2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[S D]

latest info:
Barcelona package +- 0.2s
new engine in Austria (Ferrari wants to halve the gap to Mercedes, which is +- 0.5s)
Updates worth +-0.4s it might allow us to fight for victories?

Sorry, but if it is truly +- then it is terrible news
Someone in the information chain did not attend math classes

I believe that +- does not mean +.2 -.2 rather ~.2s.

[f1316]

Not the wisest decision on his part but good for the team

I mean, what are his other options? I doubt there’s any room at the Mercedes inn (with Max being the only one they’ll jettison a current driver, likely Russell, for - and even he is not guaranteed a slot) and McLaren seem pretty happy with their current lineup too. Red Bull is definitely a possibility (especially with Max’s threats) but Max might stick around and is joining “Max’s team” a great option?

I think of the big teams, there’s not a lot of alternative, and so Ferrari is still his best chance at success (plus it’ll mean more to him to have it with Ferrari if/when it eventually arrives).

[Sphere3758]

Not the wisest decision on his part but good for the team

I mean, what are his other options? I doubt there’s any room at the Mercedes inn (with Max being the only one they’ll jettison a current driver, likely Russell, for - and even he is not guaranteed a slot) and McLaren seem pretty happy with their current lineup too. Red Bull is definitely a possibility (especially with Max’s threats) but Max might stick around and is joining “Max’s team” a great option?

I think of the big teams, there’s not a lot of alternative, and so Ferrari is still his best chance at success (plus it’ll mean more to him to have it with Ferrari if/when it eventually arrives).

People just like to mock him for this, but this is the truth. It is very very hard to change teams and even Max would struggle to actually change teams and make it work against a top incumbent teammate.

All top drivers are +- 0.2 on average from each other and will have tracks where they are faster than everyone else. And a lot of this gap can be narrowed/extended by having a top garage/race engineer on your side.

Charles might never win a world championship, but his best odds to do that is still Ferrari at this moment. His only hope is if Aston really gets its --- together, but he has bet against that for now (and we cant blame him)

[sucof]

latest info:
Barcelona package +- 0.2s
new engine in Austria (Ferrari wants to halve the gap to Mercedes, which is +- 0.5s)
Updates worth +-0.4s it might allow us to fight for victories?

Sorry, but if it is truly +- then it is terrible news
Someone in the information chain did not attend math classes

I believe that +- does not mean +.2 -.2 rather ~.2s.

Belief is not equal to knowledge, and often wrong.
+-0.2 sec means the car will be max 0.2 sec slower or max 0.2 sec faster.
So +- means, between plus 0.2 and minus 0.2 compared to zero.

[f1316]

Sorry, but if it is truly +- then it is terrible news
Someone in the information chain did not attend math classes

I believe that +- does not mean +.2 -.2 rather ~.2s.

Belief is not equal to knowledge, and often wrong.
+-0.2 sec means the car will be max 0.2 sec slower or max 0.2 sec faster.
So +- means, between plus 0.2 and minus 0.2 compared to zero.

The notation is wrong but let’s just accept that this is what was meant (Ferrari aren’t putting an upgrade on the car that they think could make them slower).

The bigger question is: what are others bringing? I haven’t heard about other teams having big upgrades for Barcelona.

There’s some very facile narrative going around that Ferrari’s development has been poor or that they’ve been “caught”. The reality is that the key measure is distance (in lap time) from the ultimate pace - I think it’s fairly indisputable that Ferrari have reduced this, despite Mercedes’ upgrade (albeit maybe they haven’t unlocked the full potential yet - this could be said for both teams potentially). The fact that other teams may have leapfrogged Ferrari is irrelevant when you consider the context:

(1) McLaren has the Mercedes engine so had *massive* low hanging fruit in optimising deployment (and could basically copy the works team to get there with software alone, which has fewer correlation issues than hardware)
(2) Red Bull were performing extremely poorly in the first few races so fixing those fundamental flaws was always going to bring them big gains (albeit they’re still likely behind Ferrari on balance despite arguably having more power)

So if Ferrari can take another step - and do so more quickly than competitors- that would be very promising (despite all the doom and gloom). An engine upgrade for Austria with another for Monza would be the critical move but let’s see what happens. I have a nasty feeling that it’ll end in a compromise of a 2% ADUO - but than nothing but likely means splitting the difference and waiting until Spa etc

[sucof]

Yes, the season is still long, Remember just last year how Verstappen catched the frontrunners.... Ferrari with a good engine and car upgrade can have more than enough time to close the gap points wise. I think the time to be gained with development was the most in the past months, things will be less and less, so a team that will jump forward in the next races will be less likely to loose that position.
Eagerly waiting for ADUO and what Ferrari can bring with the "new" engine.

