Ferrari began the 2026 Formula 1 season with an SF-26 capable of using its cornering performance to compensate for weaknesses elsewhere, allowing the Scuderia to remain relatively close to Mercedes during the opening phase of the championship. As the season developed, however, that balance gradually disappeared. The car’s original chassis advantage became smaller while Mercedes and other rivals continued improving, leaving Ferrari’s existing straight-line and power-unit limitations increasingly exposed.
The SF-26 was never a car without strengths. Its behaviour through the corners was one of the most encouraging aspects of Ferrari’s new-generation package and initially gave Maranello an important tool for offsetting the time lost on the straights. That combination kept Ferrari among Mercedes’ closest challengers early in the campaign, even without matching the German team in every performance area.
Ferrari’s SF-26 cornering advantage began to disappear
The critical change came as the championship progressed. Ferrari’s advantage through the corners was not maintained at the same level, while its competitors gradually reduced the deficit through continued development.
An analysis by The Race highlighted the different development trajectories of Ferrari and Mercedes under the new regulations. Maranello’s strong chassis performance initially compensated for part of the straight-line deficit, but that protection weakened once Mercedes and other teams began extracting more from their own cars.
The trend was also visible during the Azerbaijan weekend, where SF-26 telemetry showed Ferrari losing part of its previous cornering advantage. Once that area stopped providing the same margin, weaknesses that had existed from the beginning became much more difficult to disguise.
The result was a less favourable overall performance balance. Ferrari had previously been able to gain back through corners some of what it lost under acceleration and at maximum speed. When that chassis advantage diminished, the power-unit deficit inevitably became a larger part of the lap-time equation.
Ferrari power-unit deficit becomes harder to hide
The engine remains central to understanding Ferrari’s 2026 difficulties. Under the new Formula 1 regulations, the electrical component of the power unit carries greater importance, making energy management and deployment fundamental to performance across a lap.
Ferrari has faced a noticeable disadvantage against Mercedes in this area, with the weakness becoming particularly visible at circuits featuring long straights. At those venues, the SF-26 has found it harder to compensate through its chassis because the amount of time spent under sustained acceleration magnifies the difference.
Maranello has not ignored the issue. Ferrari has continued developing its power unit through the ADUO programme in an attempt to recover performance during the season. The team also worked extensively on deployment during the Azerbaijan weekend, with FP3 showing progress in energy deployment and setup even though the underlying limitations of the SF-26 remained.
The difficulty is that Ferrari has not been developing in isolation. Although its updates produced improvements, rival manufacturers and teams were also progressing. Any gain therefore had to be measured not against Ferrari’s previous specification, but against competitors that were continuing to move their own performance level forward.
Mercedes develops from an already stronger baseline
That distinction helps explain why Ferrari has struggled to reduce the gap. While Maranello was working to correct weaknesses within the SF-26 and its power unit, Mercedes was refining a package that was already well balanced and highly competitive.
Ferrari therefore faced a moving target. Improving one area was not enough if Mercedes gained a similar amount elsewhere during the same development cycle. As the German team continued extracting performance from an already effective car, Ferrari’s efforts were often sufficient to improve its own package without necessarily reducing the relative deficit.
The contrast became particularly clear in Baku, where questions had already emerged over whether Ferrari’s setup direction was contributing to Mercedes’ large advantage. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix then provided another demanding test of the relative strengths of the two cars.
Baku exposes the scale of Ferrari’s challenge
Charles Leclerc still demonstrated that the SF-26 retained meaningful performance by securing a place on the front row in qualifying. Yet the difference to George Russell remained substantial, with the Mercedes driver more than eight tenths of a second faster.
The qualifying result itself therefore told two stories. Ferrari could still produce a competitive lap and put Charles Leclerc near the front of the grid, but George Russell’s dominant Baku pole highlighted the remaining performance gap.
The race provided an even harsher indication. Ferrari was unable to sustain the pace required to fight for victory, with its chances effectively disappearing from the opening corner. Charles Leclerc eventually finished fourth rather than challenging the Mercedes at the front.
The Monegasque driver was using the latest ADUO 2 specification, the same development introduced at Monza and subsequently reviewed after the Parabolica incident. Even with the updated specification available, the SF-26 did not become competitive enough on Baku’s demanding layout to fight for the win.
Ferrari’s 2026 problem is bigger than the engine alone
Reducing Ferrari’s difficulties to the power unit alone would nevertheless oversimplify the situation. The engine remains a significant limitation, particularly where electrical deployment and straight-line performance are heavily rewarded, but Ferrari’s decline relative to Mercedes also reflects what happened to the chassis comparison during the season.
Early in 2026, the SF-26 had enough of a cornering advantage to soften the impact of those weaknesses. Once rivals reduced that advantage, the entire competitive balance shifted. The same power-unit deficit that Ferrari could previously compensate for became far more visible when the chassis stopped recovering the same amount of lap time elsewhere.
That is why Formula 1 development cannot simply be measured by whether an upgrade makes a car faster than its previous version. A successful development programme also requires a team to gain performance at a greater rate than its rivals.
Ferrari made progress during 2026, but Mercedes continued progressing from a stronger and more balanced starting point. The consequence is a gap that has proved difficult to close even as Maranello has addressed individual weaknesses. More of the wider evolution of the SF-26 can be followed through ScuderiaFans’ Ferrari technical analysis coverage.
The challenge for Ferrari is therefore twofold. The Scuderia needs to continue improving areas such as power-unit performance and energy management while also restoring the relative chassis strengths that allowed it to challenge Mercedes more effectively earlier in the year. Without both elements developing together, gains in one area risk being cancelled out by progress elsewhere on rival cars.
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