Ferrari is not making bold proclamations, but it is not hiding either. The SF-26 that completed its shakedown at Fiorano yesterday with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc is already a fully fledged Formula 1 car, not too different from the renderings released almost at the same time as its first laps on the team’s home track, and not far from the red car that will begin the Barcelona tests next Tuesday, during the second day of the closed collective test session.
The facts therefore dismantle the theory put forward by some commentators who spoke of the existence of two Ferraris: a “Step A” version for testing and a later “Step B” version for the world championship debut in March at the Australian Grand Prix.
Clarification came directly from Loic Serra during the press conference. The French technical director was keen to explain that “there will be evolutions of the car, for sure. I mean, development will not only start once the season begins, it will also be present during the winter tests. Then, as far as what could be defined as a major development is concerned, there will certainly be some evolutions.”
Ferrari, therefore, like all the other teams, will try to make the most of the limited time available to discover and understand a car that represents a clear break from the recent past. There are so many new features in every aspect of the car that each element requires careful checks to confirm the validation work already carried out on the dynamic test bench.
The project has been extremely refined both in its fundamental choices, which share several similarities with the Mercedes W17, and in the definition of details, thanks to “a more integrated part of the overall architectural change of the vehicle,” as confirmed by Enrico Gualtieri, Ferrari’s head of power unit development. “Every aspect of the car has been perfectly integrated after hard work that resulted in increasingly close collaboration between the power unit team, the chassis department, the trackside team, engineering and also the driver.”
The new Ferrari is shorter and narrower due to the regulations, and from the very first images the visual impact is clearly different. With what we can judge as a hint of pride, Ferrari has officially declared the weight of the SF-26 in the technical sheet: 770 kg including water, oil and driver. Since certain characteristic data of the cars, such as wheelbase, have become secrets guarded like Fort Knox, information about weight had effectively disappeared.
Maranello, however, has declared a figure that is only 2 kg above the regulatory minimum, which is set at 768 kg. This is particularly significant if we consider that the 2025 Formula 1 cars could not go below 800 kg, while they were equipped with power units that were 34 kg lighter than the current ones. The 067/6 six-cylinder hybrid reaches a nominal weight of around 185 kg, while the previous 066/15 was just over 150 kg.
It therefore becomes clear that the overall weight reduction could not have been limited to just 30 kg. To compensate for the heavier power unit, a drastic weight-saving programme was required. Part of this saving comes from a shorter wheelbase, reduced from 3,600 mm to 3,400 mm, and a narrower width, reduced from 1,900 mm to 1,800 mm, but everything else is the result of meticulous work that involved the design of every single aspect of the car.
During the development phase, Ferrari may also have planned for further weight reduction in order to introduce a small amount of ballast, typically a tungsten block, which is extremely useful for achieving the correct balance of the car on track.
Usually, with aerodynamic updates and the addition of both small and large elements, the overall mass tends to increase, meaning that weight reduction has to be carefully planned accordingly.
Where the rivals will end up is difficult to predict, but some fear they may have to start the season carrying an initial weight penalty that could exceed 10 kg, which is worth around three tenths of a second per lap.
Loïc Serra is confident in a solid and therefore reliable Ferrari, and is counting on an SF-26 that represents a strong foundation capable of supporting a highly flexible development programme throughout the season.
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