Because the 2025 System 1 season unfolds with outcomes falling wanting expectations, Scuderia Ferrari is starting to significantly consider which course to soak up preparation for the 2026 World Championship marketing campaign.
With the second half of the 2025 season underway, most System 1 groups are regularly shifting their technical and strategic focus towards the 2026 season. That 12 months will mark the introduction of a brand-new technical regulation package deal, creating a big alternative for groups to reset and acquire aggressive benefit. For Ferrari—an iconic workforce that has not gained a Constructors’ or Drivers’ Championship title since 2008—this regulatory overhaul could symbolize an important window to return to the highest.
Nonetheless, an ongoing concern throughout the Maranello-based workforce is that the event of the 2026 System 1 automobile may find yourself favoring certainly one of their present drivers greater than the opposite. This concern is changing into a focus in inner discussions, notably given the contrasting performances of their drivers to this point in 2025. Former System 1 driver and present Ferrari advisor Jérôme D’Ambrosio addressed this delicate matter in a current media interview.
On this 2025 season, Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc is as soon as once more proving to be the main determine on the Scuderia. Regardless of the SF-25 not assembly pre-season expectations when it comes to efficiency, Leclerc has managed to safe 4 podium finishes. In the meantime, seven-time System 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton—who joined Ferrari this 12 months after his lengthy stint at Mercedes—has struggled to extract constant tempo from the automobile and has but to step onto the rostrum in a Grand Prix. His solely notable consequence to this point was a Dash Race victory in China.
Resulting from these ongoing struggles, Hamilton is reportedly pushing the workforce to allocate extra sources and a focus towards the event of the 2026 automobile. Given the truth that the laws will convey a completely new set of design parameters and aerodynamic philosophy, the British driver hopes to have extra affect over a automobile that will probably be a clear slate for everybody. However, Jérôme D’Ambrosio has made it clear that Ferrari’s core goal stays unchanged: to construct the quickest and best System 1 automobile doable, with out prioritizing anybody driver’s preferences.
“In the intervening time, Loic Serra and the whole technical workforce are centered on creating the quickest doable automobile,” stated Jérôme D’Ambrosio to the media. “There are goal metrics and efficiency targets we’re working towards in an effort to obtain that. Then, there’s a second section of the venture, the place we make sure that each drivers have the mandatory instruments to stability and fine-tune the automobile to go well with their very own driving types.”
Jérôme D’Ambrosio cautioned in opposition to the narrative {that a} System 1 automobile is ever really “constructed round” a single driver: “We should be cautious once we say {that a} automobile is being developed particularly for one driver or the opposite. The automobile is at all times constructed to extract the utmost general potential.”
Since late 2024, Loic Serra has been main the event program for Ferrari’s 2026 System 1 automobile. Earlier than becoming a member of Ferrari, Serra labored carefully with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for a number of years, which naturally contributes to smoother communication between the 2.
“The truth that Serra collaborated with Lewis at Mercedes for a lot of seasons clearly helps their communication,” stated Jérôme D’Ambrosio. “However Loïc Serra additionally has a wonderful relationship with Charles Leclerc. The truth is, all of us do. Usually, we sit down with each drivers, focus on all the pieces overtly, put all the information and suggestions on the desk, and attempt to perceive their respective wants—then translate these wants into improvement instructions.”
Ferrari’s method, in accordance with D’Ambrosio, stays firmly rooted in performance-oriented processes: “We’re working onerous to enhance the efficiency of the automobile in a number of key areas, and that is still our central focus. In the end, the outcomes we obtain on the observe—and the way we place ourselves in comparison with the competitors—would be the direct final result of that improvement course of.”
Jul 20, 2025
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