamilton is very well deserved. The criticism of Leclerc is absurd. And those who are incapable of supporting their preferred driver without reflexively engaging in prejudiced, tribal ways of thinking/talking about their preferred driver's teammate, suffice to say I find that an incredibly unfortunate mindset to be trapped in.

[catent]

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.

I'm surprised you (or anyone) can definitively conclude that Mercedes' chassis concept is clearly the best design based on a total of two races, one of which occurred at an outlier of a track.

Far too little data to draw that conclusion even in the absence of their PU advantage. And when considering their (somewhat significant) power advantage, that conclusion becomes even more specious/unclear.

If Ferrari (and/or other teams) bridge the power gap and Mercedes still is able to outpace them across a race, then we can conclude their chassis is uniquely good. Until then, they will almost certainly always have the luxury of taking it easy on their tires through corners, knowing they can pull a gap on straights.

[SuperCNJ]

Well Lewis kinda chewed up his tyres fighting Russell so not sure how he could have ever remained in the front at all.

It was kind of interesting that Leclerc didn't even attempt to fight Russell at all when Hamilton was ahead, but fought Hamilton really hard when Russell was ahead. Had he fought Russell and kept him busy, who knows, Hamilton's tyres might have stayed alive enough to win the sprint. I'm starting to get the feeling Leclerc is much like Russell as Hamilton's teammate in that he's more interested in beating Hamilton than helping Ferrari get a win.

I'm not sure that's quite the same, as from 2022-2024 Mercedes was never in the title fight at all, and Russell was responsible for every win Mercedes did have (bar the Spa DSQ and the Silverstone mechanical failure, both wins that Lewis inherited). I don't recall any moments where he cost Mercedes a potential win because he and Lewis were too busy fighting each other instead of Max.

I do think Ferrari had a chance to pip Mercedes in this sprint especially after the safety car. Unlike in a longer race where Merc has more time to open up the gap, here the safety car compressed the gap between Russell and the Ferraris from ~4s down to less than 1s at some point with 3 laps to go. Had a Ferrari overtaken Russell after the safety car restart Russell might have struggled to re-overtake him on race pace.

Nonetheless, I don't fault Leclerc; every single guy at the top is like that. Establish the pecking order inside your team before you look outside.

Yeah I don't disagree with that. I think if it were the other way around with Leclerc battling Russell, I would have liked to see Hamilton try and do the same and hassle Russell to let Leclerc take a win for the team. Yes of course, it's every man for themselves out there, but given Merc's pace advantage, either they work together and try and get one red car at each race ahead of Merc or it we will be the same story every weekend with Merc sailing off into the sunset.

[Brahmal]

I'd like to see Ferrari attempt a total cooperation strategy between their two drivers to try closing the gap. Overtake mode appears to be much more powerful than DRS ever was, perhaps trading it between each other like a relay race over a number of laps could make enough of a difference. Might be too much to ask of insanely competitive F1 drivers, but it would be negligent not to try something along these lines. What do they have to lose?

[ScuderiaLeo]

According to the race, Ferrari removed the halo winglet after another team brought up its potential illegality to the FIA, and the team and the FIA discussed it

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ferr ... fia-talks/

[LeQuick]

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.

Hamilton could do nothing with Kimi, the only way things could have possibly worked would be to order Lewis to let Charles through and we know how that would have been received by Lewis and his fans.

[basti313]

Hamilton most certainly did not leave Leclerc "for dead", seeing as Leclerc finished 3.5s behind him, and was closing the gap over the final few laps.

And I guarantee you, if the roles were reversed and someone claimed Leclerc left Hamilton "for dead", you'd find such a description of the race utterly ridiculous, because it is.

In all of these "X is faster than Y" a major factor is missing: Slipstream.
All over the discussions here, this is missed and people claim that someone is fast or faster...although he is just sitting in the slipstream.
Lec said it on the team radio in Oz hom much this helps and the reason they can follow the Mercs in the beginning was nothing else but slipstream. Same for the fights...once Ham lost the 2sec gap to Ant, he got under pressure from Lec behind. Samle later once Lec lost the 2sec gap he got under pressure from Ham.
In the end this is just a game of slipstreaming, a bit like Oval racing in the US. So in the end a little bit better tires give an advantage and these 3.5sec are nothing else but a slightly broken slipstream. That were some nice laps by Ham around lap 43, that pushed Lec out of the 2sec gap after his error.

Hamilton could do nothing with Kimi, the only way things could have possibly worked would be to order Lewis to let Charles through and we know how that would have been received by Lewis and his fans.

No, I think they are well aware, that this does not make any sense. In lap 16 the Mercs just shortly showed their muscles and made clear that there is nothing to play. The rest of the race they were just driving to a given laptime. the Mercs are half a second away also in the race. I think it is much better that Ferrari is at least racing, so that anyone is racing.

[Sevach]

At the very least, I think we can conclude at this point that Ferrari's starting advantage is no 'myth'.

Now i have to question, did preparing the engine to be good off the line sacrifice a bit of power?
And is it worth it?
The car should be great at Monaco.

Anyhow, Merc comparison.

Room for optimizing super clipping, power delivery.
I question how wise is to super clip on the back straight, it may have been better to use less power on the quick run to 16 and the line(if the huge braking for the hairpin wasn't enough).

[Fede90]

According to the race, Ferrari removed the halo winglet after another team brought up its potential illegality to the FIA, and the team and the FIA discussed it

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ferr ... fia-talks/

That could be illegal but the Mercedes Engine is completely legal. What a Circus of clowns