2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[Jaymz]

Reflecting on his team's campaign as a Mercedes customer, McLaren's Group CEO said: "The one thing that jumps at you, if you look at all the qualifications this year, is the time difference between the Mercedes-Benz works team and other teams.
"And by and large it is always in excess of one second, putting aside the pace that they can generate in a grand prix when they are on their back foot.
"My opinion, and it is an opinion held by many people within our organisation, is that you have no chance of winning the world championship if you are not receiving the best engines from whoever is manufacturing your engines.
"And a modern grand prix engine at this moment in time is not about sheer power, it is about how you harvest the energy, it is about how you store the energy."

He added: "Effectively, if you don't have the control of that process, meaning access to source code, then you are not going to be able to stabilise your car in the entry to corners etc., and you lose lots of lap time.
"Even though you have the same brand of engine that does not mean you have the ability to optimise the engine."

Ron Dennis, 2014

Wow, that aged well…

McLaren will eventually receive equality from Mercedes like they did in previous years. Didn't Ferrari give customer teams the previous years engines not long before 2014.

[DDopey]

Is the wording of the new compression ratio test that it comes in on a certain date (eg “June x”) or a certain race (eg “race 7”) or something else (eg “the Canadian Grand Prix”)?

I ask because of the potential (likely) loss of the Middle Eastern GP. If the new tests come in at a certain date or a certain Grand Prix, it will mean fewer races before we can hope for that “exploit” to be closed down (in theory at least). But if it’s “race 7” then cancelling/rescheduling some races just kicks the can down the road.

The date is fixed. june 1st. But I wouldn't expect much from that. I'm pretty sure mercedes will pass the hot test. that game have been politically lost. just some smoke and mirrors for people. more hope on the new starting procedure that could be reverted since does not grant anything for safety and it is not regular. and also form decreasing MGU-K output and harvesting

I am not to sure about that. Merc could be having to make adjustments to pass the test. It was also too much of a marketing risk for them to put up a big fight.

[Frank73]

And how do you know

Shouldn't be mapping shared with customer team, should it?

If you look at what Stella said, they feel a bit "left in the dark" by HPP on the power unit, in a way that they couldn't simulate it properly before actually running on track, and they only found out the real potential in qualifying.

A bit like 2014 in a way.

Makes sense, but such a huge difference... I mean, latest spec PU cannot be that different from the one they could work on for three yesting session.

[AR3-GP]

Ferrari was the only top team that didn't have a crashed car in Melbourne. They are really glued to the road with this blown diffuser.

[LM10]

Ferrari was the only top team that didn't have a crashed car in Melbourne. They are really glued to the road with this blown diffuser.

Ferrari currently is the best car in all aspects which matter the most in F1. Sadly, for known reasons, it’s still not enough to win at the moment.

[jumpingfish]

There are lots of questions about Mercedes PU software vs their customers but what about Ferrari and Haas mappings?

[leblanc]

Addressing the HPP power unit speculation tangent:
The 2026 Sporting Regulations (Appendix on power units) and Technical Regulations require all power units from one manufacturer to be identical, including software and operation (same modes), with customer teams receiving the same specification as the works team. This carries forward the principle from TD/005-18.

So, McLaren is really just complaining that they are not able to apply the available modes with their chassis effectively enough.

Anyway, back on topic...

[leblanc]

There are lots of questions about Mercedes PU software vs their customers but what about Ferrari and Haas mappings?

What I just wrote also applies to Haas.

[AR3-GP]

There are lots of questions about Mercedes PU software vs their customers but what about Ferrari and Haas mappings?

What I just wrote also applies to Haas.

Not everything that you read in the regulations works the way it is literally written. These are "soft" regulations which are only enforced if the customer teams complain to the FIA. If you'll recall, Mercedes had a different PU spec in testing to the customer teams. The customers accepted this even though the regulations do not permit it.

As another example, in 2019, Haas and Alfa Romeo did not have the "special" PU that Ferrari was using. It has always been a grey area. In 2021, Mercedes developed a different PU for Hamilton that was not available to the customer teams.

[Jaymz]

Shouldn't be mapping shared with customer team, should it?

If you look at what Stella said, they feel a bit "left in the dark" by HPP on the power unit, in a way that they couldn't simulate it properly before actually running on track, and they only found out the real potential in qualifying.

A bit like 2014 in a way.

Makes sense, but such a huge difference... I mean, latest spec PU cannot be that different from the one they could work on for three yesting session.

It's around 50% battery power so it could be extremely significant. And how the rest of the PU interacts. McLaren already have shown what they can do with equality, albeit at the end of a rule set. Can't remember the last time a customer won a championship with a Ferrari engine.

[sucof]

By "mapping" I meant the whole process, driven by electronics and their software, how the car gains electric charge during a lap and discharge it.
Just as others before mentioned: now this is 50%!
So even the tiniest things you change, the result can be overall 1-5% of extra power (made up number), and the Merc advantage is well within this region!
Even though I am not under the illusion that Merc truly gives all the opportunity to customer teams to use their engine just like them, despite the rules... I still believe that refining power regen and deployment can be 90% of the Merc advantage at the moment.
So Ferrari might gain there a lot too.
I think this championship is very much open, Ferrari can win it if they work well.

[upsidedowntoast]

There are lots of questions about Mercedes PU software vs their customers but what about Ferrari and Haas mappings?

What I just wrote also applies to Haas.

Not everything that you read in the regulations works the way it is literally written. These are "soft" regulations which are only enforced if the customer teams complain to the FIA. If you'll recall, Mercedes had a different PU spec in testing to the customer teams. The customers accepted this even though the regulations do not permit it.

As another example, in 2019, Haas and Alfa Romeo did not have the "special" PU that Ferrari was using. It has always been a grey area. In 2021, Mercedes developed a different PU for Hamilton that was not available to the customer teams.

The regs only enforce equal PU once the race season starts; there is no reg governing giving customers the same PU before homolgation.

[AR3-GP]

The regs only enforce equal PU once the race season starts; there is no reg governing giving customers the same PU before homolgation.

2021.

[upsidedowntoast]

The regs only enforce equal PU once the race season starts; there is no reg governing giving customers the same PU before homolgation.

2021.

I was specifically referring to your statement, "If you'll recall, Mercedes had a different PU spec in testing to the customer teams. The customers accepted this even though the regulations do not permit it". The regulations do permit it: they only had to hand over the same engine after homolgation.

[SoulPancake13]

The customers not having access to the software mappings of the work team is a bit silly IMO. That is effectively a way to get around the new regulation.

Either way, Ferrari needs to do a big deep dive on this software and make sure it is working for China. My guess is they lost ~2-3 tenths in qualy because of it. Additionally, LEC and many others drained their battery on the formation lap. I believe this to likely be a GPS data issue causing some shenanigans.