Ferrari’s Singapore power deficit remained a decisive weakness in Sprint Qualifying at Marina Bay, where the SF-26’s recognised chassis and aerodynamic qualities were not enough to fight for pole position. Despite being quick through the corners, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton continued to lose around 4–5 km/h at the end of each acceleration zone, allowing Red Bull and Mercedes to stay ahead while McLaren remained close behind.
On a technical circuit such as Marina Bay, the SF-26 was expected to emerge as a serious contender. Instead, Ferrari discovered that even a layout without traditional long straights could not completely conceal its straight-line limitations. The result raises another important question about how much of Ferrari’s remaining deficit is linked to the power unit and how much now comes from the progress made by its rivals.
Ferrari Singapore power deficit undermines SF-26 strengths
Singapore is no longer automatically a Ferrari circuit. The same has increasingly been true of other technical venues on the Formula 1 calendar, including Monte Carlo, the Hungaroring, Zandvoort and Madring. Having what is considered a strong chassis and aerodynamic package is no longer enough by itself to secure pole position at Marina Bay, even for the Sprint.
The SF-26 was supposed to demonstrate in the final race of this triple-header that it could fully exploit its widely recognised underlying qualities. The balance between traction, cornering performance and straight-line efficiency at Marina Bay appeared to provide exactly the kind of test Ferrari needed.
The hope was that Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could finally reduce the impact of Ferrari’s power-unit deficit against Mercedes and Red Bull-Ford in the city-state. The introduction of the 067/6 power unit with ADUO2 at Monza was supposed to deliver a performance step for Ferrari, but that improvement has unfortunately not materialised clearly enough on track.
The gap remains too large to give Ferrari supporters the satisfaction they have been waiting for. The opposition not only appears to have a stronger power unit – although the question remains whether Ferrari’s shortage is really only around 20 horsepower – but has also made significant progress with the rest of the car.
Red Bull progress leaves Ferrari with another benchmark
Red Bull provided the clearest example in Singapore. Max Verstappen moved to the front with an RB22 that successfully converted into lap time the updates introduced since Baku. Ferrari, meanwhile, could not extract enough performance from its own package to stay with the benchmark despite the characteristics of Marina Bay appearing favourable beforehand.
That contrast is particularly significant because the SF-26’s ability to generate performance through the corners had previously created optimism about Ferrari’s prospects in Singapore. Yet Charles Leclerc offered a very clear assessment of the current situation.
“For three or four races we have lost a bit of pure performance; we are not fast enough to fight the others at the moment,” Charles Leclerc admitted.
It is an acknowledgement of Ferrari’s current inferiority that leaves little room for optimism. This time, the main discussion was not about execution, even though Ferrari opted for only one tyre-cooling lap between runs in Q3. Pole-sitter Max Verstappen adopted the same approach and had no difficulty bringing his tyres into the correct operating window.
Ferrari loses 4–5 km/h whenever the wheels straighten
The bigger problem is increasingly clear: whatever the SF-26 can recover through Marina Bay’s technical sections is not enough to compensate for what it loses elsewhere around the lap. At the end of every acceleration stretch – even though Singapore offers relatively few conventional long straights – Red Bull still holds an advantage of around 4–5 km/h.
The difference does not appear only immediately before braking. It begins to develop after the initial acceleration phase, meaning the rival car is already carrying a higher average speed once the steering wheel begins to straighten. The recorded differences can also be explored through the F1 Top Speed Comparison.
That makes the Singapore result particularly revealing. Lewis Hamilton had arrived at Marina Bay with several reasons to believe Ferrari could be competitive, including the SF-26’s aerodynamic strengths and his own record at the circuit. Those factors formed part of the optimism surrounding Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari before the Singapore weekend, but Sprint Qualifying showed that the straight-line weakness remains difficult to escape.
Soft tyres expose another Ferrari performance trade-off
The effect became particularly visible in Q3 when the drivers switched from the Medium tyres to the Softs. It was almost as though the additional grip transformed Ferrari’s aerodynamic load into extra resistance to forward motion. With more grip available, the SF-26 could exploit its cornering performance, but that advantage did not translate into a sufficient overall lap-time gain.
It was therefore significant that during the only free practice session Charles Leclerc ran the standard “Macarena” wing configuration, while Lewis Hamilton initially chose to use the so-called “Christmas tree” as well, featuring the three additional central profiles. Ferrari’s wider challenge of finding the right configuration during a Sprint weekend had already been highlighted in the team’s preparations for the demanding Marina Bay weekend.
Lewis Hamilton ultimately also moved towards the lower-downforce configuration for precisely this reason, but the results still fell short of expectations. It would not be surprising if the seven-time world champion, who prefers a very planted rear end, reversed part of that set-up direction for qualifying and accepted a Ferrari that is mechanically more difficult to drive in exchange for greater vertical grip.
That is the paradox Ferrari must solve. The SF-26 is impressive to watch, responsive through changes of direction and capable of producing strong cornering performance. Yet when the complete lap is added together, the Ferrari is still simply too slow.
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