Vasseur Defends Ferrari’s 2026 Strategy: Underestimated Psychological Impact

Ferrari: Vasseur Acknowledges Psychological Impact of Development Strategy

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur defends his decision to shift development focus towards 2026 earlier this year, but admitted he didn’t anticipate the negative “psychological” impact the lack of upgrades to the 2025 car would have on staff and drivers. Ferrari had a difficult season in 2025 after starting the year behind McLaren, who were ultimately crowned champions, and opting to shift their full development focus to the new 2026 regulations as early as April. All teams faced a level of commitment when deciding how to divide their resources between 2025 and 2026, but Ferrari chose to completely shift their focus to next year at the expense of updates to their 2025 car, which was already underperforming.

Vasseur stated that the advantages of changing early would only become evident next year, but admitted that it made life difficult for the team in the second half of 2025.

Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal

“Whether we’re on the right track or not is another story that nobody knows today,” said Vasseur. “But today we still have a great development rate compared to what we were doing with the ’25 car.” “This decision to stop the development of 2025 after five or six races was difficult. I’m still convinced it was the right one, but if I underestimated anything at this stage, it was the psychological effect on each team member, including the drivers.” “Because, of course, it was for good reasons, to focus on ’26, to try to get the best for this [next] season, but on the other hand, you’re in the season and you still have 20 races left, and you know that somehow you won’t bring more development.” “It’s difficult, and I probably underestimated this for them, but also for myself personally.”

A new set of regulations for 2026 promises to shake up the order, but it also means that the teams enter the winter without knowing where they stand in relation to their competitors. Vasseur believes that the first indication of the competitive order will not emerge until the second and third tests in Bahrain, but says that Ferrari intends to push the development of its car as late as possible before its launch event on January 23. “It’s often only when you find out what others did that you say, ‘oh, I was mega aggressive’ or ‘I was mega conservative’,” he said when asked if Ferrari was taking risks with the development of their 2026 car. “I don’t know about the others, but it’s true that we will have the image, not in [the first test in] Barcelona, I don’t think so, so let’s say Bahrain, and you’ll see that different teams took different directions, sometimes maybe a little at 180 degrees, but we don’t have the feeling of being aggressive or not.” “What is aggressive is postponing the publication of the drawings as much as possible, to arrive at the last minute in Barcelona or Bahrain with a car that will be assembled in the garage. This is aggressive.” “If you want to finish a month earlier, it’s not aggressive at all, it’s conservative. In this we will be aggressive for sure, because we always were.” “We will finish assembling the car the day before the launch, the launch will be on January 23rd, which means we will finish the car on the 22nd, and this is being aggressive.” “But everyone will do the same, now we have a convergence in the approach to the season, and everyone will do the same.”