Ferrari’s hopes for the 2027 Formula 1 season are already beginning to take centre stage as November brings another familiar feeling for the Tifosi. Despite a much-improved 2026 campaign in which Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have returned the Scuderia to winning ways, Mercedes have secured both world championships, leaving Maranello once again looking towards next year for the ultimate breakthrough.
There is a particular moment in every Formula 1 season when Ferrari supporters stop paying quite so much attention to the championship standings and suddenly become fascinated by the car being developed for the following year. It is not an official date, it does not appear on the Formula 1 calendar, and the FIA has yet to consider introducing regulations for it. Usually, it arrives somewhere between October and November, when the championship mathematics become increasingly uncomfortable and even the most optimistic supporters realise that their title dreams will have to wait.
It is the moment when another disappointing race is filed away with a phrase that has almost become part of Ferrari’s cultural heritage: “We need to start thinking about next year now.”
That apparently harmless statement has one extraordinary characteristic: it has returned with remarkable regularity for years, surviving changes to the regulations, team principals, technical directors and even drivers. The cars change, engineering philosophies evolve, new champions arrive and increasingly ambitious development programmes are announced. Yet November often finds Ferrari supporters in exactly the same position, caught between disappointment over what has failed to materialise and an almost irresistible curiosity about what might happen twelve months later.
Ferrari’s 2027 F1 hopes emerge after another missed championship opportunity
The 2026 season has followed that familiar pattern, even though Ferrari have performed considerably better than in the previous campaign. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have brought victories back to the Italian team, demonstrating that the SF-26 possesses some important qualities.
Nevertheless, as Maranello prepares for the final races of the season, Andrea Kimi Antonelli has already secured the Drivers’ World Championship with Mercedes, which also clinched the Constructors’ title at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Ferrari sit second in the Constructors’ standings, a far more respectable position than their fourth-place finish in 2025. However, it remains some distance from the objective that accompanies the Scuderia into every winter: winning the Formula 1 world championship.
The contrast between Ferrari’s progress and Mercedes’ championship success is reflected in the Ferrari versus Formula 1 rivals statistics, which allow supporters to compare the team’s championship performance, qualifying results and race pace against its competitors.
And so, after 20 Grands Prix, the familiar ritual has begun again. Ferrari fans continue watching the races, debating the performances of Hamilton and Leclerc, becoming frustrated by mistakes and celebrating podium finishes. Yet part of their attention has already moved towards 2027.
After all, next year’s championship has one almost unbeatable advantage: until it begins, Ferrari cannot lose it. Perhaps this is the most sophisticated form of sporting optimism, one that allows supporters to survive almost any disappointment simply by moving the date of their next great hope a little further into the future.
From the new Ferrari launch to the first doubts: the emotional calendar of the Tifosi
The annual cycle of a Ferrari supporter generally begins during the winter, when the new Formula 1 car is unveiled and every detail seems to promise a historic transformation.
The images released from Maranello are examined with a level of attention that would put a scientific investigation to shame. Sidepods are analysed, wings are compared, suspension layouts are studied and somebody, armed with photographs and considerable enthusiasm, has already identified a few tenths of an advantage over the opposition.
It hardly matters that the new car has not yet completed a proper Grand Prix. The machinery is fresh, the drivers are motivated, the engineers have worked tirelessly and, above all, there appears to be a different level of understanding this time.
That last observation returns every year, accompanied by the conviction that the mistakes of previous seasons have finally been understood.
Then pre-season testing arrives, and the interpretation phase begins.
If Ferrari are fastest, excessive excitement must be avoided because their rivals could be hiding their true performance. If the Scuderia are behind, pessimism is equally unnecessary because nobody knows the fuel loads. Whatever the situation, there is almost always a sufficiently convincing explanation to keep hope alive.
The opening Grand Prix usually provides the first meaningful indications of the competitive order, along with the first disagreements among supporters. Some urge patience, reminding everyone that the championship is long, while others are already asking when the first upgrades will arrive.
