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Ferrari rolled into Barcelona with its most extensive upgrade package of the 2026 season – eight updated components listed on the SF-26 per the FIA car presentation submissions – and Lewis Hamilton finished Friday having learned almost nothing about any of them.
The reason was a little frustrating: Hamilton didn’t drive in FP1.
Ferrari Academy driver and F2 racer Dino Beganovic took Hamilton’s seat for the opening session, leaving the seven-time world champion to debut the upgraded car under the harsher conditions of FP2, when tyre performance had already dropped off a cliff. Asked for his early read on the new package, the Briton said: “I had a zero feel of it, so I have no idea where we… We’re obviously not quick.”
Hamilton could manage only ninth place in FP2, finishing 1.2 seconds adrift of pace-setter Norris and nearly a second slower than teammate Leclerc, who ended the day fourth fastest.
The conditions made clean evaluation nearly impossible.
Hamilton described FP2 as “very, very hot” with “very high pressures” and called it “probably the lowest grip that we’ve had here in, I would say, any year that I’ve been here.”
Even setting aside Hamilton’s compromised running, the raw gap between Ferrari and the front-runners is hard to ignore. Leclerc, who had the benefit of two full sessions on the updated car, offered a clearer benchmark for the team, and it wasn’t entirely encouraging.
“Charles has obviously had two sessions, and I think four tenths or something off the McLaren and the Mercedes, so clearly we’re quite a chunk off still,” Hamilton continued. “But hopefully tomorrow we can try and close the gap a bit.”
Leclerc gave his own assessment. The Monegasque said it was “an interesting day” and added that the team had “made a step forward,” but added that it was “too early to say” on competitiveness and that “our competitors are quite a bit ahead of us.”
In Miami, Hamilton had called out the SF-26’s front wing for lacking the diveplanes fitted to rival cars from McLaren, Mercedes, and Red Bull. These are components designed to manage airflow and front-tyre turbulence. Ferrari has now addressed that with these upgrades this weekend.
The nose has also been modified with a new straight mode mechanism, alongside a brand-new floor and diffuser for both drivers.
Per Ferrari’s own estimate, the package could be worth around two tenths of a second per lap. The major upgrade is part of Ferrari’s effort to claw back the 79-point gap to Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, with Hamilton 66 points and Leclerc 81 points adrift of championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the drivers’ standings.
Two tenths per lap would be a start. Whether Barcelona delivers that – or simply confirms that Ferrari is still chasing a moving target – probably won’t be clear until late Saturday.
Continue reading...
The reason was a little frustrating: Hamilton didn’t drive in FP1.
Ferrari Academy driver and F2 racer Dino Beganovic took Hamilton’s seat for the opening session, leaving the seven-time world champion to debut the upgraded car under the harsher conditions of FP2, when tyre performance had already dropped off a cliff. Asked for his early read on the new package, the Briton said: “I had a zero feel of it, so I have no idea where we… We’re obviously not quick.”
Hamilton could manage only ninth place in FP2, finishing 1.2 seconds adrift of pace-setter Norris and nearly a second slower than teammate Leclerc, who ended the day fourth fastest.
The conditions made clean evaluation nearly impossible.
Hamilton described FP2 as “very, very hot” with “very high pressures” and called it “probably the lowest grip that we’ve had here in, I would say, any year that I’ve been here.”
Ferrari Still Has Ground to Make Up
Even setting aside Hamilton’s compromised running, the raw gap between Ferrari and the front-runners is hard to ignore. Leclerc, who had the benefit of two full sessions on the updated car, offered a clearer benchmark for the team, and it wasn’t entirely encouraging.
“Charles has obviously had two sessions, and I think four tenths or something off the McLaren and the Mercedes, so clearly we’re quite a chunk off still,” Hamilton continued. “But hopefully tomorrow we can try and close the gap a bit.”
Leclerc gave his own assessment. The Monegasque said it was “an interesting day” and added that the team had “made a step forward,” but added that it was “too early to say” on competitiveness and that “our competitors are quite a bit ahead of us.”
In Miami, Hamilton had called out the SF-26’s front wing for lacking the diveplanes fitted to rival cars from McLaren, Mercedes, and Red Bull. These are components designed to manage airflow and front-tyre turbulence. Ferrari has now addressed that with these upgrades this weekend.
The nose has also been modified with a new straight mode mechanism, alongside a brand-new floor and diffuser for both drivers.
Per Ferrari’s own estimate, the package could be worth around two tenths of a second per lap. The major upgrade is part of Ferrari’s effort to claw back the 79-point gap to Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, with Hamilton 66 points and Leclerc 81 points adrift of championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the drivers’ standings.
Two tenths per lap would be a start. Whether Barcelona delivers that – or simply confirms that Ferrari is still chasing a moving target – probably won’t be clear until late Saturday.
Continue reading...
