Why was performance so disappointing compared to the sprint?
The question everyone is asking about Ferrari after the Miami weekend is how such a significant drop in performance could occur between the Sprint race and the main Grand Prix. Several key factors help explain this shift.
Lack of power
“In the end, Ferrari lacks power, so there’s not much you can do if you don’t have the horsepower.” This structural limitation becomes even more evident over a full race distance, where straight-line speed and engine performance play a decisive role lap after lap.
Tire degradation and temperature management
High temperatures and significant tire degradation appear to have put Ferrari under pressure during the race. “With graining, there was no real stability, high temperatures, heavy degradation, and so on.” This points to clear difficulties in thermal management and in optimizing the car setup for hotter race conditions.
Adaptation to changing conditions
It seems Ferrari is a car that performs better under certain temperature ranges. “Unfortunately, cooler temperatures don’t help Ferrari; I see it this way. With hotter conditions, the car looks much more competitive, and we saw that in the sprint. It’s a car that manages heat better.” This suggests that the SF-26 may be more sensitive to temperature variations than its rivals, performing differently depending on track conditions.
Rivals’ development gains
McLaren has clearly found additional downforce and performance, while other teams may have further optimized their aerodynamic packages for the race. These improvements have contributed to closing the gap—or even surpassing Ferrari—in race conditions.
A broader performance picture
Ferrari has shown that it can match the pace of several competitors under certain circumstances, but the significant advantage of Mercedes, particularly with Andrea Kimi Antonelli, combined with McLaren’s renewed competitiveness, raises serious concerns.
For the Maranello team, it will be crucial to carefully analyze the data collected in Miami to understand how to maximize performance across all conditions and avoid situations where “the car is not in the right window” when temperatures rise. Only by addressing these issues can Ferrari aim to deliver consistent performance throughout an entire race weekend.
