Four seasons into Frédéric Vasseur’s leadership of Ferrari, the progress made at Maranello has still not produced the breakthrough the team ultimately needs: a sustained Formula 1 world championship challenge. Victories, structural changes and periods of genuine competitiveness have all arrived, but the decisive step towards the Ferrari F1 title remains incomplete.
The picture is not one of uninterrupted decline. Ferrari have shown clear peaks since Vasseur succeeded Mattia Binotto in 2023, including a constructors’ title fight that lasted until the final race of 2024 and two victories during the new-regulation 2026 campaign. The problem has been maintaining that level consistently enough to match the strongest opposition across an entire season.
Ferrari’s F1 title progress under Frédéric Vasseur
Vasseur’s first season in charge ended with Ferrari third in the constructors’ championship. A significant improvement followed in 2024, when the Scuderia fought for the title and ultimately finished second. That momentum did not continue into 2025, however, as Ferrari went through the season without a victory and fell to fourth in the standings.
The introduction of new technical regulations in 2026 offered another opportunity to reset the competitive order. Ferrari have responded with two race wins and remained towards the front of the constructors’ battle, but the performances have again lacked the consistency required to turn individual successes into a convincing championship campaign.
Baku exposes Ferrari’s continuing performance gap
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix provided a clear example of that problem. Charles Leclerc secured a place on the front row in qualifying, but was eight tenths of a second slower than George Russell. Ferrari then lacked the race pace needed to convert that starting position into a podium finish.
The qualifying result itself showed that the SF-26 can reach a competitive level, yet the scale of the gap to Mercedes also underlined the work still required. Ferrari’s Baku qualifying performance was another reminder that strong single-session results have not always been followed by the same competitiveness over a full Grand Prix distance.
Straight-line performance has become one of the recurring weaknesses of Ferrari’s 2026 package. The issue was again visible in Azerbaijan, where analysis of the SF-26 telemetry in Baku highlighted how the car’s strengths in other areas could be compromised by its limitations on faster sections.
Technical weaknesses remain bigger than one individual
Assessing Ferrari’s position purely through Vasseur would nevertheless simplify a much broader Formula 1 challenge. A championship-winning car depends on the interaction of aerodynamic development, power-unit efficiency, strategy, tyre management and the team’s wider technical organisation.
The Scuderia has undergone structural changes, altered its driver line-up and returned to winning races during this period. Those developments demonstrate progress, but they have not yet delivered the consistent performance required to compete for both championships over a complete season.
That distinction has been particularly evident in 2026. Under favourable conditions Ferrari can challenge near the front, but Mercedes has been able to produce its performance across a wider variety of circuits and circumstances. Ferrari’s own Baku technical progress illustrated the same pattern: improvements were possible, but fundamental SF-26 limitations remained.
How far is Ferrari from another world championship?
Ferrari therefore enters the next stage of its project with many of the ingredients associated with a leading Formula 1 operation but without the consistency that ultimately defines a championship-winning campaign. The team has the drivers, technical resources and ability to win individual races, yet persistent weaknesses continue to prevent those strengths from translating into a complete title challenge.
Four seasons after Vasseur took control, Ferrari is closer to the front than at some points during that period, but the central objective remains unresolved. Moments of strong performance are no longer enough. To return to the top of Formula 1, Maranello must turn those peaks into a level it can reproduce throughout the championship.
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