Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur: Shocking statement – is the 2026 season already over?

Ferrari’s star driver Lewis Hamilton remarked at Monza: “The upgraded engine is a step forward, but it’s not enough to close the gap on Mercedes. I’m simply not fast enough on the straights.”

Monza was a slap in the face for the proud Scuderia: too slow in practice, Leclerc out of the Grand Prix due to a crash, Hamilton drove his heart out, but it wasn’t enough for better than sixth place. Afterwards, there was a huge uproar in the Italian press.

What Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur had to say about the improved engine sounds far from encouraging to the Tifosi. The Frenchman stated: “If you’re lacking in raw power, then in a head-to-head battle you start playing around with energy release to compensate for it on the straights. But if you release more energy at certain points on the track, you can’t do so elsewhere. Then you end up in a vicious circle.”

“Ultimately, however, it’s not the energy recovery that’s the main problem; we simply lack raw power.”

“What is often forgotten is that lead times for the power units are very long. With the chassis, you can carry out an upgrade from one day to the next – very quickly – and immediately find pace. With the engine, however, the construction of new parts necessitates a long lead time, and the cost cap doesn’t make things any easier either.”

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“And if you want to develop something, you have to produce a new small batch of engines straight away. To be honest, we didn’t expect to make up all the ground with ADUO 1 or ADUO 2. We’re taking small steps.

As a reminder: ADUO stands for ‘Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities’. ADUO is designed to ensure that engine manufacturers who are lagging behind are given a chance to make up the gap during the season. Manufacturers are granted development leeway if they are at least two per cent behind in terms of internal combustion engine performance.

At the end of August, the FIA published the results for the second ADUO phase (covering the World Championship races from the season opener in Australia up to and including Hungary before the summer break). It concluded that Mercedes is between 2 and 4 per cent behind the class leader in terms of performance; Ferrari, Audi and Honda are more than 4 per cent behind.

Fred Vasseur continued: “Qualifying is all about hundredths of a second. Even if you have a few PS more, that’s a good step up the grid. Next year we’ll have a new engine. The aim is quite clearly to catch up as quickly as possible.”

Speaking about Monza, Vasseur refers to “a disappointing weekend; we want to make a stronger comeback at the Madriing. I know the Tifosi had expected more from us.”