Team boss plays down early victory talk as Ferrari focus on reliability with the SF-26. Why the SF-26 will not be chasing immediate victories.

Ferrari, aiming for victory? Not according to Vasseur: “At the start there will be other priorities”

After the familiar build-up of anticipation that only Ferrari can generate among Formula 1 fans, last Friday the Prancing Horse revealed its new car to the world, the SF-26, with which it will compete in the 2026 championship and attempt to return to fighting for major objectives after a disappointing 2025 season.

On how Ferrari should return to the top by taking advantage of the “blank-sheet effect” offered by the new technical regulations introduced by the Formula 1 circus, team principal Frédéric Vasseur has shared his thoughts. Fully aware that his future at the helm of the Italian team depends largely on the performance of the new single-seater, the manager from Draveil outlined Ferrari’s early-season priorities through the team’s official social media channels.

The early priorities

Commenting on the presentation of the new SF-26, Fred said he was convinced that, due to the many innovations introduced by the new technical regulations – both on the aerodynamic and power unit fronts – the initial objective would not be immediate success or outright performance in the opening races, but rather reliability.

This is a goal that has already received positive feedback, both at the end of Ferrari’s short shakedown at Fiorano and during the running carried out by customer teams such as Haas and Cadillac. Thanks also to the data collected by Ferrari’s power unit engineers, Vasseur said he was pleased with the absence of technical issues so far, describing it as a solid foundation on which to build the season and begin the development of the car.

Vasseur satisfied

“We delayed this first presentation day as much as possible to give ourselves time to develop the car. We knew the calendar,” Vasseur explained. “This means it is a long-term process that we have decided to update in the next session. I think that at the beginning of the season the most important thing will be reliability.”

“The most important thing is that we managed to reach the presentation without any problems, and I think this is a good step forward ahead of the tests in Catalonia. In Barcelona, the objective will be to extract as much information as possible from the car, to gather the maximum amount of data, and then we will start the development from there.”