Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur reckons “pure efficiency” is sort of irrelevant on the first pre-season check for the 2026 Components 1 season as a result of regulation change coming in.
The 2026 marketing campaign will introduce modifications to each the facility unit and chassis, as vehicles will grow to be lighter and smaller and there’ll be extra emphasis on electrical energy.
With an enormous regulation swap for the upcoming yr, there will probably be three separate pre-season exams: Barcelona (26-30 January), Bahrain (11-13 February) and Bahrain once more (18-20 February).
Barcelona is even a non-public check to provide groups the chance to adapt to the brand new guidelines with out the beady eye of the general public, forward of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 6-8 March.
“We aren’t used to 9 check days,” mentioned Vasseur. “The final 4 or 5 seasons, we did three. It is a bonus, nevertheless it’s additionally a totally totally different programme.
“It signifies that the primary goal in this sort of season is to get the reliability. First we have to get mileage. It is also what we wish to keep away from in comparison with 2025, is that once we had been misplaced firstly of the season with the disqualification, we misplaced mileage, we misplaced reference, after which you might be working after this.
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari
Picture by: James Sutton / Components 1 / Components Motorsport Ltd through Getty Photographs
“It is a lengthy course of. It signifies that the primary focus in Barcelona will probably be to get mileage with the automobile, to know the reliability of the automobile, the place we have now to enhance and what we have now to react to as a result of for those who perceive one thing in Bahrain, you will not have time to react for Australia.
“Barcelona will probably be, for positive, to get mileage, greater than pure efficiency.”
The Ferrari staff principal even thinks that everyone will arrive on the first check “with not a mule automobile, however let’s say a spec A” that ought to look very totally different to the one which hits the Melbourne monitor.
It’s such growth which Vasseur subsequently thinks will outline the upcoming regulation period, as Ferrari bids for its first title because the 2008 constructors’ championship.
“Subsequent yr it will not be concerning the first image of the season, it will not be all concerning the classification of Australia, it is going to be so much about growth and capability of fast growth,” mentioned Vasseur, whose staff completed fourth within the 2025 standings.
“That season will not be over in Australia for positive, it does not matter if we’re P1 or P10, however it is going to be a great distance till the top, it is going to be a great distance for everyone.”
Extra reporting by Stuart Codling
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