How Ferrari can “push until the end” with F1 2026 upgrades, and why it will

Ferrari will “push until the end” of the 2026 Formula 1 season with car upgrades, team principal Fred Vasseur confirmed, as he shrugged off suggestions the team will have to slow down its development because of cost cap limitations.

Ferrari has rolled out an impressive number of incremental upgrades to its 2026 challenger, the SF-26, which have kept the squad in second place in the constructors’ championship and allowed both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to clinch a grand prix win thus far.

That upgrade push will continue at its home race this weekend in Monza, where Ferrari is expected to introduce smaller aerodynamic improvements alongside its second engine update following the latest ADUO ranking.

The field is becoming incredibly closely matched on performance, especially on circuits where the 2026 power units make less of a difference. Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari were all covered by one tenth in sprint qualifying in Zandvoort, and three tenths has routinely become the difference between pole and the third row of the grid.

That’s why teams who are able to continue bringing performance to the car until late on can still make a solid push in the championship, but they have to balance cashing in their wind tunnel development against the constraints of the cost cap and resources required for the 2027 car project.

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, Ferrari chief Vasseur has revealed the Scuderia will continue its relentless upgrade push, and it has no issues with the cost cap.

“The strategy is that we will continue to push until the end,” Vasseur said. “We have a plan. We have no issue with the cost cap, we are following the plan and will continue like this.

“It’s true that you have different strategies. You have McLaren coming each three or four races with a big package on the car, and we are more trying to bring upgrades each race but much smaller. But at the end, in terms of cost, it’s the same.

“What is challenging, probably, is that we are still developing with 11 races to go, and I think a crash like Max [Verstappen] in Zandvoort is huge in terms of cost cap [for Red Bull]. It’s difficult to anticipate the number of crashes that you could have until the end of the season.”

Photo by: Marcel van Dorst / EYE4images / NurPhoto via Getty Images

While Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull have all rolled out significant updates, Mercedes has been lagging behind, with its next major package coming at October’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, and it has seen its rival teams close the gap as a result in recent weeks and months.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claimed the team “hasn’t got the money to put developments on the car” beyond what is currently planned, but he did suspect the likes of Ferrari would have to slow down their rate of development given the number of items they had already introduced.

Vasseur didn’t want to comment on Mercedes’ upgrade strategy without fully understanding its approach, but he did lift the lid on how Ferrari has been able to bring so many improvements to the car efficiently, something that had raised eyebrows in the paddock.

“I don’t want to speak about Mercedes because I don’t understand, but with McLaren it’s a bit linked to how you develop in the wind tunnel and the capacity of production,” the Frenchman said. “We found our best approach by almost bringing upgrades each race. One week it’s mechanical, one week it’s aero, and we are continuing like this. It’s fitting with our capacity of production, with our wind tunnel capacity, and it’s going well.

“Now, if McLaren want to do things differently, it’s because they have good reasons to do it. The set-up of the teams is different; the configuration is different. But at the end of the day, over a season we are almost following each other in terms of development.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team