Ferrari’s Italian Grand Prix ended with far less than the team had hoped for at Monza, as the SF-26’s straight-line limitations became a decisive handicap during its home race. Lewis Hamilton recovered only as far as sixth place, while Charles Leclerc scored no points after losing control of his car at the exit of the Parabolica on the opening lap and triggering a red flag.
Team principal Fred Vasseur acknowledged that it had been a difficult day for the Scuderia, with Monza’s unusual combination of long straights and low downforce proving particularly unfavourable to Ferrari’s 2026 car. Expectations had been raised by the latest Power Unit development, but the weekend ultimately underlined the remaining advantage of the Mercedes unit, which is expected to remain the reference on the grid through the closing part of the season.
The disappointment carried additional weight because this was not simply another race on the calendar for Ferrari. The Italian Grand Prix marked the 30th anniversary of Michael Schumacher’s first Monza victory for the team, adding considerable symbolic importance to a weekend in which the Maranello squad had hoped to demonstrate both technical progress and improved race execution.
Ferrari’s Monza straight-line weakness leaves the SF-26 exposed
Ferrari had already adapted the SF-26 specifically for the demands of the Temple of Speed, including changes designed to reduce drag and improve efficiency at Monza. The Scuderia also arrived with its latest engine development, but Vasseur explained after the race that the fundamental straight-line deficit remained too large to overcome.
Speaking to Sky Sport, the Ferrari team principal described Saturday’s qualifying result as relatively encouraging in terms of positions, although the team had already been fully aware of its substantial top-speed disadvantage. That weakness was expected to make both attacking and defending extremely difficult on Sunday, and Vasseur admitted that the race unfolded exactly along those lines.
According to the Frenchman, the problem could be seen with Leclerc during the opening lap and subsequently throughout Hamilton’s race. Although Ferrari’s underlying pace was not necessarily poor, both drivers were vulnerable on the straights and lacked the speed required to complete overtaking moves when opportunities appeared. Vasseur conceded that the situation during wheel-to-wheel racing proved even more difficult than Ferrari had anticipated before the start.
The result provided a very different test from qualifying, where analysis of the Ferrari ADUO 2 engine performance at Monza had already highlighted the progress made by the latest development while also showing that the gap to Mercedes had not disappeared.
Why Ferrari’s latest Power Unit upgrade could not solve the Monza problem
Asked whether Ferrari had expected more from its engine updates, Vasseur stressed that the team understood its own performance figures and knew how exceptionally sensitive Monza would be to maximum speed. The circuit therefore magnified a weakness that would have far less impact at other venues.
To illustrate the difference, the team principal compared running behind another car at Zandvoort with the same situation at Monza. He indicated that Ferrari might lose around two tenths over half a lap at the Dutch circuit, whereas the loss at Monza could reach roughly five tenths because such a large proportion of lap time is determined on the straights.
That characteristic also affected the way Ferrari could use its hybrid system in direct battles. Vasseur explained that when the SF-26 attempted to attack or defend, it had to deploy significant electrical energy early in the straight. That left the car with much less available towards the latter part of the acceleration zone, making it particularly vulnerable before the braking area.
He used the fight involving Pierre Gasly as an example of the problem, pointing out that Ferrari could gain a position only to become exposed again shortly afterwards. Trying to compensate also created a secondary consequence: the drivers had to extract more from the car under braking and through the corners, increasing the demand placed on the tyres and ultimately compromising the ability to recover positions later in the race.
It was precisely the complexity of energy management at Monza that had been one of the key questions before the weekend. Charles Leclerc had already discussed the challenge while assessing Ferrari’s engine and floor developments for the Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton and Leclerc’s opening-lap fight adds to Ferrari’s difficult afternoon
The technical shortcomings were not Ferrari’s only concern. Before Leclerc’s accident brought his race to an abrupt end, the Monegasque had become involved in an aggressive opening-lap battle with team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The two came close to contact as each attempted to maintain track position, adding an internal team-management issue to an already challenging race.
Vasseur felt Hamilton had been particularly aggressive under braking against Leclerc and confirmed that Ferrari would discuss the incident internally with both drivers. From the team principal’s perspective, seeing one of the cars slide back to eighth place following such a hard first-corner battle was far from the ideal way to manage the opening phase of a Grand Prix.
The incident subsequently became another major talking point after Hamilton gave his own assessment of the costly Ferrari team-mate battle at Monza.
Leclerc’s afternoon then ended at the Parabolica. He lost control of the SF-26 on the exit of the final corner and struck the barriers heavily, leaving Ferrari with only Hamilton in contention for the remainder of its home race. Further analysis of the circumstances surrounding Charles Leclerc’s Monza crash has focused on the decisive moments at the final corner.
Vasseur confirmed afterwards that Leclerc was physically fine. The Ferrari driver told him that he had not suffered any broken bones, although he preferred to return home as quickly as possible to rest following what the team principal described as a substantial impact and a significant shock.
Vasseur expects a very different Ferrari picture away from Monza
Ferrari therefore left its home Grand Prix with the feeling that not every available opportunity had been maximised. Monza’s characteristics had always made a victory difficult to envisage for the SF-26, but the race also exposed areas of execution and internal management that could have been handled more effectively.
There is, however, an important distinction between Ferrari’s Monza performance and what the team expects elsewhere. Vasseur emphasised that the extreme low-downforce configuration and long straights made the Italian circuit particularly hostile to the characteristics of the SF-26 and potentially the most difficult venue of the entire season for the car.
The Ferrari team principal therefore expects circuits such as Marina Bay, Sepang and Baku to present a substantially different challenge. Rather than allowing one particularly difficult weekend to define the remainder of the campaign, his approach is for Ferrari to tackle each Grand Prix individually and concentrate on extracting the maximum available performance from every circuit.
For the Scuderia, that shift of focus will be essential after a home race in which the emotion of Monza, an early retirement for Leclerc and the SF-26’s straight-line deficit combined to produce one of the more frustrating afternoons of its 2026 season.
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