Frédéric Vasseur: “The extreme conditions are not helping us, but Ferrari is still a long way from its true potential”
Ferrari Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur admitted that the opening day of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend was far from encouraging for the Scuderia, as the SF-26 struggled to consistently match the pace of its closest rivals. While Ferrari appeared to leave significant performance on the table along the straights—suggesting there is still more to come from the Power Unit—the car also encountered unexpected balance issues through the Red Bull Ring’s high-speed corners, an area where the team had hoped to capitalize on one of its greatest strengths.
According to the French team boss, Ferrari’s current level of performance does not accurately reflect the car’s real capabilities. He believes the SF-26 still has considerable untapped potential, but extracting that performance will require intensive overnight work before qualifying.
Only a few weeks ago in Barcelona, Ferrari looked well off the pace after Friday practice before transforming the car overnight and emerging as a genuine contender for pole position on Saturday and victory on Sunday. The situation appears remarkably similar in Austria. Following an underwhelming opening day, the key question is whether Ferrari can once again reverse its fortunes through setup refinements and unlock the pace that remained hidden during Friday’s sessions.
The sizeable gap seen during FP1 initially suggested that Ferrari might have been disguising its true speed, and there were several reasons to believe that was indeed the case. On the straights, the SF-26 appeared to be operating with conservative Power Unit settings, while part of the session was also dedicated to aerodynamic testing aimed at gathering valuable data for future races rather than maximizing outright performance.
However, FP2 revealed that Ferrari’s challenges extended beyond engine deployment. Although the Scuderia still seemed to have performance in reserve on the straights, the SF-26 also struggled in the fast final corners of the Red Bull Ring—the very section where its strong chassis was expected to shine. Instead, balance issues prevented both drivers from extracting maximum performance, leaving Ferrari further behind than anticipated.
The limitations became even more apparent during the race simulations. While Lewis Hamilton finished more than half a second away from the benchmark over a single lap, Ferrari’s long-run pace also failed to impress. The race simulations lacked the consistency and competitiveness shown by several rivals, suggesting that improvements will be required across multiple areas if the Italian team hopes to challenge at the front during qualifying and Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Even so, there are clear indications that Ferrari still has several important performance tools available ahead of Saturday. Beyond the setup work, there appears to be additional potential within both the hybrid deployment strategy and the internal combustion engine, meaning the Scuderia could still make a significant step forward once its complete package is fully optimized.
“It was a difficult Friday and we struggled with the conditions, which were extremely demanding,” Frédéric Vasseur explained. “The altitude and the temperatures are the same for everyone, but they certainly aren’t helping us. That is the situation we have to deal with. We now have the entire night to analyse the data, make the necessary corrections and arrive much better prepared for tomorrow. The objective is to put every piece of the puzzle together and produce a stronger performance on Saturday.”
Looking back at Ferrari’s recent turnaround in Spain, Frédéric Vasseur highlighted how Friday form can often be misleading.
“Tyre degradation in Barcelona was much higher than it is here and that became the biggest factor in determining race performance. Even so, we were still capable of fighting for pole position in qualifying. In terms of pure pace, we were right there.”
The Ferrari Team Principal admitted that the current situation in Austria is less encouraging but insisted that Friday’s results do not represent the true level of the SF-26.
“At the moment we are still some distance away, but it is also true that we were not particularly competitive on Friday in Barcelona either. We have plenty of work to do, that is certain. There is a lot of performance we believe we can unlock overnight and we will see tomorrow where that puts us. Right now, we are still a long way from our true potential.”
Frédéric Vasseur’s message was unmistakable: Ferrari believes there is considerably more performance hidden within the SF-26, but the challenge now is understanding exactly how to access it. Much of the focus will be placed on finding a better mechanical and aerodynamic balance while also optimizing the Power Unit package before qualifying.
The Frenchman also discussed Ferrari’s introduction of the second homologated engine specification developed through the ADUO programme. However, he was keen to temper expectations after Friday’s initial running, making it clear that the team never expected an immediate breakthrough from the updated package.
“What we achieved today was largely what we expected,” Frédéric Vasseur concluded. “The production times for a Formula 1 engine are extremely long. Some components require several months of preparation. Introducing the ADUO programme—or at least the second engine specification—this early represented a considerable risk for us because of the budget cap. We certainly were not expecting a dramatic performance gain this weekend.”
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