Spring becomes the season of unfulfilled potential. The car is competitive, but not quite competitive enough. Some circuits highlight its strengths, while others expose its limitations. Race starts are encouraging, but long-run pace needs improvement. Qualifying looks promising, only for Sunday to tell a different story.
At this point, one of the most beloved figures in the Ferrari supporter’s imagination makes its appearance: the upgrade package.
Almost mythical in status, it is awaited with the same fascination normally reserved for major technological breakthroughs. Weeks of discussion can begin before a single component has even been fitted to the car.
There is talk of a new floor, revised wings, greater aerodynamic efficiency and improved tyre management. Every component becomes a potential turning point, at least until the stopwatch suggests otherwise.
Summer is generally when Ferrari supporters begin to distinguish between the championship they hoped to watch and the one actually unfolding before them. Strong performances are greeted enthusiastically, while disappointing results are met with progressively less patience.
Then autumn arrives, and the vocabulary changes.
The conversation is no longer exclusively about closing the gap to the leaders. Instead, attention turns towards gathering useful information, understanding the car’s characteristics and establishing a solid foundation for the future.
The word development gradually stops referring to improvements for the current car and begins describing everything that might benefit its successor.
Ferrari supporters recognise this transition perfectly. They have experienced it before, often many times, yet continue to embrace it with the same emotional commitment.
That is one of Ferrari’s most unusual qualities: the team somehow manages to make a storyline its supporters know almost by heart feel new again.
Why Ferrari’s 2026 F1 season has been frustrating despite two Grand Prix victories
It would nevertheless be unfair to portray Ferrari’s 2026 campaign as simply another chapter in an uninterrupted sequence of failures.
The Scuderia have made genuine progress compared with the previous season, winning two Grands Prix and returning to a consistent position near the front of the Constructors’ Championship.
Lewis Hamilton finally secured his first Sunday Grand Prix victory for Ferrari, while Charles Leclerc took the SF-26 to the top step of the podium at Silverstone.
Those achievements deserve recognition, particularly after a 2025 campaign in which Maranello failed to win a single full-length Grand Prix.
The difficulty lies precisely in the contrast between that improvement and the distance still separating Ferrari from the world championship.
Mercedes adapted more successfully to the major regulatory changes introduced for 2026, producing a car capable of winning both titles and helping Andrea Kimi Antonelli secure the first Drivers’ World Championship of his career.
Red Bull endured a complicated campaign but gradually recovered competitiveness, while McLaren also managed to claim important victories after a difficult start.
Ferrari, meanwhile, have alternated victories and podium finishes with weekends in which setup difficulties, tyre management problems or strategic decisions have prevented the team from achieving stronger results.
The Brazilian Grand Prix provides a particularly revealing example of that contradiction.
Just one week after Lewis Hamilton narrowly missed out on victory in Mexico, Ferrari finished the São Paulo Grand Prix with Charles Leclerc in eighth place and the seven-time world champion ninth.
The Monegasque openly discussed the enormous difficulties involved in bringing the tyres into their correct operating temperature window. Hamilton, meanwhile, endured a weekend complicated by grid penalties, tyre degradation and a mistake during the closing stages.
Fred Vasseur acknowledged Ferrari’s problems with tyre management, an issue that continues to resurface despite the improvements made to the SF-26.
The team principal’s assessment of the Ferrari tyre management and strategy problems at the Brazilian Grand Prix highlighted how difficult it has been to extract consistent performance from the car.
This is why the 2026 campaign could prove even more frustrating for Ferrari supporters than 2025.
When a Ferrari is clearly incapable of competing for victories, it becomes relatively straightforward to accept that the technical package is not working. When the same team wins two Grands Prix, comes close to winning others and then suddenly finds itself fighting for only a handful of points, the frustration takes a different form.
There is a genuine sense that success is possible, but that the team cannot turn isolated opportunities into consistent results.
Ferrari’s 2026 car has demonstrated that it can win races. What the team has not demonstrated is the ability to put together a championship-winning campaign.
That distinction matters far more than the Constructors’ Championship table alone might suggest.
Second place represents an important sporting achievement, but for a team that has not won the Drivers’ Championship since 2007 or the Constructors’ title since 2008, it cannot be considered the ultimate destination.
