Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur reckons “pure efficiency” is kind of irrelevant on the first pre-season check for the 2026 System 1 season because of the regulation change coming in.
The 2026 marketing campaign will introduce modifications to each the facility unit and chassis, as automobiles will turn out to be lighter and smaller and there’ll be extra emphasis on electrical energy.
With an enormous regulation change for the upcoming yr, there will probably be three separate pre-season checks: Barcelona (26-30 January), Bahrain (11-13 February) and Bahrain once more (18-20 February).
Barcelona is even a personal check to offer 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’re not used to 9 check days,” mentioned Vasseur. “The final 4 or 5 seasons, we did three. It is a bonus, however it’s additionally a very totally different programme.
“It implies 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 need to keep away from in comparison with 2025, is that once we had been misplaced in the beginning of the season with the disqualification, we misplaced mileage, we misplaced reference, after which you might be operating after this.
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari
Picture by: James Sutton / System 1 / System Motorsport Ltd through Getty Photographs
“It is a lengthy course of. It implies that the primary focus in Barcelona will probably be to get mileage with the automobile, to grasp 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 group 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 observe.
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It’s such improvement which Vasseur due to this fact 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 in regards to the first image of the season, it will not be all in regards to the classification of Australia, it is going to be loads about improvement and capability of fast improvement,” mentioned Vasseur, whose group completed fourth within the 2025 standings.
“That season will not be over in Australia for positive, it would not matter if we’re P1 or P10, however it is going to be a good distance till the tip, it is going to be a good distance for everyone.”
Further reporting by Stuart Codling
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