The Ferrari team principal covered a wide range of topics in the Scuderia’s end-of-year press conference. Plenty was said about a 2026 season that must serve as a relaunch after a highly challenging year.
Vasseur wraps up a tough 2025 with forward-looking optimism
Fred Vasseur closed out 2025 with a press conference summing up a demanding season for Ferrari. During the traditional pre-Christmas media lunch, conversation quickly turned to the year ahead—a common theme at Maranello. This time, however, the Scuderia truly stands on the cusp of a pivotal moment for its future ambitions. The factors behind 2025’s shortcomings took a backseat to the magnitude of the upcoming challenge, one set to significantly shape the team’s trajectory.
The French manager maintains his characteristic glass-half-full perspective, especially crucial at such a defining juncture. His trust in the workforce remains absolute, with hopes that the issues exposed this season will be swept away by the car unveiled at Fiorano on January 23. This yet-unnamed machine carries substantial expectations as Ferrari aims to rebound strongly.
Teams often say they learn more from difficult periods than successful ones. What has Ferrari taken away from this year to carry forward?
“It doesn’t matter what kind of season it is—there are always positive and negative aspects. We had positives in 2025, but probably fewer than negatives. We did good pit stops, good strategies, and showed decent reliability. But we also have areas where we know we need to do much better. I think we started the season a bit behind in Bahrain, then we had the disqualification issue in China, and that put us under pressure. I was quite happy with the team’s reaction, honestly, because we came back competitive within three or four races, confirming good pace. In the first part of the season, we lost points to McLaren, and at that point we were two or three tenths behind them, so it looked over. But what we have to learn is that every single detail can make a huge difference, and I always consider this true in my job. And regarding that disqualification, I think we paid the price for a third of the season.”
For English-speaking F1 fans, Fred Vasseur’s balanced review captures Ferrari’s 2025 reality—a year of flashes like Charles Leclerc’s podiums overshadowed by consistency lapses and Lewis Hamilton’s adaptation struggles. Fourth in constructors’ marked progress from early lows but fell short of title-contending form.
Driver challenges and the 2026 opportunity
Next year brings a major driver challenge with the new rules. How will it impact performance?
“I think it’s always been like that. We’ve had big regulation changes, and this has given drivers a great opportunity to work on project development from the start. But in 2026, we’ll experience for the first time a radical change affecting chassis, engine, but also sporting regulations and energy use. Many aspects can be tested in the simulator, working on them for many hours, though I think something harder to simulate is on-track fighting. I believe it will be crucial to learn quickly in the first races how to manage energy, and this work falls to the drivers.”
Lewis Hamilton had a very tough season and seemed particularly disappointed toward the end—do you think 2026 could be a turning point?
“Yes, I think it was tough for Lewis. Considering the 20 years spent between Mercedes and McLaren (then linked to Mercedes), he faced a huge change. Personally, I underestimated the scale of the change—it’s not about doing things worse or better, but differently. It’s not the food or the weather, but every single piece of software different, every single component, the fact that the people around him before were different. If you’re not on top of everything, you start losing hundredths of a second that become very penalizing: In Abu Dhabi Q2, there was a tenth between 5th and 15th place. That means we didn’t have full control of every single detail in the package, and we lost our way a bit during the season, sometimes by less than a tenth of a second. Think of Budapest, when Charles in Q2 was a tenth faster than Lewis (11th), but in the end Charles took pole position. It’s not an excuse—the goal is to be ahead of everyone—but if you analyze it all, we’re talking about details.”
Thinking about next year, the new car development, and the rules—how would you describe Ferrari’s approach? Will you go bold because it’s all or nothing, or take a more conservative line?
“No one is conservative or aggressive from the start. Often you make assessments when you discover what rivals have done, and then you say ‘Oh, I was really aggressive’ or conversely realize you were conservative. But honestly, today we have no idea what our rivals have done—we’ll have the full picture only in Bahrain, and probably we’ll see teams took different directions, maybe not exactly opposite, but different anyway. What is really aggressive is postponing projects until the last minute to arrive in Barcelona or Bahrain with the car that will race. Conversely, if a team decides to freeze development a month early, then we can say it’s a conservative approach. I think this year, anyway, all teams will have to be aggressive in various aspects by necessity. In our case, we’ll finish assembling the car the day before the presentation, January 22.”
At Abu Dhabi, Charles Leclerc said he believes 2026 will be decisive for Ferrari. Obviously, it’s a major regulation change, and what happens early could shape the next four years. Do you agree? How important is next year for Ferrari, for you, for Charles, and for Lewis?
“Don’t pay too much attention to what drivers say on TV—and I mean it seriously. We know it’s a new regulation cycle, and if a team manages to start with a second advantage over the rest, I think it would be in a favorable position for the next four years. But I’m also really convinced that the technical hierarchy of the first races won’t necessarily be the one at Abu Dhabi end of year. Next year there will be a huge development program extending throughout the season, similar to 2022.”
After years of discussions and debates, are you satisfied with the final 2026 regulations, or do you expect issues?
“I’ll tell you in Australia! This is by far the biggest change we’ve made, plus teams have grown enormously in recent years—we have more and more people studying how to find gray areas. I think we also have to put ourselves in the FIA’s shoes: It’s a huge challenge for them to arrive in Australia or Bahrain without some team exploiting a loophole. If the regulations are well done and someone builds a good faster car, then we can say everything worked perfectly. If there’s some loophole, the situation will be much harder for everyone and much more dangerous for F1. And that’s where the FIA has a delicate point. I think everyone understands how enormous the regulatory challenge is—we could witness the best F1 season or face a difficult year, but this aspect, more or less pronounced, is always there. We had a couple of examples last year too—I mention the front wing and other gray areas; there’s always the possibility it could give someone a huge advantage.”
