Former F1 Driver Patrese Expresses Bleak Outlook for Ferrari in 2026

Former Williams and Benetton driver Riccardo Patrese has cast significant doubt on Ferrari's ability to become a championship contender by the 2026 season, citing a disconnect between leadership statements and on-track performance. The 71-year-old Italian pointed to team president John Elkann's public praise of the team's operational speed, questioning its value if the car itself lacks the fundamental pace to compete for wins.

Why it matters:

Patrese's critique highlights a growing concern about whether Ferrari's current trajectory under Team Principal Fred Vasseur can deliver the technical leap required to challenge Red Bull and McLaren. With the major 2026 regulation overhaul seen as a reset opportunity, skepticism from a respected figure within the Italian motorsport community underscores the pressure on Maranello to translate its massive resources into a title-winning package.

The details:

• Patrese directly challenged comments from Ferrari President John Elkann, who has publicly highlighted the team's world-leading pit stops. Patrese argued that such operational excellence is meaningless if the car is fundamentally uncompetitive: "What do you do if you give Leclerc and Hamilton a car that is three tenths slower per lap?"
• The former driver expressed a lack of faith in the team's near-future prospects, stating plainly, "I struggle to be optimistic about the Prancing Horse's 2026."
• His comments follow a difficult 2025 season for the Scuderia, where the high-profile driver pairing of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton failed to secure a single Grand Prix victory, with the team's only win coming in a Sprint race in China.
• Patrese also pointed to the technical leadership, implying that Team Principal Fred Vasseur has had sufficient time to enact change but has so far been unable to deliver the necessary transformation.

The big picture:

Ferrari enters a critical period. The 2026 season represents the next major regulatory reset, a chance for teams to leapfrog the competition with a new concept. Patrese's bleak assessment suggests a fear that Ferrari may not be positioning itself to capitalize on this opportunity, potentially wasting the prime years of drivers like Leclerc and Hamilton. The team's challenge is to bridge the gap between its historic prestige and its recent inability to produce a consistently dominant car.

What's next:

All eyes will be on Ferrari's development cycle for the 2026 car. The team must demonstrate tangible progress in the 2025 season to build confidence and silence critics like Patrese. Success will be measured not by operational metrics like pit stop speed, but by raw lap time and race-winning performance. The pressure is on Vasseur and the technical team to prove that the foundation being built today can support a championship challenge in 2026.