Ferrari keeps racing
Madrid was supposed to be a theoretically favorable track for the Ferrari SF-26, but the Sunday of the Spanish GP still caused some disappointment in the Cavallino box. While the podium drought lengthens – the last champagne for a Ferrari driver dates back to July 19, four GPs ago at Spa-Francorchamps, with Charles Leclerc second behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli – the Maranello team principal, Frederic Vasseur, clearly announces the intention not to give up. Unlike what happened in recent seasons when, once it was understood that the World Championship goal would be unattainable, the Scuderia focused its attention on designing the car for the following year, this time the approach will be different.
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Fred Vasseur’s comment
The French manager explained it, speaking at a press conference after the end of the GP at the Madring, in front of a small group of newspapers including FormulaPassion.it: “Giving up on the development of the SF-26? No, because we are not in the situation of 12 months ago. Today, everything we develop can still be brought to the car for next season’s project. So we will continue to work on different aspects and try different things also because with these rules we will have the possibility to bring 80% of the developments also to the next car.”
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What has changed compared to last season
So there will not be the approach that somewhat characterized the end of the season for the Ferrari of recent years, which often started autumns already rowing with the oars in the water, implying the intention to focus the budget on the development of the next car. The most emblematic (and recent) case is that of 2025, when in fact, after the arrival of the new – but still not sufficient to solve, by itself, the problems of the single-seater – rear suspension at Spa, in fact the Cavallino stopped updates to focus energy and resources on 2026, given the epochal regulatory change that would not have allowed developments to be carried over from one year to the next. On the contrary, already in Monza, Fred Vasseur had promised that Ferrari would “bring constant developments until the end of the season” and indeed in Madrid there was a small aerodynamic novelty on the suspension.
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