Stopping aero development on the 2025 car in April—do you think it gave a good advantage? Or, put another way, would you feel less prepared starting the 2026 car two months later?
“That’s certain. Then, knowing if you took the right path or not is another story, and no one can know today. But we still have a huge development rate compared to the 2025 cars, meaning the decision to stop after five or six races was difficult, but I’m still convinced it was the right one. If there’s something I underestimated in this phase, it was the psychological effect on every single team member, including the drivers. It was definitely a decision taken for good reasons—to try for the best in 2026—but on the other hand, when you’re in the middle of the season with 20 races left and no more aero development, it’s tough. And I probably underestimated that aspect, both for the team and for myself, believe me.”
Is there a chance teams show up to Barcelona testing with a basic car to check general component reliability, then introduce latest aero in Bahrain?
“I think yes—I expect it will be a common strategy. On the eve of such a radical technical change, the most important aspect is racking up kilometers; initially searching for performance isn’t priority. Having the chance to log miles allows validating technical choices in terms of reliability, then once that’s done, move to performance search. That said, I don’t think we’ll see ‘mule cars’ in Barcelona testing, but let’s say a spec ‘A’, followed quickly by others.”
Regarding Lewis Hamilton’s difficult season—he seemed really upset at times, struggling emotionally. Did that surprise you? What can be done in 2026 to help avoid those states next year?
“When you exit in Q1, I find it normal for a driver to be extremely angry with himself and the team. And I’m not sure you journalists would prefer someone going in front of cameras saying: ‘No, everything’s fine’ or other platitudes. I respect drivers’ positions when they have this attitude—for me, the most important thing is always having the best collaboration with the team. It would be much better to go straight to debriefing without talking to TV… but Lewis’s attitude when with engineers has always been very positive—his goal is seeking solutions. And it was like that even when he had difficult moments in the last part of the season, and it’s an aspect that brought positive energy to the team. I can add that even I, when interviewed right after coming off the pit wall, don’t have much desire to answer questions.”
Compared to this year, I imagine the 2026 upgrade program will be more intense and important. Do you think managing the budget cap will be much tougher than in 2025?
“It’s a good question, because I think the determining factor for introducing upgrades won’t be wind tunnel development capacity, but precisely the budget cap. This means we’ll have to be very careful in using the available budget for development. Normally, the sooner you bring novelties trackside, the better, but in next year’s situation, it’s not certain that’s the right strategy. If, for example, you decide to introduce a new floor in Japan or China, you have high expense, even transport. It might be more efficient to extend wind tunnel development and plan introduction in Bahrain. It’s an aspect we’ll evaluate day by day, estimating on one side what we get from the tunnel and on the other the development cost. Then it depends on what you develop—shipping a front wing flap update to China obviously costs less than a floor.”
During the season, you pointed out much of the SF-25 work was done by Enrico Cardile before his exit. Can we say 2026 will be the first true Fred Vasseur car?
“It’s more Loic Serra’s car. I don’t want to shirk responsibilities, but if we talk about Cardile, we must talk about Loic too. Enrico left the team in June 2024—this means when Loic joined at the start of October 2024, the car was almost completely designed. That’s why I got a bit angry when at some point media put Loic under fire: I think it was a bit unfair. In the end, next year’s car isn’t his first ‘baby’—he’s had them before—but it’s Loic’s first real project.”
How have you planned the 2026 pre-season tests? Regarding the launch—will you use filming days before collective tests? And for the Barcelona test with a five-day window, what’s the current plan?
“We’ll see—I admit we’re not used to nine days of testing anymore; in the last four or five seasons, we’ve had only three. It’s an advantage, but obviously a completely different program. The first objective in a season like this is reliability. You remember perfectly seasons 10 or 15 years ago when first races had huge retirement percentages. So first of all, we need to rack up kilometers. The first focus in Barcelona will be evaluating reliability, and possibly understanding areas needing improvement and reacting, because if a problem emerges in Bahrain tests, there’s not enough time to react before heading to Australia.”
Have you decided when and where the 2026 car will be presented?
“We’ll do it January 23 at Fiorano.”
What will the car be called? Will you continue with SF26 naming, or changes?
“This will be part of the launch, and you’ll find out a bit later. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for everyone.”
On stopping 2025 aero development in April—can we deduce extreme confidence in your tools? Normally correlation between CFD, wind tunnel, and track is ongoing. In your case, it’s from some time ago.
“Honestly, correlation between CFD, wind tunnel, and track has gone well the last two years—we had no issues. It’s true that starting a new project with different tires and many novelties, everyone will complete a correlation cycle, and it’s probably one of the topics for Barcelona tests. It’s a more unknown area than the 2025 project, but this applies to all.”
On stopping development in April—Mekies at Red Bull continued to understand their project limits despite different next-year regs. Did you consider similar?
“I don’t want to speak for Laurent, first of all. I think the difference is that in aero development, it’s very difficult to carry over from 2025 to 2026. It’s true that if you better understand the car, you can transfer some ideas or concepts from 2025 to 2026—probably not in aero, and I think Laurent wasn’t talking about aero. It’s true we stopped aero development in 2025, but we didn’t stop developing completely. You surely remember we brought a new suspension at Spa weekend precisely to better understand the car and get more performance. And those ideas could help the 2026 project too.”
Fred Vasseur’s wide-ranging comments reflect Ferrari’s determination to learn from 2025’s setbacks. With the January 23 reveal approaching, focus intensifies on delivering a competitive package for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the revolutionary 2026 era.
Leave a Reply