2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[nico5]

Ferrari's fastest lap on C3 was a 32.6, anything lower was done on C4.
Merc was doing 33.1 on C3 (3 laps) and then went on through the pitlane for a 10-lap long run starting in the high-35s. Given nobody (Merc included) went close to that in race sims, I am inclined to believe Merc finished that stint with no fuel left, and started the flying lap with around 20-25kg (14 laps at 1.5kg/lap), max 30kg.
Also, in the 33.1 lap, Merc was on par with Ferrari if not faster in the corners, and only lost on energy deployment.
Unless you believe Ferrari has a massive advantage on Merc, Ferrari's C3-C4 runs must have also been in the 20-30kg range, best case scenario.

all I can say is that AutoRacer is not only the most reliable Ferrari news outlet, but that the people who reported this re-iterated again that they stand by what they reported. The engine was turned up to offset the "fuel", which perfectly explains how Ferrari could be slower in the corners while winning out elsewhere...

I think the data supports Ferrari using a higher power mode on that fast lap. I calculated the straight-line acceleration peaks for the night sessions and plotted this for the top 4 teams. It is unfortunately only using velocity data from the fastf1 api so a grain of salt might be needed. Anyway, the vertical axis is the peak longitudinal (straight-line) accel. It is more or less always occurring at the T10 exit.

https://i.postimg.cc/BQ8FFVQg/image.png

Comments in no particular order:

(1) Ferrari were at the highest accel. level that they showed so far in a best lap (this does not capture any games they could have played on slow laps with higher acceleration levels. I didn't check that)
(2) Merc/RBR/McL are down a lot from their peaks when they did their push laps on the last day.
(3) Mclaren runs are closer to a hypothetical upper limit than Mercedes, since they exhibit consistently higher accelerations in the push laps whether that is due to fuel or power mode.

Don't mean to be rude, but this hardly proves anything. Because what matters is balance of overall deployment or performance across all straights, not peak acceleration like it might have been with V8s or even V6s when you knew they were on identical deployment maps.
For instance, comparing McLaren's laps from D2 vs D3, Piastri on D2 was faster on the straights but had massive clipping in T12 where he lost 3 tenths. In the end, "straightline" performance was similar across the two laps.

[Seanspeed]

The cars have a shorter wheelbase and a starting weight which is 30kg less than previous gen. So 50kg of fuel in 2026 is like a 2025 car on low fuel.

Also the speed of the 2026 cars compared to 2025 is track specific. They will be closer in Bahrain than most other circuits. Melbourne will be further away.

Yes, the fuel tanks are just 70kg now. Which means that 50kg is literally like 3/4 of a full tank! That idea that Leclerc's running at the end of the test was done with the same kind of fuel load he'd have in the 2nd stint of a race is laughable.

Ferrari has either built one of the most dominant cars in F1 history or it's just a ridiculous, absurd claim from F1 press that loves to make stuff up in competition for attention.

[AR3-GP]

Yes, the fuel tanks are just 70kg now. Which means that 50kg is literally like 3/4 of a full tank! That idea that Leclerc's running at the end of the test was done with the same kind of fuel load he'd have in the 2nd stint of a race is laughable.

He did his lap on the C4 tire and the reason why a "push lap" can be much quicker than a race lap with the same fuel is because the way they use the tire and the electrical energy is optimized around doing 1 lap. This includes settings for tire pressures, flap angle, and the extra electrical energy that is deployed in the push lap compared to a "sustainable" race mode.

[motobaleno]

The cars have a shorter wheelbase and a starting weight which is 30kg less than previous gen. So 50kg of fuel in 2026 is like a 2025 car on low fuel.

Also the speed of the 2026 cars compared to 2025 is track specific. They will be closer in Bahrain than most other circuits. Melbourne will be further away.

Yes, the fuel tanks are just 70kg now. Which means that 50kg is literally like 3/4 of a full tank! That idea that Leclerc's running at the end of the test was done with the same kind of fuel load he'd have in the 2nd stint of a race is laughable.

Ferrari has either built one of the most dominant cars in F1 history or it's just a ridiculous, absurd claim from F1 press that loves to make stuff up in competition for attention.

Actually we don't know the capacity of the fuel tanks and it could be different within teams. 70kg estimations comes from the reduction of fuel flow (from 100 to 70 kg/hr equivalent) but with new rules you have not a prescribed capacity and you could increase capacity to do more superclipping for instance.

