Fred Vasseur explains how a compromised Friday practice triggered Ferrari’s Austrian GP flop. Why Ferrari struggled in Austria: Frederic Vasseur points to crucial Friday setback.

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has highlighted a key factor that helped shape the Scuderia’s disappointing Austrian Grand Prix weekend, pointing to the team’s inability to complete meaningful race simulations during Friday practice.

A weekend that started on the wrong foot

It was already clear before the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that the Red Bull Ring would present a difficult challenge for Ferrari. However, after Saturday’s qualifying session, there was at least some hope that the Scuderia could repeat its 2025 result by securing third and fourth places behind Mercedes, rather than behind McLaren as had happened 12 months earlier.

Instead, the race told a very different story. Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line in fifth place, while Charles Leclerc slipped dramatically from second on the grid to eighth, ending the race as the last-placed driver among the four leading teams.

Red Bull also returned to the front in Austria, as demonstrated by Max Verstappen‘s second-place finish and Isack Hadjar’s impressive sixth place.

As previously highlighted, Ferrari found itself in trouble because it compromised part of its setup in an effort to reduce its power deficit. The fact that the SF-26 is equipped with a smaller turbocharger than its main rivals became an even greater handicap at the high-altitude Red Bull Ring. In other words, just as the characteristics of the SF-26 had been amplified in Barcelona—where Charles Leclerc pointed out that the car’s strengths were particularly evident—Austria instead exposed its weaknesses far more clearly.

Frederic Vasseur points to Friday’s missed opportunity

One particularly significant remark came from Frederic Vasseur during his post-race media session, suggesting Ferrari’s difficult weekend had been compromised long before Sunday’s Grand Prix.

“It was a complicated weekend. We didn’t get off to the right start on Friday because we struggled in both FP1 and FP2, and we weren’t able to complete representative race simulations.”

Those comments underline how Ferrari’s weekend was already on the back foot from the opening day of practice. As was the case earlier this season, Ferrari also used the first practice session in Austria to give Dino Beganovic track time in Charles Leclerc‘s car, completing the team’s mandatory rookie driver FP1 appearances for the season.