2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[bananapeel23]

The Ferrari is clearly the better chassis and aero package either far superior reliability. The Mercedes advantage derives purely from their still vastly superior engine.

Reliability is for sure better. Aero, chassis is far from clear. Only in two races they were able to challenge Mercedes for the win. The straight line disadvantage, may also be related to running with higher downforce.

Remember that they are running with like a half second or more worth of PU deficit if the rumours are to be believed.

[Brahmal]

Remember that they are running with like a half second or more worth of PU deficit if the rumours are to be believed.

I bet it's less than that now, if it was ever.

[Fakepivot]

fp1 merc were clearly sandbagging now, its clear, this going to be one of the weakest track for this team...

[rifrafs2kees]

Looks like we're cooked unless there are showers on race day, which is highly unlikely.

[f1316]

Hmmm looks like whatever we expect this season, the opposite (good or bad) always happens that said, not going to overreact now - they ran in conservative engine modes on Friday both of the most recent normal (ie non sprint) Fridays and that could ship a lot of lap time here. Let’s see how it shakes out in qualifying, but certainly not where we want to be right now.

Edit some more context down the race: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/belg ... -analysis/

Ferrari remains the big unknown as Charles Leclerc was only a lap into his long run when the red flag was flown, while Lewis Hamilton hadn’t even properly started his. Its single-lap pace wasn’t great, but there have been plenty of underwhelming Fridays that have turned into very good Saturdays and Sundays for Ferrari.
Team boss Fred Vasseur also pointed to another big variable on Friday at Spa - vastly different energy deployment strategies.
“Without disclosing any secret, but if you have a look on the race trace, we were 20km/h slower than some of our competitors before Les Combes, but we were 20km/h faster in the last straight line,” Vasseur said.
“It's a trade-off for sure. It's not that you can do a plus 20[km/h] and plus 20[km/h].”