[woocasz]

latest info:
Barcelona package +- 0.2s
new engine in Austria (Ferrari wants to halve the gap to Mercedes, which is +- 0.5s)
Updates worth +-0.4s it might allow us to fight for victories?

Sorry, but if it is truly +- then it is terrible news
Someone in the information chain did not attend math classes

I didn't think I'd have to explain such simple things...
plus minus means approximately, roughly, "~"
so +-0,2 means that could be 0,18 or 0,22 (only engineers at Ferrari knows exactly numbers)

0,2s Barcelona package
0,25s (half of the 0,5s - which is what Ferrari are losing due to the weaker engine)
in total 0,45s... (I put 0,4s because I wanted to be more conservative)

[Seanspeed]

latest info:
Barcelona package +- 0.2s
new engine in Austria (Ferrari wants to halve the gap to Mercedes, which is +- 0.5s)
Updates worth +-0.4s it might allow us to fight for victories?

Sorry, but if it is truly +- then it is terrible news
Someone in the information chain did not attend math classes

I didn't think I'd have to explain such simple things...
plus minus means approximately, roughly, "~"
so +-0,2 means that could be 0,18 or 0,22 (only engineers at Ferrari knows exactly numbers)

0,2s Barcelona package
0,25s (half of the 0,5s - which is what Ferrari are losing due to the weaker engine)
in total 0,45s... (I put 0,4s because I wanted to be more conservative)

+/- is margin of error, not necessarily a synonym for 'approximately'.

So +/- 0.2 would mean anywhere between a loss of two tenths to a gain of two tenths.

I get where the confusion is because margin of error is often given to signify that a solid, strict figure cant be given, so 'approximately', but the actual figure given with +/- is the margin of error itself, not the number to which the margin of error is centered around.

Not super important here, I think most people would understand what you're saying, but yea.

[urtsee]

He's clearly just using it to mean 'give or take'

[Seanspeed]

He's clearly just using it to mean 'give or take'

We get it, but it's still phrased incorrectly/misleadingly.

"2 tenths, +/- a bit." 2 tenths is the figure, +/- a bit is indicating there will be some margin for error around that. But you've got to separate these things.

If you say "+/- 2 tenths", then you're saying 2 tenths *is* the margin of error, meaning it could be an increase or decrease of 2 tenths(or somewhere in between).

[Just_a_fan]

"Gains of ≈0.2s" would be better. ~0.2s is not strictly correct but is in common use. Or at a push, "c. 0.2s", although that's more for dates than mathematics.

[urtsee]

If you say "+/- 2 tenths", then you're saying 2 tenths *is* the margin of error, meaning it could be an increase or decrease of 2 tenths(or somewhere in between).

It could, but it obviously didn't.

Anyway

[woocasz]

Sorry, but if it is truly +- then it is terrible news
Someone in the information chain did not attend math classes

I believe that +- does not mean +.2 -.2 rather ~.2s.

Belief is not equal to knowledge, and often wrong.
+-0.2 sec means the car will be max 0.2 sec slower or max 0.2 sec faster.
So +- means, between plus 0.2 and minus 0.2 compared to zero.

mate
you talking about knowledge...
You've got the symbols mixed up
this is "±" the symbol you referring to which means: "represent an estimated range of error around a given number"

example:
A measurement like 10cm ± 0,2cm means the true value is expected to be anywhere between 9,8cm and 10,2 cm.

next time you want to be a smartass, get your facts together

[venkyhere]

I can't believe what I am reading in this thread...
I agree it's an engg/physics driven 'technical forum' , but spending two pages arguing over 'semantics' ? Too pedantic even for this forum.
Please 'move on'.

[sucof]

I believe that +- does not mean +.2 -.2 rather ~.2s.

Belief is not equal to knowledge, and often wrong.
+-0.2 sec means the car will be max 0.2 sec slower or max 0.2 sec faster.
So +- means, between plus 0.2 and minus 0.2 compared to zero.

mate
you talking about knowledge...
You've got the symbols mixed up
this is "±" the symbol you referring to which means: "represent an estimated range of error around a given number"

example:
A measurement like 10cm ± 0,2cm means the true value is expected to be anywhere between 9,8cm and 10,2 cm.

next time you want to be a smartass, get your facts together

"mate"..... then what did +-0.2 mean??? What else???
And no, this is not unimportant. Did you notice you all are chatting here in the TECHNICAL F1 forum?
Next time if you go to the doctors or who design your home, think about if units, technical and mathematical signs are important or not.
I will help: They are, and they are strict. There are no things like "I meant it like this or that"... gosh....
Stop protecting wrong knowledge, it just leads to an even worse world than what we are currently living in.