[venkyhere]

Ferrari's fastest lap on C3 was a 32.6, anything lower was done on C4.
Merc was doing 33.1 on C3 (3 laps) and then went on through the pitlane for a 10-lap long run starting in the high-35s. Given nobody (Merc included) went close to that in race sims, I am inclined to believe Merc finished that stint with no fuel left, and started the flying lap with around 20-25kg (14 laps at 1.5kg/lap), max 30kg.
Also, in the 33.1 lap, Merc was on par with Ferrari if not faster in the corners, and only lost on energy deployment.
Unless you believe Ferrari has a massive advantage on Merc, Ferrari's C3-C4 runs must have also been in the 20-30kg range, best case scenario.

all I can say is that AutoRacer is not only the most reliable Ferrari news outlet, but that the people who reported this re-iterated again that they stand by what they reported. The engine was turned up to offset the "fuel", which perfectly explains how Ferrari could be slower in the corners while winning out elsewhere...

I think the data supports Ferrari using a higher power mode on that fast lap. I calculated the straight-line acceleration peaks for the night sessions and plotted this for the top 4 teams. It is unfortunately only using velocity data from the fastf1 api so a grain of salt might be needed. Anyway, the vertical axis is the peak longitudinal (straight-line) accel. It is more or less always occurring at the T10 exit.

https://i.postimg.cc/BQ8FFVQg/image.png

Comments in no particular order:

(1) Ferrari were at the highest accel. level that they showed so far in a best lap (this does not capture any games they could have played on slow laps with higher acceleration levels. I didn't check that)
(2) Merc/RBR/McL are down a lot from their peaks when they did their push laps on the last day.
(3) Mclaren runs are closer to a hypothetical upper limit than Mercedes, since they exhibit consistently higher accelerations in the push laps whether that is due to fuel or power mode.

if I may add...
(4) the bottom-most blue dot from Redbull with 1:34:2 is a bit of an anomaly - it means they were either not deploying at the start of the back straight, or they had a heavy fuel load. This is a 'fast-lap' for sure, so that means they made-up in the straights. Launching from a slow corner exit into a long straight is the most 'optimal' way to deploy - maximum bang for buck/energy - using it for 'low drag penalty' longitudinal (rather than lateral) acceleration, rather than for 'high drag penalty' sustaining top speed. And if a car managed to sacrifice this and used the energy when there is high drag penalty, and still produce a laptime that isn't too far off; that can only mean that the car is very slippery. Or that everyone else is intentionally not deploying the full 4MJ quota.

[venkyhere]

Yes, the fuel tanks are just 70kg now. Which means that 50kg is literally like 3/4 of a full tank! That idea that Leclerc's running at the end of the test was done with the same kind of fuel load he'd have in the 2nd stint of a race is laughable.

He did his lap on the C4 tire and the reason why a "push lap" can be much quicker than a race lap with the same fuel is because the way they use the tire and the electrical energy is optimized around doing 1 lap. This includes settings for tire pressures, flap angle, and the extra electrical energy that is deployed in the push lap compared to a "sustainable" race mode.

sustainable race lap will mean nett battery usage per lap = 0. They will all hover around the 4-4.5MJ SoC mark all the time (assuming total battery capacity is 8.5-9MJ)

[Seanspeed]

Yes, the fuel tanks are just 70kg now. Which means that 50kg is literally like 3/4 of a full tank! That idea that Leclerc's running at the end of the test was done with the same kind of fuel load he'd have in the 2nd stint of a race is laughable.

He did his lap on the C4 tire and the reason why a "push lap" can be much quicker than a race lap with the same fuel is because the way they use the tire and the electrical energy is optimized around doing 1 lap. This includes settings for tire pressures, flap angle, and the extra electrical energy that is deployed in the push lap compared to a "sustainable" race mode.

I'm not focusing specifically on the C4 run. Everything I'm saying applies entirely to the C3 runs at the end there as well.

You're just not getting like a SIX SECOND laptime difference purely on the basis of a push lap and some need to extend tires, with fuel and tires otherwise being the same.

Come on man, you're well smart enough to understand that this is all quite ridiculous, dont know why you're being stubborn about it.

[Seanspeed]

The cars have a shorter wheelbase and a starting weight which is 30kg less than previous gen. So 50kg of fuel in 2026 is like a 2025 car on low fuel.

Also the speed of the 2026 cars compared to 2025 is track specific. They will be closer in Bahrain than most other circuits. Melbourne will be further away.

Yes, the fuel tanks are just 70kg now. Which means that 50kg is literally like 3/4 of a full tank! That idea that Leclerc's running at the end of the test was done with the same kind of fuel load he'd have in the 2nd stint of a race is laughable.

