Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur believes the team’s qualifying difficulties in the 2026 Formula 1 season are not primarily caused by a lack of outright speed. Instead, the Frenchman has identified Ferrari’s inability to build performance consistently through Q1, Q2 and Q3 and then maximise the decisive final attempt as the area requiring the most attention.
The distinction is important because Vasseur considers the underlying pace of the car to be competitive. Speaking to media including F1inGenerale, he separated Ferrari’s basic performance level from its ability to extract everything from the car as track conditions evolve and qualifying reaches its most important moments.
Fred Vasseur identifies Ferrari qualifying progression as the key issue
Vasseur explained that examining Q1, Q2 and Q3 individually produces a different picture from simply looking at Ferrari’s final grid position. In his assessment, the pattern across the two relevant recent weekends was similar: the Italian team showed convincing qualifying speed but struggled to combine every element successfully on the final run.
Monza was excluded from that comparison because of the Italian circuit’s particular characteristics. The other weekends, including Zandvoort, instead reinforced Vasseur’s view that Ferrari is beginning qualifying from a sufficiently competitive level but is not making the same step forward as the session develops.
That means the issue is more nuanced than the SF-26 simply being too slow. Ferrari has been able to operate competitively through the three qualifying segments, yet the final attempt has not consistently produced the improvement required when lap times are at their most critical.
Readers can follow the broader technical picture behind the SF-26 through the site’s Ferrari technical analysis, while qualifying trends can also be examined through the F1 qualifying pace and sector comparison.
Ferrari needs to extract more performance between qualifying runs
If Vasseur could choose one area for the team to prioritise, it would be the evolution of performance throughout qualifying rather than simply improving the initial pace of the car. His emphasis is therefore on Ferrari becoming more effective at finding lap time from one attempt to the next.
In practical terms, each run gives a Formula 1 team another opportunity to move closer to the limit by adapting to tyre behaviour, setup requirements and changing track conditions. According to Vasseur, Ferrari already starts from a competitive baseline, but it must optimise those elements more successfully before the second and final attempts.
The team principal maintained that Ferrari had been competitive in Q1, Q2 and Q3, reinforcing his belief that the potential already exists. The challenge is to convert that potential into the strongest possible lap precisely when qualifying reaches its decisive stage.
Ferrari race pace remains stronger than qualifying execution
The contrast with race performance makes Vasseur’s diagnosis more significant. He considers Ferrari’s race pace to be solid, continuing a recent trend in which the car has appeared more convincing over longer runs than its qualifying results might suggest.
That leaves Ferrari with a problem centred on extracting maximum performance over a single lap, where small compromises can have a much larger effect on the final result. Rather than treating the solution solely as a search for additional raw speed, Vasseur wants the team to make better use of the performance already available.
For the Maranello operation, the objective is therefore clear: preserve the competitive baseline it is already showing early in qualifying, then improve the progression towards the final Q3 attempts. If Ferrari can turn that underlying pace into a complete lap at the decisive moment, Vasseur believes the car’s true potential can be represented more accurately on the starting grid.
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