Many classrooms were half empty in the northern Italian towns of Sassuolo, Moderna and Regia-Emilia on Friday and it was not due to the usual inter-school sporting competitions. Young and old alike gathered outside Ferrari’s own race track in Fiorano, jostling for position on banks and road bridges which surround the circuit.

Such is the passion of the tifosi. No other team has seen this kind of interest at the shake down days for their 2026 F1 challengers. Such is the emotion evoked by the top flight racing cars in red livery, that veteran Italian F1 journalist Leo Turini reports the eyes of the Mayor of Maranello were misty as once again the hopes of the tifosi are raised ahead of the coming season.

“So we always come back here [Fiorano]: will this Ferrari have a soul? Or will it be added to the depressing catalog of unhappy, unsuccessful, worse developed projects?” He rhetorically questions.

 

 

 

Ferrari powertrain boss uncorked about Mercedes engine trick

“I don’t have an answer,” continues Turni, “because Mercedes and Red Bull have reportedly got a clever trick on the engine aside.” The favoured Italian writer who is close to the senior management of the Scuderia then reveals that on the topic of the Merc/Red Bull powertrain loophole Ferrari head of the Ferrari PU project, Enrico Gualtieri “seemed curiously calm to me on the subject.”

All this love and emotion expended last Friday from the tifosi when the all new SF-26 was schedule for just five laps, split between the two drivers. Yet this epitomises the expectations around F1’s most winning and historic racing team.

There have been no championships for the Scuderia since Kimi Raikkonen pipped McLaren duo Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton to the drivers’ title back in 2007 followed by the constructors’ championship in 2008.

Fred Vasseur admitted late last year, the team had piled all its resources into this year’s car from as early as the fifth race of 2025. Whilst cancelling almost all in season development bar some mechanical upgrades, Ferrari have raised expectations even further  given the head start they had over their chief rivals.

Hamilton set to remain in F1 after retiring as a driver

 

 

 

Scuderia’s new livery both good and bad response

The all new livery for Ferrari’s 2026 F1 car has been controversial, with some seeing it as a throw back to the days of Niki Lauda. “I love it, a modern twist on the Niki Lauda era of Ferrari liveries. Simple and clean, doesn’t try to do too much. Now, will it actually be fast is the question. Also, only seeing 1 HP logo from this angle, definitely a step in the right direction,” read one post from aFerrari fan.

While the majority of responses were positive, there were some who didn’t get the hype. “I think it’s awful, but I’m apparently in the minority,” posted another, while someone else agreed: “Too much white. It’s not a red car. I don’t like it either.”

Yet the striking resemblance of the SF-26 to the 2016 offering may not be such a good omen. That year neither Kimi Raikkonen nor Sebastian Vettel won a single Grand Prix. Ferrari have benched Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer from last season and Riccardo Adami will now run the team’s young driver programme. He and Hamilton failed to gel in the British driver’s first season with the Scuderia and Martin Brundle has commented he’s surprised the change was not made earlier.

Hamilton is said to be looking for someone more comfortable with English and certain nuances it appears his Italian engineer failed to understand. Today it has emerged that Michel-Grosjean may have been identified by Ferrari for the role, he worked last year for McLaren as Oscar Piastri’s trackside Performance Engineer.

F1 engine row set to continue beyond Melbourne

 

 

 

Hamilton’s new race engineer may be French

Grosjean worked on optimising the Australian’s car and the pair won seven Grand Prix across the season. Michel-Grosjean left McLaren in December 2025 and his Linked in page as of January 1st states he is “moving,” but failed to state where.

It is more usual for senior staff when leaving a Formula One team to be forced to carry out a period of gardening leave, but should Michel-Grosjean be heading to Maranello its he will be free to work with Hamilton from the Australian Grand Prix in March. Its unlikely if the Frenchman was unavailable for longer, that Ferrari would disrupt Hamilton’s season more than it already has been while he waits for his new engineer.

Hamilton is expected to share Charle’s Leclerc’s race engineer for the tests in Barcelona and Bahrain. Following his three lap run in the 2026 Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton was exuberant in the select media interviews the Scuderia allowed. 

Starting his 20th season in the sport Hamilton told f1.com:“I mean, if you probably look at all my other interviews over the years, I’d never say that I get excited, but I’m massively excited — and I think it’s okay to say that, yeah, I’m excited for new beginnings.

Rumours another team set to miss Barcelona test

 

 

 

Lewis ‘excited’ for the coming season

“It’s been such a focus on resetting and having a good break. Even though it was the shortest break we’ve ever had, I would say it was just what was needed.

“Yeah, I think it’s about undoing, learning new patterns, undoing old ones, removing things that don’t serve me or bring the right energy, and making sure you’re showing up in the right way. So I’m excited about the first test. Obviously, in the shakedown I don’t get to push it, but it feels cool at Fiorano. Next week, we’ll start to try and stretch the legs and see what this new generation of car is going to bring to all of us.

“And then it’s kind of like not knowing what other people have — what cars, what tricks other people may or may not have, and what concepts, all those sorts of things. I think for us, it’s just about keeping our heads down and focusing on our job.”

 

 

 

Red Bull’s bizarre tyre choice for Barcelona test

The Formula One season is just one day away from the cars hitting the track for the first time in anger. Yes a number of teams have already performed a ‘shakedown’ of their 2026 challengers using filming days (200km allowed) or a demonstration day – as did Ferrari (15km), but these outings a really just testing the systems are in order rather than pushing the car hard for the first time.

Unlike during a Grand Prix weekend where Pirelli decide on the tyre compounds used by all the teams, for testing the competitors can choose the compounds they require for their three days of running. Each team can run up to 25 sets of Pirelli tyres including the intermediate and the wet tyres which may be required later in the week given the weather forecast deteriorates from day to day.

The tyre selections reveal a significant amount of information as to how the various teams intend to conduct their various run plans over their days on track. Red Bull have remarkably elected to receive a whopping 18 sets of the soft compound, one of the medium and non of the hard. They have also selected four sets of the intermediate tyres and two of the full wet compounds…. READ MORE