Ferrari’s Canadian Grand Prix turned out to be far more encouraging than the team had initially expected, especially considering the final outcome. Lewis Hamilton secured an impressive second-place finish, while Charles Leclerc recovered to fourth despite enduring what was arguably one of his most difficult Formula 1 weekends in recent memory. The SF-26 showed surprisingly competitive race pace, particularly in the hands of the seven-time world champion, on a circuit that many believed would favour Mercedes and McLaren.
Reflecting on the weekend, Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur admitted the Scuderia had arrived in Montréal with far lower expectations. Given the upgrades introduced by rival teams, Ferrari had anticipated a far more difficult battle throughout the weekend.
“If I’m being honest, we didn’t expect to be in such a strong position here in Montréal,” Frederic Vasseur admitted. “McLaren and Mercedes brought major upgrades, and we expected to struggle a bit.”
However, the first signs from practice quickly changed Ferrari’s outlook. The data emerging from the opening sessions suggested the SF-26 was in a much stronger operating window than initially feared, giving the team more confidence as the weekend progressed: “The pace from day one was already better than we expected,” he explained.
Lewis Hamilton emerged as one of Ferrari’s biggest positives in Canada, producing an aggressive and determined performance across both qualifying and the race. Frederic Vasseur praised the British driver’s pace, noting that he remained in the fight at the sharp end throughout the weekend and extracted everything possible from the package.
“Lewis was able to fight for second place in Q2 and Q3 right up until the final lap. That shows the car’s pace was strong.”
The Ferrari Team Principal also highlighted Lewis Hamilton’s intense duel with Max Verstappen during the race, suggesting that the battle gave the Briton even greater motivation to push harder in the closing stages.
“At the end, he had that extra motivation fighting with Max and pushed like crazy to catch him, and he managed to do it.”
Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, faced a much more difficult weekend. The Monegasque driver never appeared entirely comfortable around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and Frederic Vasseur suggested that confidence was a major factor behind his struggles: “Charles struggled a bit more and didn’t have much confidence even arriving here. In previous years, this circuit hasn’t been particularly positive for him either. He struggled to find confidence throughout the entire weekend, including in today’s race.”
Despite those difficulties, Charles Leclerc still managed to bring home valuable points. Frederic Vasseur revealed there were several tense moments where the Ferrari driver could easily have lost control or seen his race compromised.
“Two or three times he had some scary moments, so it’s already a good thing that he brought the car home and still collected important points.”
Attention after the race also turned toward the increasingly discussed ADUO technical topic, which is expected to remain a major talking point in the paddock over the coming weeks. Asked about the matter, Frederic Vasseur responded with a light-hearted remark while keeping Ferrari’s position deliberately measured: “The whole world is waiting to see who will use ADUO? I don’t know if it’s the whole world, but we’ll see what the FIA’s position is in the coming days.”
Even so, Ferrari’s immediate focus is on the next races rather than off-track debates. The Scuderia now heads to Monaco for Charles Leclerc’s home Grand Prix, a venue that presents an entirely different technical challenge compared to Canada.
“Let’s focus on ourselves,” Frederic Vasseur said. “It’s a special circuit where you need a different approach.”
Perhaps the most significant takeaway from Frederic Vasseur’s comments concerns Barcelona, which he identified as a potentially decisive moment in Ferrari’s development push. With the factory working intensively to unlock more performance from the SF-26, the Spanish Grand Prix could mark an important turning point in Ferrari’s season: “We are pushing incredibly hard at the factory to improve the car’s performance every single weekend. I hope Spain will represent a big step forward.”
Frederic Vasseur’s post-race insights highlight a resilient Scuderia Ferrari squad that is maximizing its championship opportunities even while operating with a temporary aerodynamic upgrade deficit. By weaponizing Lewis Hamilton’s mounting confidence to secure a landmark podium in Montreal, the team proved the inherent mechanical robustness of the SF-26 platform on power-sensitive street circuits. As the engineering department prepares to navigate the tight barriers of Monaco and deploy a massive performance update in Barcelona, maintaining this high level of operational efficiency will be vital. If the upcoming Spanish upgrade package correlates perfectly with factory simulation metrics, Ferrari will solidify its status as an unyielding, top-tier threat capable of challenging for race victories consistently across the remainder of the 2026 season.
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