Vasseur acknowledges SF-26's performance gap to Mercedes after Barcelona shakedown

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has admitted the team's new SF-26 is currently lagging behind Mercedes' benchmark pace, emphasizing that while mileage and reliability are the current focus, outright performance will soon become "crucial." The Scuderia completed a heavy lap count during its three-day 2026 car shakedown in Barcelona, with Charles Leclerc's best time over six-tenths off George Russell's leading Mercedes lap.

Why it matters:

This early admission sets the tone for Ferrari's 2026 development phase, a critical season under new technical regulations. While prioritizing initial reliability and data gathering is a standard and sensible approach, Vasseur's candid acknowledgment of a performance deficit to a key rival like Mercedes highlights the scale of the challenge ahead. It underscores that accumulating laps is only the first step in a long journey to close the gap and become a genuine title contender.

The details:

• During the permitted five-day Barcelona shakedown, Ferrari ran on days two, four, and five, focusing on mileage and systems checks over outright lap time.
• George Russell set the benchmark for Mercedes with a 1:16.445 on their final day. Charles Leclerc's best time for Ferrari during its first two days was a 1:18.223, a gap of 1.8 seconds.
• Leclerc improved to a 1:16.653 on Ferrari's final morning, but this still placed him behind both Russell and Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli.
• Vasseur stated the primary target was "to be able to accumulate mileage, and we did that," noting the extensive learning process with the radically new car and power unit.
• Both Leclerc and new teammate Lewis Hamilton completed full race distances on Thursday, highlighting the reliability focus.

What's next:

The focus now shifts to the critical pre-season testing in Bahrain, where performance tuning will inevitably take center stage.

• Ferrari has two three-day tests in Bahrain scheduled as the final preparation before the season opener in Melbourne on March 6.
• Vasseur pinpointed understanding the new power unit's energy deployment—with its 50/50 electrical/combustion split and various power modes—as a "big talk for everybody" and a key area for the team to master.
• The coming weeks will reveal if the mileage and data gathered in Barcelona can be effectively translated into performance gains to challenge Mercedes and others when the stopwatch truly matters.