Ferrari has either built one of the most dominant cars in F1 history or it's just a ridiculous, absurd claim from F1 press that loves to make stuff up in competition for attention.

Actually we don't know the capacity of the fuel tanks and it could be different within teams. 70kg estimations comes from the reduction of fuel flow (from 100 to 70 kg/hr equivalent) but with new rules you have not a prescribed capacity and you could increase capacity to do more superclipping for instance.

Whether it's 67kg or 75kg or whatever, it's not really relevant to what I'm saying. 70kg rough estimate is good enough to make the point. Nobody is otherwise going to still run like 90-100kg of fuel, not to mention the valuable extra space that takes up on top of the extra weight.

[Badger]

Either Ferrari built the most dominant car of all time, or Autoracer's reporting is wrong. I know which I find to be more likely. Stay tuned to find out!

[AR3-GP]

Don't mean to be rude, but this hardly proves anything. Because what matters is balance of overall deployment or performance across all straights, not peak acceleration like it might have been with V8s or even V6s when you knew they were on identical deployment maps.
For instance, comparing McLaren's laps from D2 vs D3, Piastri on D2 was faster on the straights but had massive clipping in T12 where he lost 3 tenths. In the end, "straightline" performance was similar across the two laps.

Higher acceleration peaks are correlated with higher performance runs whether that is due to less mass or more power. These peaks occur at T8 and T10 which is the logical. When the cars drive far below the peak in these corners, it means the lap is not going to be a higher performance run no matter what way the deployment is arranged. As I've shown, McL peak acceleration is lower on D3, and you also indicate that he uses the deployment in a different way. That's the point. The configuration of the McL on D3 is "lesser" than its configuration on D2. Mclaren have chosen to drive that way to limit their performance.

[bluechris]

In starts is shown that Ferrari has better starts that anyone no matter the additional 5 seconds they added to the procedure. This doesn't translate to better exiting from all the turns which gives much better acceleration on the straights? Count also the better aero tricks they have, to me yes, Ferrari build a great car this year.
I try not to be over optimistic but i am a bit.

[Fakepivot]

so Piero Ferrari said sf25 was born with a structural problem.. finally they admit

"The 2025 car was born with structural problems, difficult to treat. The season dragged on unsatisfactorily and development was abandoned early. But it was a smart decision because there was a completely new car to create. The team did a great job, the SF-26 was set up on time and I am confident about the quality. I see it at all levels."

link : - https://www.formulapassion.it/f1/f1-new ... -dai-test"

[sucof]

In starts is shown that Ferrari has better starts that anyone no matter the additional 5 seconds they added to the procedure. This doesn't translate to better exiting from all the turns which gives much better acceleration on the straights? Count also the better aero tricks they have, to me yes, Ferrari build a great car this year.
I try not to be over optimistic but i am a bit.

I argued the same thing a few times before here. Smaller turbo shall result in a quicker acceleration out of corners. And I also think their struggles with steering out of corners might have been the result of this.
Also, usually the fastest way for a straight is to have better acceleration than higher top speed, so this can be the right strategy.
But of course you always have to find the best balance between all these.
We will see very soon

+ to be honest, lap times and analysis based on telemetry is the most useless tool to find out who is the fastest, This year.
Because you can (and most teams will) have very different electric deployment and recovery strategy and methods. This highly contaminates data.
Previously teams were a lot lot closer how they used kers or even just the engine.
So I brace for surprises on the first race and qualy!

[catent]

Either Ferrari built the most dominant car of all time, or Autoracer's reporting is wrong. I know which I find to be more likely. Stay tuned to find out!

I think there are more potential explanations/outcomes than only those two "either/or" scenarios.

[Seanspeed]

Either Ferrari built the most dominant car of all time, or Autoracer's reporting is wrong. I know which I find to be more likely. Stay tuned to find out!

I think there are more potential explanations/outcomes than only those two "either/or" scenarios.

The context of the conversation is that Autoracer said Leclerc had 50kg of fuel onboard for his fastest laps at the end of the last day of testing.

Fuel tanks in 2026 are gonna be around 70kg or so, so 50kg is like 3/4 of a full tank of fuel, and Autoracer is saying Leclerc was running those quite fast laptimes with as much fuel as they'd have running in the 2nd stint of a race. Meaning if they took all the fuel out for a proper qualifying run, they'd likely be faster than last year's cars.

So yes, it's genuinely meritable to say that either the Ferrari have built the best car they have since 2002(or even better) or the reporting is bad.