Why the Ferrari SF26 has a horsepower deficit
The F1 is about to experience the fifth round of the 2026 World Championship in Canada, after which the FIA will determine which engine manufacturers can intervene on the power units and to what extent as a result of the first tranche of the ADUO.
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Ferrari is waiting to find out in which category it will be placed and consequently how much extra budget it will have available and how many interventions it can make in 2026 and 2027. The Maranello team is indeed definitely lacking in power unit performance compared to the Mercedes engine.
The latest issue of Autosprint hypothesized that at the root of this horsepower deficit there could be a design error or an imperfect compromise in the eternal tug of war between aerodynamicists and engine manufacturers.
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According to corriere.it, the reason for Ferrari’s delay at the engine level would be a wrong assessment of the achievable energy efficiency in the combustion chamber: “The primitive concept developed in the early years of study actually showed significant critical issues and failures – the article reads – difficulties in combustion management and a thermal degradation higher than expected. At the root there was an overly optimistic assessment of the achievable energy efficiency in the combustion chamber. After the departure of Wolf Zimmermann, the department led by Enrico Gualtieri would therefore have had more powers to correct the course, although having to operate within important limits imposed by the budget cap and with very tight timing.”
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