F1: Vasseur outlines Ferrari’s 2026 development strategy

Ferrari will keep their cards close to their chest

Due to the challenges presented by the 2026 regulations (and the intense 24-race calendar) the winter break feels shorter than ever.

Audi became the first team to test a 2026 car in Barcelona yesterday, completing a 200km filming day in preparation for the first pre-season tests.

Barely one month after last season’s finale, there is already plenty to assess heading into the new regulations.

With car presentations and more shakedowns due in the coming weeks, stories will continue to emerge.

Until now, Mercedes have been the main talking point during the winter break. Even before the end of 2025, Mercedes engines were already being tipped to become the benchmark for ’26.

This narrative has come into greater focus since the German manufacturer’s compression ratio trick was revealed.

Unsurprisingly, Mercedes’ creative exploit of the regulations (which the FIA deem legal for the time being) has reinforced the idea they are favourites for this year.

Whether this is accurate or not, frankly, is none of Ferrari’s concern.

Fred Vasseur much prefers for his team to be overlooked in F1 headlines – rather than regularly featuring in them.

The Ferrari team principal insists that even when the Championship commences, it would be unwise to draw conclusions:

“Next year it won’t be about the first picture of the season,” he told Autosport.

“It won’t be all about the classification of Australia. It will be a lot about the capacity for quick development.

“The season won’t be over in Australia for sure, it doesn’t matter if we are P1 or P10 – but it will be a long way until the end, it will be a long way for everybody.”

Ferrari stick to their principles

Slowly but surely, more details are emerging about the progress behind the scenes ahead of 2026. Red Bull, for example, are expected to have a hyper-aggressive philosophy to their testing programme.

Whilst other teams will be relatively cautious, bidding their time and establishing foundations (likely bringing very basic specifications to start testing) the Austrian team are set to take the opposite approach.

Of course, Red Bull also need to achieve some level of certainty in terms of reliability and correlation between the circuit and factory.

Still, a relatively sophisticated version of Red Bull’s 2026 challenger is expected to debut in Barcelona.

The basic theory is that by taking a risk early, engineers can progress more quickly with upgrades waiting in the pipeline and press ahead with a swift development programme.

Meanwhile, quotes from Fred Vasseur suggest Ferrari are in no rush to take drastic measures in testing.

The 57-year-old points to the budget gap as a factor to consider when charting this year’s upgrade plan:

“If a team starts introducing four or five updates in the first races,” he told Gazzetta.

“Or if, for example, they have to send a new floor to a distant race like Japan or China – they’re burning through half their development budget at the start of the year.

“It will therefore be important to carefully evaluate step by step what to do, based on where we are.

“Whoever is ahead of everyone in Melbourne, at the first race, won’t necessarily have the winning car of the year.”

Avoiding mistakes of the past

Ferrari know better than most teams about how deceptive the first races of the year can be. At the beginning of the 2022 regulations, for example, the Maranello team was flying high.

Two wins and one second place for Leclerc in the opening three rounds, alongside DNFs for Verstappen in Australia in Bahrain, painted a very positive picture for the season ahead.

Within a few months, however, Red Bull not only out-developed their Italian rivals, but also eliminated all reliability issues – whereas Ferrari suffered a series of devastating retirements in Spain and Baku.

Moreover, the last set of regulations showed the price of investing in the pursuit of a flawed concept.

Mercedes in 2022, Aston Martin in 2023 and even Red Bull in 2024 were headline examples of wasting resources on upgrades that were taking the car in the wrong direction.

Ferrari themselves faced this issue during the European leg of the 2024 season, with updates at the Spanish GP derailing the team’s progress that season.

Eager to avoid this fate over the next twelve months, Fred Vasseur has reason to exercise a measured approach. The question is whether the work fundamentals being developed at the factory in Maranello are strong enough to build upon.