Dec.19 (GMM) Ferrari will unveil and briefly run its 2026 Formula 1 car on January 23 at Fiorano, with team boss Fred Vasseur warning that next season represents a leap into the unknown even greater than the start of the hybrid era.
Speaking at Ferrari’s traditional Christmas lunch, attended by CEO Benedetto Vigna, Piero Ferrari and senior technical staff, Vasseur confirmed the Scuderia will reveal the new car online before a short shakedown of “perhaps just 15 kilometres”.
“What fans might see from the Via Giardini overpass won’t be a prototype, but an ‘A version’ of the red car, which we’ll assemble perhaps the day before,” Vasseur told La Repubblica. “The name? We’ll reveal it then.”
Vasseur stressed that even the early running at the Barcelona group test will be about mileage rather than speed.
“We’ll use Spain primarily to rack up kilometres rather than focus on performance,” he said, noting that Ferrari is effectively starting from zero under the radically new regulations.
The 2026 car will be the first fully overseen by technical director Loic Serra, who joined from Mercedes after the 2025 design was largely complete. “It’s everyone’s responsibility, but I’m the one in charge,” Serra said, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“The car is a concert, not a sum of parts. In Bahrain, we’ll see very different cars, with teams’ decisions then potentially changing 180 degrees.”
Vasseur also highlighted the strategic pressure of the cost cap for the new rules era. “If a team introduces four or five updates in the first races, or has to send a new underbody to Japan or China, they burn through half the development budget straight away,” he explained.
“Whoever is ahead in Melbourne won’t necessarily have the winning car of the year.”
Much attention at the lunch also centred on Lewis Hamilton’s difficult first season in red. Vasseur admitted Ferrari underestimated the scale of the adjustment. “Even in the toughest moments, Hamilton has always tried to find solutions by talking to the team and engineers,” he said. “We underestimated the impact of such a huge change for him.
“It’s not just culture or food, it’s every single procedure.”
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen echoed that assessment in comments to Viaplay. “It hasn’t been a good season for him at Ferrari,” he said.
“You can tell by everything, even on the on-board radios,” Verstappen said. “Honestly, it hurts my heart. It’s really not nice to see him like this. He doesn’t give up, so he’ll surely be there, but it’s not pleasant to see.”
Hamilton himself remains focused on the reset ahead. Reflecting on past regulation shifts, he said: “Everything is new. There’s no reference point. We can simulate all we want, but the truth only comes on the track.
“I’m praying that next year’s cars will feel better.”
Vasseur agrees the scale of change leaves everyone guessing. “The entire philosophy of the car will be completely different than before,” he said. “Nothing will remain the same. We will certainly have other problems – but that’s the challenge of 2026.”
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