Ferrari supporters understand this, even when they try to take comfort from the victories achieved by Hamilton and Leclerc.
The problem is not an absence of positive results. It is the difficulty of building upon them.
That lack of consistency is what drives the psychological shift towards the following season. By November, while other teams celebrate their championship victories, discussions at Maranello have already turned towards the areas requiring improvement.
There is nothing wrong with that process, provided it does not become an elegant way of postponing the same objective every year.
Indeed, John Elkann’s unfulfilled championship target for Ferrari illustrates just how difficult it has been for the Scuderia to turn ambitious expectations into world titles.
Ferrari’s 2027 car must build on the SF-26 rather than promise another revolution
At this stage, Ferrari supporters enter the final phase of their annual emotional cycle: rebuilding hope.
The 2027 season begins to occupy an increasingly prominent place in conversations, while the remaining races of 2026 become opportunities to evaluate technical solutions and observe the drivers’ progress.
This does not mean Ferrari fans have genuinely lost interest in the current championship. Those who follow the Scuderia rarely stop caring about its performances.
Instead, it is a form of sporting self-preservation, allowing supporters to continue looking ahead without having to relive the disappointment of a championship already decided every Sunday.
The next Ferrari has no results against its name and can therefore represent almost anything: a finally complete technical project, a solution to the team’s tyre management difficulties or a car capable of making the most of both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
That is the great advantage of future seasons. They have not yet had to face the stopwatch.
However, this is also where a more serious assessment of Ferrari’s prospects should begin.
The 2027 Formula 1 season will not bring another complete regulatory revolution comparable to the one introduced in 2026. Ferrari will therefore need to concentrate primarily on understanding and developing its existing concept, correcting weaknesses without sacrificing the progress already achieved.
Improved tyre utilisation will be essential, alongside more effective energy management and a greater ability to adapt the car to different circuit characteristics.
Strategic execution must also improve. Even a competitive Formula 1 car can lose valuable opportunities when decisions from the pit wall are not supported by sufficiently precise implementation.
These are all areas in which the Scuderia must make progress if it wants to transform occasional race-winning performance into a sustained championship challenge.
For those following the technical direction of the team, the Ferrari technical analysis section provides further coverage of the SF-26’s development, aerodynamic characteristics and performance limitations.
Fred Vasseur faces another challenge with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in 2027
Beyond the technical work, Fred Vasseur must find a way to maximise the contribution of two drivers who have both demonstrated their ability to win, without allowing their internal rivalry to become an obstacle.
Lewis Hamilton cannot simply be regarded as an experienced figure brought in to support Charles Leclerc. Equally, the Monegasque cannot be pushed into a secondary role after spending years establishing himself as Ferrari’s leading reference point.
The challenge is to build an organisation around both drivers that can transform their individual competitiveness into a collective advantage.
That requires more than having two talented drivers in the same garage. Ferrari must ensure that its sporting decisions, technical development and race management allow both Hamilton and Leclerc to contribute effectively to the team’s objectives.
Above all, however, Ferrari need to change their relationship with expectations.
Grand declarations are unnecessary, as is the promise of a revolutionary car supposedly capable of providing a definitive answer to every previous weakness.
What matters is measurable progress, a coherent technical development path and the ability to recognise problems without turning every winter into another ceremonial launch of the future.
Ferrari supporters do not need to be told that next year will finally be the year. They need to see a team that stops treating the following season as the solution to the disappointments of the previous one.
Why Ferrari fans will inevitably start dreaming of 2027 again
Of course, none of these considerations will prevent the Tifosi from dreaming once again.
In a few weeks, attention will turn towards the first developments of Ferrari’s 2027 car. Rumours about the new project will follow, accompanied by photographs, technical analysis and the earliest comparisons with rival teams.
By January, somebody will already have identified the solution supposedly capable of putting Maranello back ahead of everyone else.
February’s testing will provide encouraging indications, March will bring the beginning of the championship, and for a few months that distinctive feeling which only Ferrari seems capable of producing will return.
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