Ferrari tested the limits of its SF-26 during Belgian Grand Prix FP3, as the Maranello team accepted that it cannot perform miracles to erase its power unit deficit. At the tenth round of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Ferrari focused on a targeted approach intended to recover at least some of the lost time by maximising performance through Spa-Francorchamps’ second sector and exploiting the car’s available downforce. The crucial question ahead of qualifying, however, was whether that would be enough.
The challenge was made even clearer by Lewis Hamilton’s late crash and Charles Leclerc’s ongoing search for a consistent balance. Ferrari’s handling appeared encouraging in several areas, but energy deployment and straight-line performance continued to limit the Italian team at a circuit where power efficiency matters greatly. The FIA’s revised energy-management rules for Spa have only added another layer of complexity to the weekend.
Ferrari continues hybrid testing in Belgian GP FP3
Several minutes passed before the Ferrari cars left the pit lane. Lewis Hamilton was the first out, fitted with the red-walled Pirelli Soft tyres as Ferrari immediately set out to evaluate the setup changes made to the SF-26. During the out-lap, the British driver received several power-unit mapping adjustments, along with changes concerning brake balance and brake system settings. Push mode was selected through the final corner and the flying lap began.
Turn 1 was not ideal, with Lewis Hamilton forced to open the steering on the exit. It appeared to be more of a line error than a moment of oversteer, a conclusion supported by a radio message in which Lewis Hamilton reported a slight level of understeer. The remainder of the lap was relatively clean. Shortly afterwards, Charles Leclerc also headed out on Soft tyres to test Ferrari’s number 16 car.
Meanwhile, Ferrari gave Lewis Hamilton further handling corrections and advice for the next attempt after he completed a cooling lap for the tyres. The result was immediate: Lewis Hamilton lowered his time by six tenths of a second. He appeared pleased with the improvement and received congratulations from race engineer Carlo Santi before returning to the garage. At that stage, Charles Leclerc was approximately one second slower than his team-mate.
Bryan Bozzi explained Lewis Hamilton’s performance and how he had used energy deployment. The notable point was that Lewis Hamilton had been the quickest driver in the first sector so far. Charles Leclerc asked for clarification to establish whether the difference was purely related to his driving or whether other factors were involved, before beginning another push lap. His lap was very precise, without corrections, and although he improved, he remained six tenths behind the seven-time Formula 1 world champion.
Charles Leclerc searches for a solution at Spa
An interesting radio exchange followed on Charles Leclerc’s side of the garage. The Monegasque driver asked how much time he had lost on the straights during his second lap, and the reply was highly revealing: six tenths of a second. Shortly afterwards, Charles Leclerc completed an additional run with altered mappings and reduced the gap to Lewis Hamilton by a further three tenths.
Even so, Charles Leclerc was not satisfied. He said that, with those changes, he felt as though he was driving two different cars. His concerns reflected the difficult compromise Ferrari faced in Spa, where energy deployment can transform the car’s behaviour depending on the selected settings. Ferrari had already arrived at the circuit aware of the challenge, with Charles Leclerc outlining Ferrari’s expectations for the Belgian Grand Prix before the weekend.
Lewis Hamilton then returned to the track on the same set of Soft tyres following a brief stop and a fuel top-up, beginning a short race-pace simulation. In race configuration, managing the hybrid system appeared particularly difficult. The SF-26 responded well in terms of handling, but controlling the available energy was a real challenge.
Ferrari also asked Lewis Hamilton to save the tyres more carefully in order to avoid accelerating their natural degradation. It was not easy to draw firm conclusions from the lap times, although they appeared, on average, slower than Friday’s figures. Lewis Hamilton completed a seven-lap stint before returning to the pits, while Charles Leclerc headed back out on the Soft tyres he had used during his earlier stint.
During Charles Leclerc’s relatively long stop, Ferrari’s mechanics worked extensively on the rear of his SF-26 and even removed the rear wing. Charles Leclerc did not complete a high-fuel run and did not improve his best time. Instead, he remained on track with a specific programme: not to chase lap time, but to test the car through different approaches and understand how to extract the maximum possible performance.
Ferrari cannot hide the SF-26 power unit deficit
Lewis Hamilton later returned to the circuit on a fresh set of Soft tyres for another qualifying-style attempt. In that scenario, he was four tenths slower than Kimi Antonelli, who was the fastest driver on track. Carlo Santi informed Lewis Hamilton that he needed to be quicker at the apexes of Turns 14 and 16 and, naturally, improve the final corner, where Lewis Hamilton himself admitted that he had misjudged the racing line. He cooled the tyres and tried again.
On his next effort, Lewis Hamilton pushed too hard. During the change of direction between Turns 12 and 13, he lost the rear of the car. The SF-26 ran wide and struck the barriers, damaging the rear of his Ferrari. The incident underlined the issue identified on Friday: when a team has a deficit on the straights, drivers must operate closer to the limit elsewhere, increasing the likelihood of an error.
Even setting aside the crash, Ferrari could not conceal its power deficit. The SF-26 may be responsive through the corners, but it cannot fully compensate for the loss of performance on Spa’s straights, where the team’s hybrid deployment remains difficult to optimise. That wider issue has also shaped the debate around Lewis Hamilton’s concerns over battery-driven overtaking at Spa.
In the next session, qualifying, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will have to extract everything from a single lap in an effort to mask the Italian car’s engine-related limitations. Ferrari’s biggest concern is that such a compromise will be impossible to sustain over a full race distance.
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