Ferrari: The bold turn that enabled Hamilton's victory in Spain

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Since Ferrari’s last Formula 1 title – the 2008 Constructors’ World Championship – the Scuderia has been plagued by inconsistent performances year after year. Although the less successful seasons are often quickly overcome, the side effect of this inconsistency is that the stronger seasons are also rarely built upon.

Let’s take the last two seasons as an example: After Ferrari fought for the 2024 Constructors’ Championship against McLaren until the finale in Abu Dhabi, the team hoped to top that with the now reigning Lewis Hamilton on board.

Instead, the 2025 car was sometimes a podium contender but more often finished in the lower points positions. It was telling that Charles Leclerc himself could not explain some of his better results, as tiny setup changes usually pushed the SF-25 onto a razor’s edge between triumph and failure.

The complete reset for 2026 allowed Ferrari to undo some of the decisions made on last year’s car in the belief of progress. After finishing 2024 in brilliant form, the design team believed that not much more could be achieved by simply evolving a winning car.

They hoped that a new pullrod suspension at the front axle would offer significantly better interaction between the front wing and the underbody inlet.

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But the associated aero package remained underdeveloped as Ferrari stopped development in April. Teams like McLaren and Red Bull had been refining the aerodynamics around a pullrod layout since 2022, while Ferrari only adopted it at the end of the previous aero regulations and did not make the most of it.

For 2026, Ferrari returned to a pushrod suspension and implemented the same at the rear axle. As Pat Symonds explained in his column for the July issue of Autosport magazine, the shortening of the cars for 2026 led teams to place the internal suspension components above the gearbox.

In terms of chassis design, Ferrari has made significant progress. A hallmark of its cars in recent years was their forgiving nature when dealing with curbs and bumps, and the SF-26 retained this trait, as its performance in Monaco demonstrated.

The aero package also seems well thought out and capable of development, as shown by the steady improvement throughout the season so far. The performances at the start of the season allowed the Scuderia to battle Mercedes initially, but the clear performance advantage of the Silver Arrows was still too much for Ferrari.

If only the engine gets better now …

Ferrari’s power unit was, although solid enough, somewhat limiting. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella stated that the Italian team built the best chassis, while Lando Norris addressed the topic more directly: “They are currently the benchmark in cornering performance, and we are not even close to them,” he said.

“That’s the realistic view; we are still very, very far from where we need to be. If they improve on the engine side, they will make everyone else look old …”

Comparing George Russell’s pole lap in Barcelona with Hamilton’s attempt from the same session makes this clear: It shows that Mercedes is stronger on the straights, but Ferrari dominates the corners. Hamilton could brake later, carry more momentum into the corner, and get on the throttle earlier. However, the longer the straights, the greater Mercedes’ advantage becomes.

So Ferrari needs a little help from the ADUO to catch up, although it doesn’t help that Mercedes somehow managed to secure an upgrade after trailing the Red Bull Ford power unit by two percent.

But motivation is not lacking, especially as Hamilton is eager to spur Ferrari’s engineers to surpass themselves. His frustrations last year stemmed from the lack of development and the fact that his demands for changes within the team were not implemented in a manner he considered fast enough.

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Perhaps Hamilton was unaware of the lead time required for deeper restructuring, but knowing team principal Frederic Vasseur by his side reassured him to some extent.

Hamilton expressed delight at Ferrari’s innovative strength, especially with the aero tools that other teams have also started to explore: The rotating rear wing was certainly the highlight, but the field quickly copied the SF-26’s exhaust winglet, which uses the exhaust gases not only to generate downforce but also to enlarge the low-pressure zone at the rear of the car to extract more performance from the diffuser and rear wing.

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And while other teams brought the straight-mode actuator winglets to an impressive level in Monaco, Ferrari was the first team to use this box area (the invisible box where parts are allowed to be mounted) to attach a lip at the trailing edge of the rear wing to increase its efficiency.

“These guys really listened and worked damn hard to bring performance and be innovative,” Hamilton raved after his win in Barcelona. “This year is all about innovation. We brought the part on the rear exhaust. We came with the rear wing, the ‘Macarena.’ You know, and that’s exactly what I demanded last year.”

“Back then, I meant this team has to lead in that, and they have shown they can and want to. But we still have a lot of work ahead of us. This is by no means something that will just keep going like this now. Ahead of us lies a damn hard, steep mountain we have to climb to achieve what Mercedes has managed all year.”

Strategy in Barcelona pays off

While Ferrari sheds its usual design conservatism – perhaps a leftover from earlier times when engineers felt less encouraged to play their creative instincts – the team also put on a masterful show strategically in Barcelona.

Hamilton made the three-stop strategy work thanks to his relentless pace on the medium tires in the third stint, followed by a brilliant final stint on the hard tires. The team received some help when Mercedes decided to react to Hamilton, although his start on soft tires should have been a clear sign that he would go for three stops anyway.

Perhaps Mercedes feared losing track position if they did not bring Russell in on lap 12 – one lap after Hamilton – but ultimately, this burdened Russell with significantly more work for his later hard tire stints in a race with high tire wear. Ferrari had Mercedes exactly where they wanted them.

There is still much to do: Ferrari must maintain this run with its approach to aero developments and target the easiest achievable goals with the updates allowed by the ADUO to close the gap to Mercedes.

It is still too early to call Ferrari a title contender, even though recent form shows this is no flash in the pan, but they have momentum on their side. Above all, this momentum must not be wasted now.

Translated from