SF-26
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Formula 1 Ferrari SF-26 by AviaRigg on Sketchfab
Scuderia Ferrari
SF-26
307
points
2
wins
9
podiums
+0.012s
best gap to pole
Engine Ferrari 067/6 · 1.6L V6 turbo
Electric MGU-K, up to 350 kW (≈475 hp)
Fuel 100% sustainable synthetic
Mass 768 kg (incl. driver)
Width 1,900 mm (−100 mm vs 2025)
Gearbox 8-speed sequential, carbon case
▮3-D model "Formula 1 Ferrari SF-26" by AviaRigg via Sketchfab. Fan-made, not official Ferrari geometry. Regulation figures from the 2026 FIA technical regulations; season numbers measured from OpenF1 data
Punti deboli · The honest audit
For nine rounds the development story was a recovery: the gap to pole shrank package by package until Barcelona, where the SF-26 qualified on the front row and won, and Silverstone repeated it. Then Spa drew a line under it. On the Kemmel straight the qualifying gap sprang back out to 0.532s, the widest since Barcelona, and Antonelli's straight-line speed retook the lead from Leclerc at Les Combes. Leclerc still salvaged P2, but the message was plain: the deficit is no longer car-wide, it is a straight-line problem the aero tracks hide and the power tracks expose.
Saturday has converged at the front where load decides the lap. What Spa confirmed is where the SF-26 still struggles: it is a downforce car, happiest where aerodynamic load is the currency and the track stays cool enough to keep its rear tyres alive. Give it a long full-throttle straight or a hot, low-load circuit and it goes backwards, as the Kemmel straight and the Red Bull Ring showed a round apart. This is the honest read of what it still lacks, and what is in hand to fix it.
Hungarian GP: grid to the flag
P3/2 → P4/5
places lost on Sunday
Hungarian GP quali gap to pole
+0.012s
right on the pole pace
Ferrari pit stops vs the winner
3 vs 3
level on strategy, track 51°C
best gap to pole · Hungarian GP
+0.012s
Saturday has converged on the front
The comfort zone, weekend by weekend
◂ More downforce, the car's comfort zone
Less downforce, more exposed ▸
Lowdownforce
Best result by circuit downforce demand. The wins and podiums cluster where peak aero load decides the lap (Silverstone, Barcelona, Monaco, Suzuka); the soft weekends are the hot, low-load races (Miami and Austria both ran near 50 °C track). Spa is the honest outlier: a cool, dry weekend and a well-timed VSC stop turned a power circuit into a P2, but the qualifying gap and the lost lead on the straight show it was the conditions and the strategy, not the car, doing the work.
Unità di potenza · Power unit
Press-corroboratedThe 067/6 is the season's recovery project, and Spa put a number on it. The FIA's performance index rated the engine more than 4% adrift of the benchmark internal-combustion unit, the very trigger that unlocked Ferrari's in-season homologation tokens. The 2026 power unit is a roughly even split of combustion and electric output (MGU-K up to 350 kW, the MGU-H deleted), so the deployment map matters as much as peak power, but a raw ICE deficit shows up most on the long full-throttle runs, and on the Kemmel straight it cost the lead outright. Vasseur has named it directly: a straight-line performance deficit the team has to work on.
Where it bites · Spa proved it: cool Silverstone let the deployment software mask the gap, but the 1.8 km Kemmel straight blew the qualifying deficit back out to 0.532s and handed Antonelli the lead at Les Combes on pure straight-line speed. Monza and Baku are worse still, near-flat-out laps where a combustion deficit is laid bare, and Mexico's altitude adds a cooling and turbo stress on top, with the MGU-H gone from the 2026 rules leaving the turbo to work harder for the same boost. Deployment can hide the gap where the lap is about aerodynamic load; it cannot where the lap is about a straight.
The first ADUO engine token was spent at Austria, a deliberately minor ICE step paired with a new Shell blend (reported worth under 10 hp). The larger second-token gain, reported as a redesigned turbocharger and aimed squarely at this straight-line deficit, is now held until after the summer break.
via OpenF1 (Spa qualifying, result) · FIA / Formula1.com (2026 PU regs) · GPFans (Honda, altitude) · Sky Sports F1 · The Race
Gestione gomme · Tyre management
Snapshot-backedThe clearest, fully measured weakness. The SF-26 makes strong peak downforce but leans hard on its rear tyres in race trim. Once the surface overheats the car starts to slide, and sliding only makes it hotter, so a stint that starts on the pace falls away from it. The faster qualifying gets, the more this is the gap between Saturday and Sunday.
Where it bites · The summer keeps dodging it. Silverstone (track 37.9-42.9 °C) and now a cool, dry Spa (track falling from 35.9 to 30.7 °C) both kept the rears in range: at Spa the Ferraris ran a clean one-stop, mediums then hards, with no thermal drop-off. Austria distilled the flaw a fortnight earlier, Pirelli rating the Red Bull Ring's degradation as mainly thermal, and above 50 °C both cars ran three stops to the Mercedes' and Red Bull's two. Miami, the season's other 50 °C race, told the same story. Hungary's July heat and the autumn rounds bring the test back.
