The biggest change in Formula One’s car design technical regulations is creating nervousness amongst the teams. Each have set targets for where their development should be and few are suggesting they are behind the curve ball.
In terms of the powertrains, there are maximum output levels defined by the FIA, so there is some level of certainty as to where each of the manufacturers’ new engines are currently at. However, the relative positions of the PU’s are unknown in terms of their competitors’ designs, although the FIA has set out a catch up process for those who fall well behind the field.
Regulation Reset That Has Everyone Guessing
Ferrari as F1’s most iconic team are attracting a lot of media attention in Italy, with regular reports in the mainstream press as to how the team believe they are progressing. Yet team principal Fred Vasseur is not exuding confidence with the cars set to hit the circuit in less than three weeks in Barcelona.
Earlier this week, La Gazetta reported Ferrari has built two cars for the start of the campaign. The first being a basic mule which will feature at the shakedown at the Circuit de Catalunya without the complete set of complex aerodynamics which will come at the second test in Bahrain.
Fred Vasseur reveals the team will not be chasing lap times at the first test but rather focus on data gathering along with any reliability issues which surface. Yet the Ferrari boss claims he will not be concerned at the first round in Australia even if the cars are in the lower regions of the top ten.
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The 2025 Sacrifice and the 2026 Gamble
Ferrari switched off its 2025 car development in April, before the European racing season had begun which resulted in a late season slide to just fourth in the constructors’ championship. Yet Vasseur and the team are hoping the payback in terms of resource allocation to 2026 will come in terms of their readiness for the coming campaign.
Yet rather than make bold predictions of how Ferrari will come out of the starting blocks, Vasseur has issued caution claiming the real race to the top will be decided by the team best able to deliver in season upgrades to their cars.
“Next year it won’t be about the first picture of the season, it won’t be all about the classification of Australia, it will be a lot about the capacity for quick development,” Vasseur says. “The season won’t be over in Australia for sure, it doesn’t matter if we are P1 or P10, but it will be a long way until the end, it will be a long way for everybody.”
When asked whether the sacrifices of 2025 will pay off, the Frenchman replied: “I have no clue. Our sport is a comparison. I can do a good job, but if someone did a better job, I look stupid. We are pushing at the limit, and we are trying to do the best, and for sure, the more time you are spending on the project, the better you will be.”
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Vasseur refuses to be concerned about where his rivals are at present stating: “I don’t know if McLaren, Red Bull or Alpine is in front of us. Nobody knows, and I think the most important thing is not to spend time to try and understand if the others are in front or behind.”
Both drivers have called on the Scuderia to perform better than they did in 2025 with Charles Leclerc now in his eighth year with the team describing the up coming year as “now or never.” This has led to widespread speculation that if Ferrari fail to deliver in 2026, the Monegasque driver will be looking elsewhere for his F1 future.
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Lewis Hamilton too has called for the team to re-organise its structures and key personnel although his critique of the team has not gone down well with certain senior engineers.
The seven times champion has sought to bring some of the Mercedes way of doing things to Maranello and given the team’s lack of success over the past two decades, something needs to change.
Fred Vasseur was asked whether he shared the sense of urgency that his longest standing driver has for the coming year. “No, not urgency, no. But when you ask him if he’s happy with the session when he’s P2 or when he’s P6, it’s not the same, Charles, for sure.
“But if you ask him the Thursday after: ‘What do you want to do with the team?’, then I think the approach is always the same. It’s always constructive to try to do better, even if in P1. We are just trying to do a better job on every single pillar of the performance, on the engine, on the gearbox, on the aero, on the set-up, on the simulator, and this is the DNA of what we are doing.
“But it’s not that just one team is waking up in the morning like: ‘Ah, we are not doing a good job, we have to push’. Trust me, I think Max [Verstappen] is pushing the team at the limit, Lando [Norris] is pushing the team at the limit, and honestly, as an F1 team, it’s also what we are expecting. If Charles and Lewis were very happy with the car and with everything, I would be desperate! This is more positive than anything else.”
The Ferrari boss appears remarkably sanguine, given the high risks facing the team should the 2026 season be a failure. Leclerc would surely leave the team.
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Why P1 or P10 Really Doesn’t Matter, Yet
While it may sound like deflection, Fred Vasseur’s insistence that Ferrari’s position in Australia is irrelevant reflects a broader truth about the looming regulation reset. With development rates, upgrade efficiency and organisational clarity set to define success in 2026, early-season form could become a misleading indicator of performance.
Ferrari’s decision to prioritise preparedness over perception by sacrificing its 2025 campaign early was a high-stakes bet, and Vasseur appears determined not to allow short-term optics to dictate long-term judgement. In that sense, whether Ferrari finishes P1 or P10 in Melbourne may not tell the real story of its season.
Further, this calm exterior appears to mask the underlying pressure in Maranello. Charles Leclerc’s “now or never” stance and Lewis Hamilton’s calls for structural reform suggest that the team is approaching a crossroads.
If Ferrari fails to convert its preparation into performance once the development battles intensify, patience, both inside and outside the garage, may evaporate quickly. While Vasseur is right that championships are not won in Australia, if Ferrari are still searching for direction deep into the season, the consequences could extend far beyond a single disappointing result.
This could potentially reshape the team’s driver line-up and leadership altogether very quickly.
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NEXT ARTICLE – Ferrari’s 2 cars designed for 2026. More Maranello madness?
The six race run in which concluded the 2024 Formula One season did not quite have the excitement of 2025 where the drivers’ championship was decided at the final chequered flag of the season. Max Verstappen in fact claimed the 2024 title in Las Vegas with two race weekends remaining.
However in terms of the constructors’ championship, the 2024 run in was nail biting for McLaren who once held a 74 point lead over Ferrari as the sport embarked on its final two triple header six races.
Two wins together with six podiums from Austin to Abu Dhabi saw the Scuderia come within just 14 points of their first championship since 2008. Yet at the annual Ferrari festive bash, Fred Vasseur announced that their 2025 F1 challenger would be an entirely new car.
Ferrari strange decision in 2024
This was confusing for a number of reasons. Firstly the SF-24 finished the year the strongest, but the Scuderia designed a car for 2025 that was “99% new components.” The team switched their tried and tested front suspension from its push rod configuration to a pull rod design.
But this was the final year of a set of car design technical regulations and the remainder of the field were refining their 2024 challenger. The result? The decision was proven to be a huge mistake, as the Scuderia failed to win a single Grand Prix and claimed just seven podiums all thanks to Charles Leclerc.
Now La Gazzetta in Italy is reporting Ferrari have design two cars for 2026, one for early testing and the other for the opening round of the season in Australia. Of course teams historically have launched a car for testing and then refined it significantly before it first races in anger, but two cars to start the year?
Yet building two different cars before the tyre turns in anger seems a strange approach, yet the madness of Maranello means nothing can be ruled out from the mercurial F1 racers. “Fred Vasseur’s team will present itself to the pre-seasonal tests with different versions of the same car, to best test solutions and set-ups,” reports La Gazetta…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
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