Ferrari engine, the upgrade will arrive not before mid-June

Ferrari, an engine to improve

In these first three races of the 2026 F1 world championship, the superiority of the Mercedes power unit over the Ferrari one has seemed evident, admitted by both the Scuderia’s drivers and team principal Frederic Vasseur. The French manager, however, emphasized that the team cannot intervene with a new engine for now: “We certainly have a deficit on the straights, but this is almost frozen until the ADUO arrives“. And precisely the ADUO – the system of developments and updates granted by the FIA based on the gap from the reference power unit – has been a subject of confusion among the Scuderia’s drivers. Hamilton stated that he “hopes for a new engine by Miami“. Leclerc, on the other hand, ruled out this possibility: “Obviously we cannot bring anything to Miami in terms of the engine, we will focus on the rest“.

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Hanging on the ADUO

Between the two Ferrari drivers, the correct observation was the one made by Charles Leclerc. The ADUO is ‘unlocked’ by the FIA and by regulation must kick in after “GP6”. On this topic, there is an open question following the removal of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia from the calendar. Will GP6 be the one originally planned – namely Miami – or the sixth actually held (i.e., Monaco)? Autosprint has also evoked the possibility of an intermediate solution, namely after Canada – 24 maggio.
But in Miami, Ferrari will certainly not have a new engine, much to Lewis Hamilton’s chagrin.

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When will the new Ferrari engine arrive?

The wait for Ferrari’s drivers – and fans – therefore risks being quite long. According to the Corriere della Sera the “boosted” engine is expected “in mid-June in Barcelona“, specifically for the Spanish Grand Prix on the weekend of the 14-16. So about a third of the way through the season, after the sixth round of the season. Obviously, all this is theoretical, pending what will be decided on the future of F1 in the meeting between the FIA and teams on April 9 in London.
Meanwhile, in Maranello, work will be done on optimizing electrical energy management through software and algorithms. The hope is to find an improvement as early as Miami.

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