Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur believes the fight for Formula 1 victories remains wide open in 2026, despite Max Verstappen’s recent resurgence with Red Bull. The Dutch driver’s consecutive victories at Sepang and Singapore have brought the RB22 back into the spotlight, but the French manager is not convinced that Red Bull has established itself as the championship’s undisputed benchmark.
Formula 1 has a short memory. Two consecutive victories can transform the perception of a difficult season into that of a remarkable revival, establish apparently new competitive hierarchies and immediately shift attention towards a team that seemed to be losing ground only a few weeks earlier. That is precisely what has happened with Red Bull, although Fred Vasseur believes the recent results do not yet justify treating the Milton Keynes team as the clear leader of the field.
The recovery represents significant technical progress for a team that had been performing well below the standards established during its most successful years. Nevertheless, the Ferrari team principal insists there is an important difference between recovering enough performance to win races and demonstrating the consistency required to be considered Formula 1’s strongest team.
Fred Vasseur refuses to accept Red Bull as Formula 1’s new benchmark
Fred Vasseur believes it is essential to distinguish between the results of the most recent Grands Prix and the broader competitive picture across the 2026 season. While acknowledging Red Bull’s progress, he rejects the suggestion that the RB22 has developed such a substantial advantage that every rival must now concentrate exclusively on catching it.
For the French manager, the distinction is more than a matter of terminology. Identifying one team as the most competitive requires evidence of sustained superiority, something he believes has not yet emerged clearly enough from the current championship.
His reasoning begins with the changing balance of performance between Formula 1’s four leading teams. Mercedes demonstrated particularly impressive speed during the opening part of the season, Ferrari secured two victories of its own, McLaren responded with another two wins, and Red Bull subsequently recovered enough competitiveness to produce a new sequence of strong results.
This constant variation makes any definitive judgement premature. Although Max Verstappen’s victories at Sepang and Singapore demonstrate that Red Bull has regained the ability to compete at the front, the question is whether that performance can be maintained across different circuits and technical conditions.
Red Bull’s RB22 revival does not settle the 2026 competitive order
Red Bull’s recovery is undeniable, but interpreting its recent success as an irreversible turning point would risk overlooking the wider championship picture. The RB22 has once again become sufficiently competitive to challenge for victories, allowing Max Verstappen to exploit its potential and return to winning form.
However, there is still a difference between producing exceptional performances over two consecutive weekends and maintaining that advantage throughout the remainder of a Formula 1 season.
George Russell has identified Red Bull as the team likely to attract the greatest attention from its rivals. Fred Vasseur takes a different view, preferring not to place too much emphasis on the impressions created by the latest races.
From the Ferrari team principal’s perspective, neither Mercedes nor McLaren can be removed from the equation simply because Max Verstappen has returned to winning ways. Ferrari also remains part of that competitive group, particularly given how closely matched the leading teams have been on several occasions.
The central issue is consistency. A team may appear dominant during one particular phase of the calendar without necessarily possessing the strongest car across the entire championship. Circuit characteristics, the ability to keep tyres within their optimal operating window and the effectiveness of technical upgrades can all significantly influence performance.
That is why Fred Vasseur believes individual race results should not be used to establish a definitive technical ranking. An advantage demonstrated at one Grand Prix is not guaranteed to appear at the next, just as an isolated difficult weekend does not necessarily indicate a fundamental decline in competitiveness.
Ferrari believes two tenths could completely change the F1 hierarchy
Perhaps the most significant element of Fred Vasseur’s assessment concerns the extremely small performance differences separating Formula 1’s leading teams.
According to the Ferrari team principal, four teams were covered by less than two tenths of a second during qualifying in Singapore. Such a narrow margin makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about the overall competitive order based solely on the outcome of the latest race.
In these circumstances, even a relatively limited technical upgrade can have major consequences. Improving the car’s balance, expanding its aerodynamic operating window or making tyre management more effective could allow a team to recover the hundredths of a second separating a second-row starting position from a potential pole position.
Ferrari’s recent performance at Marina Bay offers an example of why the team remains optimistic about its development potential. Charles Leclerc’s second-place finish demonstrated that the SF-26 could challenge near the front, although the result also exposed areas requiring further improvement. The wider implications were examined in our analysis of Charles Leclerc’s Singapore podium and Ferrari’s upcoming Austin upgrades.
With Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull separated by such small margins, the introduction of a new development package could change the competitive balance within a single Grand Prix weekend. The performance hierarchy therefore remains vulnerable to relatively modest improvements.
This also explains why Fred Vasseur is cautious about describing Red Bull’s recent success as evidence of lasting superiority. The RB22’s performances are a clear indication of progress, but they do not demonstrate that its rivals have exhausted their opportunities to respond.
For a broader statistical perspective, the Ferrari versus F1 rivals comparison provides a way to examine the Scuderia’s performance relative to the other leading constructors across the season.
Ferrari must focus on improving the SF-26 rather than following Red Bull
Fred Vasseur’s central message ultimately concerns Ferrari’s own development programme. At a stage of the season when small variations in performance can generate contrasting interpretations, becoming distracted by rivals’ statements and recent results risks shifting attention away from the factors the team can directly control.
Rather than treating Red Bull’s recovery as the definitive reference point for Ferrari’s technical decisions, the French manager wants the Scuderia to concentrate on improving the SF-26, identifying areas where further development is possible and ensuring that engineering changes translate into measurable performance gains on the circuit.
That approach is particularly relevant ahead of the United States Grand Prix, where Ferrari’s development programme is set to receive further attention. The planned Ferrari upgrades for Austin represent another opportunity for the team to address Charles Leclerc’s concerns about losing ground to its competitors.
Ignoring the improvements made by rival teams is not part of Fred Vasseur’s approach. Understanding those developments remains essential for directing Ferrari’s engineering work and correctly evaluating its own performance. The key is to avoid making the finishing order of the most recent Grand Prix the only measure of where each team stands.
Red Bull has clearly recovered competitiveness, and Max Verstappen has demonstrated his ability to take immediate advantage of the performance available from the RB22. Nevertheless, there remains a substantial difference between a team capable of winning two consecutive races and one that can confidently be regarded as Formula 1’s technical benchmark throughout an entire season.
Ferrari still sees an opportunity to fight for victories in 2026
With four teams separated by only a few tenths of a second, the competitive order remains exposed to the effects of ongoing development. Ferrari believes that opportunities to alter the balance of power still exist, provided its technical improvements deliver the expected results.
The coming races will therefore be important for understanding whether Red Bull can sustain its resurgence and whether Ferrari can turn its own development work into stronger and more consistent performances.
For Fred Vasseur, the answer is not to identify a new rival as the definitive team to beat prematurely. Instead, the priority is to ensure Ferrari makes enough progress to determine its own level of competitiveness rather than simply reacting to the performance of others.
The hope at Maranello is that it will not take much longer for those efforts to produce the results Ferrari is targeting.
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