Part setup, part hardware: a reported mechanical and suspension package aimed at high-speed direction changes and tyre usage, first mooted for Silverstone, is now reported to arrive after the summer break. The real cure is balance, getting load into the rear without cooking it, not a single bolt-on part.
via OpenF1 (stints, weather, result) · Pirelli / Formula1.com (Austria tyre note) · The Race
Finestra operativa · Operating window
Our read of the dataBecause the car is built around aerodynamic load, its best weekends are narrow and predictable. It won at Silverstone and Barcelona, ran at the sharp end through Monaco and Suzuka, the high-downforce tracks, and the cool that came with those results kept the rear tyres in range. Spa is the instructive exception: a power circuit where a cool weekend and a well-timed VSC stop still delivered P2, yet the win slipped away on the straight and the qualifying gap trebled. Where the lap rewards low drag and straight-line speed over sustained load, the package has less to give.
Where it bites · The strong results sit at the high-downforce and cool end of the calendar; the soft ones at the hot, power-biased end. Spa showed the car can steal a good result from the wrong end when conditions and strategy align, but Monza after the break and Baku are the pure low-drag and power tests where nothing hides the deficit, before the maximum-downforce runs through Hungary and Singapore that should suit it again.
A more efficient low-drag wing state (the 2026 Straight Mode the car calls X-mode) and the engine steps would widen the window. Leclerc's brief is the whole car, not one part: huge gains still to find in the chassis, the aerodynamics and putting the tyres in the right window. Until then the discipline is to maximise the circuits that suit the car, and steal what Spa showed is stealable at the ones that do not.
via OpenF1 (results) · FIA / Formula1.com (2026 active aero) · Motorsport.com (track types)
▮Diagnosis anchored to the OpenF1 snapshot. Measured facts (grid, finish, stints, weather, gap to pole) are computed; regulation and press figures are claims with named sources. Confidence: verde snapshot-backed, giallo press-corroborated, silver our read of the data. Last reviewed 19 July 2026, after the Belgian GP.
Outlook · Il calendario rimanente
The comfort zone has a shape, so the rest of the calendar is partly readable in advance. Where the lap is won on aerodynamic load and the track stays cool, the SF-26 is in the fight, and Silverstone proved it with a win from the front row. Spa added the nuance: a power circuit can still yield a big result when it stays cool and the strategy falls right, but the long straight will cap the ceiling. Where sustained power, a long straight, thin air or 50 °C asphalt takes over, expect the qualifying gap to reopen the way the Kemmel straight did.
This is a projection from circuit type and historical race-week climate, not a forecast. Results will move it, and the development war below, the second engine token above all, is built to widen the green column and lift the ceiling on the power tracks.
11 rounds left · 4 should suit it · 3 coin-flips · 4 look like Austria
Should suit the SF-26
aero-led laps, the comfort zone
Could go either way
the car's strengths and flaws pull against each other
A fight, like Austria
power, altitude or heat takes over
▮A projection, not a forecast: each round is read from its circuit downforce profile and historical race-week climate (the same figures as the race pages), set against the car's measured strengths and weaknesses. Real results will move it. Last reviewed 19 July 2026, after the Belgian GP.
Sviluppo 2026
How the SF-26 has actually evolved, from the Fiorano launch spec to the package running in Barcelona this weekend. Every entry is compiled from press reports and official weekend filings, set against the qualifying gap measured at that round.
Biggest package: Miami GP
11
floor · diffuser · rear wing · endplates · suspension fairings
Measured progress while packages landed
−0.797s
quali gap to pole +0.809s (Australian GP) → +0.012s (Hungarian GP)
R01
6–8 March
R01 · 6–8 March
Pre-season's standout was the launch package, converted at Turn 1 in Melbourne.
R02
13–15 March
R02 · 13–15 March
“We did a full day or so on the wing, so I think we got what we needed.”— Lewis Hamilton, on the Macarena test
R03
27–29 March
R03 · 27–29 March
Deliberately subtle; Vasseur promised 'a different Championship' from Miami onward.
Rounds 4–5, Bahrain & Jeddah, did not run in 2026. The month-long gap between Suzuka and Miami became the build window for Maranello's biggest package, shaken down at a Monza filming day.
R06
1–3 May
R06 · 1–3 May
R07
22–24 May
R07 · 22–24 May
R08
5–7 June
R08 · 5–7 June
Still the season's closest measured gap to pole.
R09
12–14 June
R09 · 12–14 June
“The development will play such an important role.”— Charles Leclerc, Barcelona media day
R10
26–28 June
R10 · 26–28 June
“The update we are bringing to Spielberg is a relatively minor one.”— Enrico Gualtieri, Ferrari Power Unit Technical Director
Modest by design, deployed on the back of the Barcelona win to open the engine recovery rather than change the order in one step.
PU
H2 2026
PU · H2 2026
Power unit · second half of 2026
▮Development timeline compiled and maintained by hand from press reports and official weekend filings (outlets credited per entry). Reported gains are claims, not measurements. Qualifying gaps and race results are measured from OpenF1 data. Last reviewed 28 June 2026, Austrian GP race day.