‘We have a lot of hopes for 2026’ – Fred Vasseur on the bold call to switch Ferrari’s focus early and the ‘new challenge’ ahead

The sweeping changes to the 2026 chassis and power unit regulations offers an opportunity for every team in Formula 1 to make a leap up the pecking order. Some teams switched their attention to this year’s car very early in the hope of transforming their fortunes. One of those was Ferrari, who realised they had made a costly error with their 2025 machine and switched all of their resources to 2026 as early as last April, which all but ended their hopes of competing for either World Championship in 2025.

It was a bold decision – and one which means the next few weeks will be tense as they await the first run of their car at their shakedown, most likely at their own track at Fiorano, before running a ‘Spec A’ at the all-team private test in Barcelona at the end of January.

By the time they reveal ‘Spec B’ of their new machine for the two Bahrain tests, they will know whether the gamble to go all in early doors on 2026 with the development path they chose was the right one.